It’s been seven months since Simone Biles’s husband, Jonathan Owens, sparked outrage after implying that he’s “the catch” in his relationship, with the entire internet coming to Biles’s defense. His response, after all this time? He wasn’t fazed by the backlash at all, he tells Us Weekly in an interview published Monday.
“I have all my social media notifications off, so I didn’t even know for a while,” Owens said. “I was actually with my mom and Simone whenever it came out, so all the comments and everything, I just let them read it. I try to stay off of it, and obviously if you feel like stuff is kind of getting out of hand, that’s when you reach in and say something.” “I don’t mean to cuss, but like, damned if you do, damned if you don’t,” Owens added. “If you say something, they’re going to say something; if you don’t say something, they’re going to say something. So, just live your life. People are going to talk about you anyway, so you might as well do it the way you want to.”
In the same interview back in December, Owens also said he didn’t know who Biles — the most decorated gymnast in history — was before dating her. While his comments, which many took to be dishonest or an attempt to knock Biles down a peg, led to think pieces and memes, he wrote on Instagram in December that he was “unbothered.” Meanwhile, Biles said her husband’s words didn’t upset her, but what “really hurt” was the public’s reaction to Owens. Weeks later, she said she wasn’t interested in hearing more about Owens’s podcast comments. “Respectfully, fuck off & if you keep commenting or tweeting at me I’m just going to block you. Simple as that.”
Over the weekend, Biles shared Owens’s new “S” ring-finger tattoo and when she qualified for the Paris Olympics last week, Owens wrote a tribute to her: “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.” That’s more like it.
