During a recent interview on Call Her Daddy With Alex Cooper, gymnast and Olympic champion Simone Biles opened up about how she “broke down” after her husband Jonathan Owens received backlash over a 2023 viral interview where he said he was unaware of his wife’s athletic successes.
As previously reported by Face2Face Africa, the NFL star during the interview on The Pivot Podcast said that Biles caught his interest, despite his initial lack of attention to gymnastics. The couple met on the celebrity dating app Raya.
The podcast’s host, Ryan Clark, also asked the Chicago Bears safety if he felt he was the catch in their relationship – to which he said, “I always say that the men are the catch.”
But the 28-year-old drew outrage on social media as a section of people assumed his comments about his wife were condescending.
“I thought everything was OK, and then I go on Twitter and everybody’s like, ‘Divorce this man. He’s mean!'” Biles, who is the most decorated gymnast in history, said on Call Her Daddy, Entertainment Tonight reported. “I’m like, ‘He’s the sweetest. He praises the ground that I walk on.’ Truly, I’ve never met a man like him.”
Biles, 27, also clarified her husband never said she wasn’t a catch. “He said he was a catch. Because he is!” the Olympian added.
Biles said she thought the divorce comments were hilarious at first, but they later took a toll on her. “I thought it was hilarious what all these people were saying, ‘Divorce him, divorce him’… I thought it was hilarious at first and then it hurt my feelings,” she recalled.
“One night I broke down and I’m like, ‘Why are you guys talking about my husband like this? You don’t know him. You don’t know who he is and if anybody’s met him, you know he’s the sweetest guy, will do anything for anybody.’ That really hurt that they were talking about my husband like that. For me, it’s like, talk about me all you want, but don’t come for my family, never.”
Biles also made mention of her husband’s sense of humor and jovial claim about being good at “everything” when they initially established contact on Raya.
“He could do everything, and that cracked me up about him. So I couldn’t wait to meet him so I could be like, ‘You’re not funny. You’re not a good cook,'” she said. “I just thought that was funny, and I thought that was cute that he thought he was good at everything.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Biles touched on why she wants to go to the 2024 Paris Olympics with Owens. “I’m excited for him to see the Olympics because football’s not in the Olympics and he always says it’s the hardest sport, it’s universal. So, why is it not in the Olympics?” she jokingly said.
