Simone Biles appeared to respond to backlash over her husband Jonathan Owens revealing he didn’t know who she was when they first met.
The 28-year-old Green Bay Packers safety came under fire after he appeared on the latest episode of The Pivot podcast alongside Biles, the most decorated gymnast of all time, and recalled how they met and how she was the one to make the first move.
When podcast co-host Channing Crowder asked Owens “How in the hell did you pull Simone Biles?”, the NFL player revealed that at the time he “didn’t know who she was.” The pair connected in 2020 after matching on the Raya dating app.
“I’m like, ‘Lemme see who this is.’ I never really paid attention to gymnastics, so it piqued my curiosity,” Owens admitted, but once he saw her Instagram profile, he realised that Biles was a big deal. “The first thing that I saw was that she just had a bunch of [Instagram] followers. So in my mind, I’m like, ‘Okay, she’s gotta be good.’”
Owens continued to explain that he wasn’t aware of Biles because when she hit the scene, he was knee-deep in college football training all summer. The NFL safety recalled, “When she won the Olympics, I was in college and we didn’t have NBC, we didn’t have Olympics channels, and we were in [training] camp [in] late July, early August.
“So I’m not paying attention. I never would’ve had a moment where I would’ve watched [her compete],” he added. After she first messaged him, they began to frequently text one another, before meeting in person for the first time three days later.
Simone Biles and Jonathan Owens pose on the field prior to Game One of the 2022 World Series between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park on 28 October 2022 in Houston, Texas— (Getty Images)
“We couldn’t do much, because Covid happened and everything was shut down,” the football player said. He had been playing for the Houston Texans at the beginning of the pandemic.
“So she came down to Houston. She lived in the suburbs, so she had to drive about 45 minutes. Then the rest is history.”
When asked if he believes he’s the “catch” in their relationship, Owens surprisingly replied, “I always say that the men are the catch.”
He added that at first, he struggled with the idea of committing, but eventually came around because of how different his connection with Biles felt. He said, “I’m like, ‘It’s kinda early.’ But you know, it happens when you least expect it. When we hung out, we just hit it off instantly. Laughed the whole night.”
After the podcast episode was released, Owens was on the receiving end of a lot of criticism, particularly for calling himself the “catch” when Biles is a decorated Olympian.
The NFL player responded to the backlash on Instagram, posting an Instagram carousel on 21 December along with a caption addressing how he feels about the criticisms. Below photos of the couple on their wedding day and enjoying their everyday life, he wrote: “Unbothered 😂❤️ Just know we locked in over here.”
Biles also responded in a tweet on 23 December, writing: “Are y’all done yet?”
On 22 April 2023, the couple tied the knot at the Harris County Courthouse in Houston, and a few weeks later, they hosted family and friends at a lavish second wedding ceremony in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
