Loren Ridinger Texted Serena Williams After Super Bowl Halftime Cameo

Loren Ridinger had nothing but positive things to say about pal Serena Williams’ shocking 2025 Super Bowl Halftime appearance.

“I was so proud of her. I said, ‘She’s my mood all day today,’” Ridinger, 56, exclusively shared with Us Weekly while promoting her book Scrambled or Sunny-Side Up?. “I was just like, ‘I want to do that dance.’ I texted her, I was like, ‘You killed it.’ She’s like, ‘You think?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, yeah.’”

Ridinger said she didn’t know Williams, 43, was going to make a cameo during Kendrick Lamar’s performance on Sunday, February 9 — and “could not wait” to talk to her after. (The Philadelphia Eagles ultimately beat the Kansas City Chiefs 40-22 at New Orleans’ Caesars Superdome on Sunday.)

“She looked brilliant. She looked so good. She’s tight and taut and tiny and her hair was flying, and she looked awesome,” Ridinger said. “I was like, ‘I wanted to look like that.’ That was the Super Bowl show for me. I loved it. I was, yes, happy for Philly, but just super happy.”

When Lamar, 37, rapped his hit diss track “Not Like Us” at the game, cameras panned to Williams, who was crip walking on top of a platform. (The dance was popularized by gang members in Compton, California, where both Lamar and Williams were raised.)

The surprise appearance — which fueled Lamar and Drake’s ongoing feud, since the “God’s Plan” rapper was previously romantically linked to Williams — also paid homage to her past controversial dance moves. (Williams and Drake never publicly confirmed their alleged romance.) After winning the “Golden Slam” title in 2012, William crip walked — and received backlash. Williams told Us in an interview at the time that she didn’t “care” about the criticism.

Ridinger called Williams a “very dear friend of mine” and gushed that the athlete has been “such an inspiration” for her as she navigates the loss of her husband, JR, who died suddenly in 2022. Ridinger noted that Williams’ half-sister, Yetunde Price, died in 2003 and pointed out that the athlete “almost died of a pulmonary embolism,” like JR.

“I remember on the boat with her, shortly after JR passed, she would come and just sometimes sit there with me and I wouldn’t be right. I wasn’t in my right frame of mind. There was nothing anyone can say. It’s like when you’re in a room full of people that you can’t see any of them, your grief is so deep that you’re in these clouds and you wonder if there’s sun again. You wonder if there’s rainbows again,” Ridinger said. “And she would just say, ‘I’m not leaving. I’m just going to sit here. I don’t care if I get on your nerves. I’m not going to talk. I’m just going to be with you.’ And she was. It was really just amazing for me. She’s a real sister. I love her.”

Ridinger explained that Williams encouraged her to seek the support of a group grief class, which she was initially hesitant to pursue but ultimately agreed to attend.

“Long story short, I realized that there weren’t just women who had lost their husbands. Some of these women had lost their lives, the way to pay for their bills, the way to support their children in school or make a light bill or a card payment. And I realized I still had all that, and I couldn’t imagine what life would be like for somebody who was also grieving and having to start a whole new life,” Ridinger said. “I promised myself from that moment on, I would find my new why, which was always my why, which is to keep helping people find a better way and either through grief or through an alternative plan B. So that’s what I’m doing. That’s what I’m focused on.”

Scrambled or Sunny-Side Up?: Living Your Best Life After Losing Your Greatest Love is available in bookstores now.

With reporting by Christina Garibaldi