Simone Biles’ husband, Jonathan Owens, is sparking online controversy for discussing the origins of their relationship.
“It’s really how she pulled me, man. That’s the question,” the Green Bay Packers safety, 28, said on “The Pivot” podcast on Tuesday, December 19, when asked how he landed Biles, 26. The camera quickly panned to Biles, the most decorated Olympic gymnast of all time, laughing.
Owens explained that the couple, who wed earlier this year, met via dating app Raya in 2020 shortly after he moved to Houston. (Owens had recently signed with the city’s NFL team, the Texans, and Biles’ gymnastic gym is located in the Lone Star State.)
“[I] had been on the app for a couple days and then she pops up. I’m like, ‘Lemme see who this is,’” he said. “I never really paid attention to gymnastics, so it piqued my curiosity [and I was like], ‘I’ll see what’s up.’”
Owens swiped right, discovering that Biles had done the same. Once they matched, it was Biles who reached out first. “She messaged me on the app, like, ‘Hey,’ and I’m like, ‘That’s gotta be fake,’” Owens added. “I didn’t know who she was at the time, but the first thing that I saw was that she just had a bunch of [Instagram] followers. So in my mind, I’m like, ‘OK, she’s got to be good.’”
Biles reached out on a Tuesday and, after texting back and forth for several days, they “hung out” the following Friday.
“We couldn’t do much, because COVID happened and everything was shut down. So she came down to Houston,” Owens recalled. “She lived in the suburbs, so she had to come about 45 minutes to me. Then, the rest is history.”
After the hosts noted that it seemed like Biles really did the legwork to “pull” Owens, he agreed.
“I always say that the men are the catch,” Owens replied. “She did [pull me], though, because I was fighting it. … At the time, I was afraid to commit. I was like, ‘This is my third year [in the NFL], I’m trying … it’s kind of early, but, you know, it happens when you least expect it.”
As soon as Owens met up with Biles, they instantaneously “hit it off” and “laughed the whole night.”
After two years of dating, Owens proposed in February 2022. They wed in April.
While Owens and Biles have been basking in newlywed bliss, his “The Pivot” comments divided the Internet. Many of Biles’ fans were outraged that Owens thought he was more of a “catch” compared to Biles given all of her athletic achievements.
“Watching Simone Biles’ husband sabotage her in public just a few months out from the 2024 Summer Olympics is a horrible thing to see,” one X (formerly Twitter) user wrote on Friday, December 22. “I want all the folks to know that even if you [don’t] not ‘like’ Simone Biles no one deserves to be treated like that.”
Another added: “I only know him as Simone Biles’ husband. Don’t ask me nothin’ else.”
A third proclaimed that it was Biles who was the true “catch.”
Biles and Owens also had plenty of supporters in their corner. “Simone Biles and Jonathan Owens clearly happy together and they can joke about how they met and initially got together,” a fourth user penned on X. “But leave it to total strangers on here to get irrationally invested and upset over his comments about their relationship.”
The couple doesn’t appear to be letting the social chatter get in their heads.
“Unbothered 😂❤️ Just know we locked in over here 🤞🏽,” Owens wrote via Instagram on Friday, sharing throwback wedding pics.
Biles succinctly replied, “🤞🏾💋 for life.”
