Venus appears on the Late Late Show with James Corden

On Tuesday, Venus Williams was a guest on the Late Late Show with James Corden. Appearing virtually, the seven-time Grand Slam champion discussed the Privilege Tax Initiative—an effort to highlight the gender-pay gap—spearheaded by Williams’ clothing company, Eleven by Venus.

“The Privilege Tax Initiative really acknowledges, especially during Women’s History Month, that women, while we’ve had great accomplishes—we’ve joined the work forced in droves especially since the 80s—there’s still so much work to do,” Williams explained to Corden.

“And the fact that we’re only earning 81 cents to the $1 [that men make], so the initiative tax is an initiative started by Eleven, my active wear company and we’ve involved amazing partners.”

The 40-year-old American, who played a big role in closing gender pay at Grand Slams, talked about the difficult journey it took to getting Wimbledon to finally become the last of the four majors to pay equal prize money.

“It was not easy. It was not easy, and since professional tennis started in 1968, women had not had equal prize money at the four majors. So, we were going to a Grand Slam meeting every year at Wimbledon, all the four majors were there—US Open, French Open, Wimbledon and Australian Open. And we’d have a meeting, ask for equal prize money, and they would say no,” Williams told the virtual audience.

“So this is going on since 1968, flash forward 30-plus years. We really started to have a really strategic campaign of not just asking in July in between the finals or semifinals of the tournament. Instead we went and had a strategic campaign of, like, 'Let’s really actually do this. Let’s have equal prize money.'”

During the show, Williams mentioned she’s rehabbing her right ankle, which she twisted during her 6-1, 6-0 second-round loss to Sara Errani. She rolled it when she rushed the net while serving to say in the first set.