Simone Biles’ Husband Is Getting Dragged By The Internet After Claiming He Didn't Know Who She Was When They Met

A screenshot of Simone Biles during an interview after she won the 2023 World Title.
(Image credit: NBC Sports)

Simone Biles has been an incredibly famous and successful athlete since she won her first gold medal at the 2016 Olympics. Since then, the gymnast has gone on to become the GOAT of her sport, and recently won her sixth, that’s right sixth, all-around world title. Her name is uttered in the same sentences as Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt, and it feels like everyone is aware of her. Well, apparently, her husband, NFL player Jonathan Owens wasn’t, and now the internet is dragging him over it. 

While chatting with The Pivot Podcast, Simone Biles and Jonathan Owens opened up about how they met on a dating app during COVID, and the Green Bay Packers safety admitted that he apparently had no idea who the Olympian was before they met. He said:

I didn’t know who she was at the time. But like, the first thing that I saw was that she just had a bunch of followers. So in my mind I’m like, ‘OK, she’s got to be good.’

He went on to defend himself, saying he was in college when she was competing at one of the many Olympics she attended, and he didn’t have NBC and was busy with training camp. However, it’s hard to fathom that he truly didn’t know who his future wife was, and her impact on sports. The internet thought this too, and as this clip went viral, they dragged Owens for his comments.

In the spirit of the opinion that “Taylor Swift put Travis Kelce on the map,” which went viral at the beginning of Swift and Kelce’s relationship, @karcambow posted:

See I don’t use Swift and Biles' names together lightly, they are both legends in their fields, and during the 2021 “Hero” promo for the Olympics, they shared love for each other. They are GOATs, and they have been for a long time. While we all knew Travis Kelce was a Swiftie before he started dating his girlfriend, it’s wild to think that Owens didn’t know about his future wife’s career before meeting her on a dating app. 

Using a fantastic GIF of Viola Davis, Sydney Leroux posted what I think many were thinking about this situation:

Others noted that many people know Jonathan Owens because he is Simone Biles’ husband. For example, @CantResistCody posted:

What’s baffling about this statement is Simone Biles lives in the same realm of athletic excellence as Phelps, Katie Ledecky and Shaun White. So, it’s hard to comprehend that anyone wouldn’t, at the bare minimum, recognize her name. One X user, @bo0kthot, had this thought as they posted:

To further this point, folks were posting that even though they don’t watch gymnastics, they know who Simone Biles is. For example, @hey_ms_walker wrote: 

We’ll end on the note that many touched on. The fact of the matter is, Simone Biles is a lot more famous than her husband. If athletic achievements aren’t enough to prove that, just look at their Instagram follower counts, the Olympian has over 7 million and the NFL player has 397 thousand. Therefore, it makes sense that folks were posting things like what @PurpleLights22 uploaded:

Like Biles' blunt response to Dancing with the Stars judges in  2017, many of her fans took to social media to make their confounded feelings known about Owens’ admission. 

Well, it’s safe to say that going into the Paris Olympics on the 2024 TV schedule, Jonathan Owens will be fully aware of how incredible his wife is. After winning a world title, she’s getting ready to qualify for the next summer games – which you’ll be able to watch with a Peacock subscription next summer. So, hopefully, come July, we’ll see him in the stands rooting for his wife, Simone Biles, the legendary gymnast, as she competes for another gold medal.  

Riley Utley
Weekend Editor

Riley Utley is the Weekend Editor at CinemaBlend. She has written for national publications as well as daily and alt-weekly newspapers in Spokane, Washington, Syracuse, New York and Charleston, South Carolina. She graduated with her master’s degree in arts journalism and communications from the Newhouse School at Syracuse University. Since joining the CB team she has covered numerous TV shows and movies -- including her personal favorite shows Ted Lasso and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. She also has followed and consistently written about everything from Taylor Swift to Fire Country, and she's enjoyed every second of it.