Simone Biles & Jonathan Owens' Marriage Has Some Painfully Obvious Problems

Simone Biles is head-over-heels for Jonathan Owens. A quick peek at her Instagram is all it takes to see how smitten the gymnastics legend is with the NFL player. Unfortunately, that doesn't take away from the fact that there are weird things about Biles and Owens' marriage. A lot of them seem to circle back to the Chicago Bears safety having a nonchalant attitude about his wife. This behavior was on full display at the 2025 Met Gala (seen above), an event he and Biles helped co-host.

While the most decorated gymnast of all time seemed elated to walk the red carpet, Biles' husband's behavior at the Met Gala was a dead giveaway. "Here's what I notice. There's a lot going on around them. So it's a bit difficult to make a [generalization] about their entire relationship. But we can tell he's not too excited to be there," Traci Brown, CSP, body language expert and behavior analyst, told Nicki Swift. "That smile, once he shows it, is just with his lips not his eyes and he turns it off like a switch. Real smiles dissipate slowly as the emotion fades."

Perhaps Owens just felt out of his element. The Met Gala is a fashion event, something that's not normally associated with tough, football player types. However, this isn't the first time he has displayed an arrogant attitude toward his wife. This is why so many of Biles' fans can't stand Owens. They seem happy enough together, but it's undeniable their marriage has some problems. 

Jonathan Owens claims he didn't know who Simone Biles was when he met her. "I didn't know who she was," he told Texas Monthly in 2021. "I just hadn't heard of her, and when I told her that, that's one of the things she liked." That in and of itself is preposterous. He is an athlete, after all. What athlete doesn't know one of the greatest of all time, even if she practices a different sport? But he didn't stop there. In the same interview, Owens proceeded to downplay her talents.

In his view, being the gymnastics GOAT meant very little. "It took me a while to come to grips with how hard her sport was," he said. "When we were first together, I was like, 'Man, you can't come outside and guard these wide receivers. Gymnastics is not that hard.'" In fact, he only believed Biles was a big deal after checking out her Instagram page and noting she had millions of followers. "The first thing that I saw was that she just had a bunch of followers. So in my mind I'm like, 'Okay, she's got to be good,'" he said on "The Pivot Podcast" in 2023.

In his defense, he did come around after seeing Biles compete in person. "It's so amazing to watch. When I saw her for the first time, I realized that the TV really doesn't do it justice. When she goes out there and does it, it looks so effortless," he said.

Simone Biles is unquestionably the most accomplished athlete in the relationship, but Jonathan Owens doesn't think that means much. He actually believes Biles is the lucky one to have him. "I always say the man [is] the catch. I always say we the catch," he said in the now infamous "Pivot Podcast" interview. Unsurprisingly, Owens was roasted over the comments about Biles. "Channing [Crowder]'s reaction to Ryan [Clark] saying 'Simone biles is lucky' is hilarious. Like he knew that comment is underlined bullsh*t. HE IS THE LUCKY ONE. SHE IS THE PRIZE," one YouTube user commented under the podcast, referring to the hosts.

The commenter is far from the only one. The backlash was such that Biles had to come out in his defense, arguing that the host was the one who first joked about Owens being the "catch" before he responded. "He said it, but Ryan Clark said it so many times," she said on the "Call Your Daddy" podcast (via E! News). "Like, 'Yeah, so you're saying...' It was kinda hyped up." She initially thought the public's reaction was funny, but then it went too far.

"I thought it was hilarious at first, and then they hurt my feelings," she added. "And then one night, I broke down and I'm like, 'Why are you guys talking about my husband like this?" She even took to X, previously known as Twitter, to ask people to stop. "Are y'all done yet?" she tweeted.

Simone Biles is an inspiration for people around the world, but the admired athlete had some online friction with fans amid the drama caused by Jonathan Owens' controversial comments about being the catch and not knowing who Biles was. Even though she addressed the situation in interviews, social media users continued to tag and message her with criticism against Owens. Biles had to stand her ground and establish firm boundaries with her fans.

"I'm going to quickly address this, the joke was never a joke," she wrote in an Instagram Story in 2024 (via E! News). "Y'all are blatantly being disrespectful to my relationship & my husband. So I'm gonna go ahead and say this one time. Respectfully, f*** off. & if you keep commenting or tweeting at me I'm just going to block you. Simple as that. And no I don't need to touch grass or whatever else tf y'all suggest."

In her interview with "Call Your Daddy," Biles had already stated that he was always going to put her loved ones first. "For me, it's like, 'Talk about me all you want, but don't come for my family — never,'" she said. For his part, Owens felt that addressing the backlash was going to do very little because it was a lose-lose situation for him and Biles. "Damned if you do, damned if you don't," he told Us Weekly. "If you say something, they're going to say something; if you don't say something, they're going to say something."

The way Jonathan Owens dismissed the sport his wife dedicated her life to is a red flag on its own, but it turns out that it's a much bigger issue in their marriage. "We definitely get in fights all the time about which sport is harder," Simone Biles told E! News' Daily Pop in 2021. The football vs. gymnastics debate clearly irritated her, suggesting she felt attacked by his comments. "He drives me insane with this damn question," she told Sports Illustrated a month later.

Besides, Biles started going on the offensive as well. "Gymnastics is obviously harder! I could go out there and learn how to throw a football, and he's like, 'Every time they get hit, it's like a car crash!'" In doing so, she downplayed his sport and became just as dismissive of his achievements as he had been of hers. "I'm like, 'You're literally a safety. You don't get hit. If you get hit, you're not doing your job,'" she said, showing a bit of ignorance regarding football.

It sounds like the whole thing could just be playful teasing, but they really were annoyed with each other. So much so that they had to declare a truce. "We vowed once we got married, we wouldn't talk about it again," she said on the "Back That Year Up" podcast in 2023 (via Us Weekly). It unfortunately didn't last. "It keeps coming up every time," she said.

Simone Biles' and Jonathan Owens' respective dedication to their careers posed physical barriers to their marriage. They are committed to keeping both, but that means they have to spend a lot of time apart, which isn't easy or ideal. Biles and Owens both lived in Houston, Texas, when they met. However, he signed with the Green Bay Packers in May 2023. Biles and Owens had celebrated their wedding just weeks earlier. The transfer forced Owens and Biles into a strange living situation.

The early separation was hard for the newlyweds. Biles took to her Instagram Stories (via People) to post snaps of her groom, noting how much she missed him. Because the gymnast trains in the Houston area, she couldn't just up and leave to be with him. "Unfortunately, we're actually long distance," she told Today in 2023. "But at least we're both busy and focusing on our respective sports."

Seeing him thrive on the field made it worth it, though. "Long distance isn't easy, but seeing you play your heart out is so worth it. I'm so proud of you baby," she captioned a 2023 Instagram post. Owens has since signed with the Chicago Bears, a move that didn't shorten the distance between them by a whole lot. They choose to look at it on the bright side, though. "[We] cherish the moments that we get together," she said. They continue to make it work, but the distance is certainly an obstacle.