SIMONE BILES' HUSBAND JONATHAN OWENS DIDN'T KNOW WHO SHE WAS WHEN THEY FIRST MET
Simone Biles has a ton of supporters cheering her on. From celebrities and her fellow Team U.S.A. gymnasts to her friends and family back in the States, when it comes to the gymnast, everyone is hoping for the best after she withdrew from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics team final and individual all-around competition events. As she prepares for another shot of glory in the 2024 Paris Olympics, she is lucky to have her husband, NFL player Jonathan Owens, by her side.
While Simone and Jonathan first made their relationship Instagram official in August 2020, their romance began months before in March. When the 2020 Summer Games was initially postponed, the Olympic gold medalist had lots of unexpected free time and told Glamour she connected with him on the celebrity dating app Raya.
"He would say I slid into his DMs," Simone told Wall Street Journal Magazine. "I saw him and I was like, ‘Oh, he’s pretty cute,’ so I said hi... and then I saw that he was in the Houston area, so we started chatting a little bit, and then we went to hang out a week or two later."
But the couple had a little bit of help from Simone’s younger sister, Adria. After several weeks of watching Simone and Jonathan on FaceTime, Adria grabbed her phone during a conversation and invited him to a family lake house trip. There, the future couple hit it off and the football star was soon being asked to join Sunday family dinners.
"We ended up hanging out right before the pandemic,” Jonathan told Texas Monthly in 2021. “It was one of the few times in her life where everything was just shut off and she couldn’t do anything. So we used it to get to know each other — really get to know each other. It created our bond and made it stronger.”
As it turns out, Jonathan had plenty to learn about Simone. "I didn’t know who she was. I just hadn’t heard of her, and when I told her that, that’s one of the things she liked," he said to Texas Monthly.
Once he figured out who she was, he couldn't help but be in awe of her talent like the rest of the world. "Her work ethic was really the first thing that caught my eye,” he said in Simone’s Facebook Watch docuseries Simone Vs Herself. “I never really watched gymnastics before I first started talking to her."
From the time they started dating, Jonathan has been nothing but supportive — and Simone is just as excited to be there for him. After playing football in high school, Jonathan continued at Missouri Western State University. In 2018, he began playing for the Arizona Cardinals and, a year later, joined the Houston Texans practice squad. In 2020, he officially signed with the Texans as a defensive back.
Speaking with People in April 2021, Simone shared the silver lining of starting their romance during quarantine, which included seeing Jonathan in action. "What's been really exciting is being able to experience life with my family and friends," she told the outlet at the time. "Getting to go to my boyfriend's [NFL] games. I told him that I've never been to so many games in a season in my life. Because usually, I'm so busy and all over the place."
If that wasn't enough, Simone and Jonathan then took a huge step forward in their relationship. In February 2022, the couple shocked folks by announcing their engagement, which Simone called "the easiest yes" she ever said in her life.
"THE EASIEST YES." she excitedly wrote at the time on Instagram. "I can’t wait to spend forever & ever with you, you’re everything I dreamed of and more! let’s get married FIANCÉ 💍🥺🥲🤎 @jowens_3."
By 2023, Simone and Jonathan chose to celebrate their nuptials in a way that fit the two of them. In April, the duo tied the knot in an intimate courthouse wedding in Houston, Texas before hosting a destination wedding in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Per Vogue, they said "I do" in front of 144 guests. But as Simone told the outlet, during the most important moments, it felt like it was only her and Jonathan.
"Jonathan and I just tuned into each other and blocked everyone out," she explained. "I fell in love with him all over."
Now, four years later, the couple is still going strong. There’s no denying that the two admire each other’s athleticism and dedication to their sports. What’s more, even their French bulldogs get along.
“He’s a real man. I just, I love him," she gushed in an interview on the Today show with Hoda Kotb. "We have a great time together. Our personalities match right up. We have the same sense of humor. And he’s just great. He’s an athlete, too, so we really understand each other and I think that’s why our relationship has been seamless."
Clearly Jonathan is just as smitten, as he went on Instagram in July 2024 to celebrate Simone's success in making Team U.S.A.'s women's gymnastics team ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics.
"No words can describe how proud of you I am baby 🤎," he affectionately wrote. "Just knowing all the work that you put in and everything that you’ve been through, and to still come back and be as dominant as ever, I was speechless."
"I’m so thankful to be apart of this journey with you, and I cant wait to be able to watch you out there in Paris," he added. "I’m so happy for you babe!!!! 🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷 Cheers to going to your third Olympic Games!!!!!! Just sounds so surreal being able to say my wife is the best to EVER do it, how did I get so lucky 😌 I love you so much 🤞🏽🤞🏽."
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