Most celebrities polish their diet stories for the press. Venus Williams did the opposite: she invented a word specifically to confess. “I am a cheating vegan now and I call it Chegan,” she said, “and living my best life.”
So no, Venus Williams is not a strict vegan, and she’ll tell you that herself before any fact-checker can. What she is: a woman who’s eaten mostly plants for 15 years because it gave her a career back, and who’s honest about the other 20 percent. That story is better than most perfect ones.
Mostly, and honestly so: Venus Williams calls herself a “chegan”, a cheating vegan on a roughly 80/20 plant-based diet. She went raw vegan in 2011 to manage the autoimmune disease Sjogren’s syndrome, relaxed to mostly plant-based around 2019, and in November 2025 credited plant-based nutrition for her return to the court.
Last fact-checked: July 7, 2026
Contents6 chapters
The diagnosis that started it
In 2011, Venus withdrew from the US Open with Sjogren’s syndrome, an autoimmune disease that left her with joint pain and fatigue so severe she could barely walk. On her sister Serena’s suggestion, she adopted a strict raw vegan diet to manage the inflammation. It worked well enough to extend one of the greatest careers in tennis by well over a decade.
Her November 2025 summary, at the Happy Viking relaunch: “When I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease in 2011, I could barely walk, let alone play tennis. The plant-based, high-protein nutrition in Happy Viking transformed my health and helped me return to the court stronger than ever.”
The vegan timeline, tap to expand
2011: diagnosis and the raw vegan pivot
2013: “cheagan” enters the dictionary
Around 2019: from raw to 80/20
2020/21: Happy Viking launches
July 2025: the comeback
November 2025: Happy Viking relaunch
The steak confession
The best chegan story involves both Williams sisters, a raw-vegan wellness retreat, and day one. As Venus tells it, she and Serena snuck out and ate steak, plus chocolate fondue cake, on the very first day of the retreat. Her standing warning to dinner companions is just as good: “If it’s on your plate, I might get to cheat. If you’re sitting next to me, good luck. You turn your head once and your food might be gone.”
You will not get this level of honesty from a wellness brand founder anywhere else. Speaking of the label wars: her fellow tennis legend Novak Djokovic eats stricter and says less.
Fact or fiction?
She invented the word “chegan”. Fact or fiction?
She went vegan to win more titles. Fact or fiction?
At 45 she set a WTA age record. Fact or fiction?
Quiz: how well do you know chegan Venus?
Five questions, no cheating (ironically)
1. What word did Venus invent for her diet?
2. Why did she go raw vegan in 2011?
3. Who suggested the raw vegan diet?
4. What did the sisters secretly eat on day one of a raw-vegan retreat?
5. What’s her plant-protein brand called?
Is Venus Williams still plant-based in 2026?
Yes, on her own honest terms: mostly plant-based, openly chegan, and as of November 2025 crediting plants for a comeback that made age-record history. Fifteen years of managing an autoimmune disease with a mostly plant-based diet is a better advertisement than any perfect record could be.
More vegan celebrity checks:
- Is Novak Djokovic vegan? Tennis’s other non-answer
- Is Lewis Hamilton vegan? The athlete comparison
- Is Jessica Chastain vegan? Another body-led decision
Photo: Hameltion, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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