Simone Biles's Husband Jonathan Owens Didn't Know Who She Was When They Met

Olympic gold medalist, six-time world champion, and most decorated gymnast in history: Simone Biles holds a lot of titles. In 2023 she added wife to that list when she wed football player Jonathan Owens. Owens is a famed athlete in his own right, but he maintains that he didn’t know who Biles was when they met at the start of the pandemic during some rare downtime from their high-pressure careers.

Born in St. Louis in 1995, Owens got his start playing college football for Missouri Western State University. In 2019 he was signed to the Houston Texans, who he stayed with for four years. He had a brief stint playing for the Green Bay Packers before signing a two-year contract with the Chicago Bears in 2024. The couple expressed their excitement to make a home base in Chicago, telling Chicagobears.com, "The city has embraced us." Soon after, he was invited to throw out the first pitch at the Cincinnati Reds-Chicago White Sox game.

He and Biles Met Online

Eagle-eyed fans noticed that Biles liked Owens’s Instagrams starting in 2019, but the duo officially connected on Raya in 2020, People reports. 

“I just hadn’t heard of her, and when I told her that, that’s one of the things she liked,” Owens told Texas Monthly in a 2021 interview.  While her 4 million Instagram followers tipped him off, he really caught on during one of their early dates, when strangers began stopping her for photos, Owens explains on The Pivot podcast. 

Both athletes had career milestones ahead of them when they met: Biles was set to compete in the 2020 Summer Olympics, and Owens had training camp for the upcoming NFL season. But the onset of the pandemic kept each of their schedules unusually open, offering plenty of time to get to know one another.

They Got Engaged on Valentine’s Day

On February 14, 2022, Owens proposed in a Houston Gazebo with an oval cut ring. Biles called it “the easiest yes,” in a post to her Instagram. Owens added, "She really had no clue what was coming" in his own social post.

They Married (Twice) in 2023 

The power couple first wed in a courthouse wedding on April 22, 2023. Just a few weeks later, on May 6, they welcomed 144 family and friends to a bigger affair in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Biles told Vogue that despite her nerves leading up to the ceremony, “I felt confident walking down the aisle. Seeing Jonathan at the altar was a dream.” She wore a custom Galia Lahav gown for the ceremony, featuring a sheer corset bodice and an A-line skirt with a high slit. Throughout the night she donned three additional Galia Lahav dresses.

He’s Biles’s Biggest Supporter 

The couple took their relationship public in the summer of 2021, with an interview in Texas Monthly and a photo Biles shared with the caption “You give me butterflies.” They started supporting each other at work soon after, with Owens watching Biles compete in the 2021 U.S. Gymnastics Championships, and Biles supporting him at his NFL practice.

Since then, he’s remained vocal about his support for Biles online. When she withdrew from the rescheduled 2020 Olympics in 2021, he posted an Instagram in support, promising “Imma ride with you through whatever baby."

He gave her a standing ovation at the 2024 U.S. Gymnastics Championships and congratulated her in an Instagram post when she took home 1st place, saying he was “still in awe.” As for Biles’s competitions leading up to the 2024 Summer Olympics, Owens told Chicagobears.com,  "I'm gonna be in there cheering like it's a football game." According to NBC Sports, Owens will be in Paris cheering her on.