In the lead-up to the 2024 Paris Olympics, you’d think we’d be talking about the sheer skill of athletes or the new sports additions to the games (if you’re interested, it’s breakdancing), but gold medalist Simone Biles has attracted completely unrelated attention.
The famous gymnast and Paris 2024 contender has hit back at critics of her husband, NFL player Jonathan Owens, on social media, following comments made by Owens in 2023. The pair met on the celebrity dating app Raya in 2020 and announced their engagement in 2022.
While this writer’s initial thought was that fans might be lamenting the inevitable athleticism of Biles and Owens’ baby (meanwhile, I can barely muster a 30-minute walk), the Chicago Bears player has drawn the ire of the public for a different reason. So what exactly did Jonathan Owens say?
What did Jonathan Owens say?
Jonathan Owens got sports fans all riled up in December 2023, while appearing on a podcast called The Pivot. When asked about Biles, Owens described himself as “the catch” in the relationship, and said he had spent some time being “afraid to commit” before making it official. In the same interview, Owens admitted that he “didn’t know” who Biles was before meeting her, and initially only noticed how many social media followers she had.
Naturally, given her household name status and the fact that she’s also a catch, fans of Biles took the comments as less than complimentary, and promptly flooded her social media to urge her to divorce Owens. Biles addressed the situation during an interview on the Call Her Daddy podcast, clarifying that Owens’ comments had “nothing to do” with her and confirming that the NFL star is indeed a catch.
“He said he was a catch because he is,” Biles said, “I’ve never met a man like him.” Biles also said in the interview that the negativity directed towards her husband had caused her to “break down,” questioning why the internet was disrespecting her husband and calling him “the sweetest guy.” The gymnast has also taken to social media to further address the furor, posting a TikTok video directly responding to common criticisms of her husband.
Alongside text quotes like “whose that guy” and “still don’t know his name,” Biles mouthed along to a popular TikTok audio about taping people’s mouths closed, addressing the video to “twitter finger friends” in the accompanying caption. More recently, Biles took to Instagram for a decidedly less playful response, sharing a story urging the naysayers to “Respectfully, f**k off.”
“Y’all are blatantly being disrespectful to my relationship & my husband,” Biles wrote. “If you keep commenting or tweeting at me I’m just going to block you. Simple as that.” The athlete ended the message by sharing love for those who do support her and Owens, hopefully putting a pin in the entire ordeal. Can we maybe focus on Olympic breakdancing now?