All About Jonathan Owens, Simone Biles’s NFL Player Husband
In August 2020, four-time Olympic gold medal gymnast Simone Biles let the world know she had a new boyfriend: 29-year-old Jonathan Owens, a safety for the Chicago Bears. The two cuddled up together in photos shared on both her and his Instagrams. “it’s just us 🤎,” she captioned the shots.
In February 2022, she confirmed that they’re getting married. “THE EASIEST YES,” she captioned her Instagram full of engagement photos.
The initial romance confirmation came shortly after Biles posted a birthday tribute to Owens at the end of July and weeks after Biles confirmed in a July 2020 Vogue interview that she broke up with her boyfriend, gymnast Stacey Ervin Jr. (whom she dated for nearly three years) in early March 2020. “It’s hard being young and having that long of a relationship and then ending it,” she told Vogue. “But it was for the best.”
On Aug. 6, 2021, Biles, who had recently returned home from Tokyo, posted a photo with Owens while at NFL practice with him.
“open practices aka bring your girlfriend to work day 🤍,” she wrote.
“So glad you got to come out baby ❤️❤️,” he responded in the comments.
In April 2023, they got married. Here, what to know about Owens and his years-long relationship with Biles.
Biles announced her engagement to Owens on Feb. 15, 2022. “THE EASIEST YES,” she wrote. “I can’t wait to spend forever & ever with you, you’re everything I dreamed of and more! let’s get married FIANCÉ 💍🥺🥲🤎 @jowens_3” You can see her engagement photos here.
On Saturday, April 22, 2023, Biles announced she and Owens were officially married. The couple had a very small ceremony, it seems, including themselves, the judge who married them, and the photographer.
In the first pic, Owens is raising his right fist in celebration while Biles smiles up at him, looking joyful. The bride for a full-length white dress with a tiered tulle skirt and a halter bodice with a plunging neckline. She was carrying a bouquet of white flowers and had her hair up in a ponytail. Owens wore a tan suit with a white button-down and white loafers.
In her caption, Biles wrote, “I do” and “officially owens.”
In the comments, Owens wrote, “Wifey got a great ring to it First day of forever.”
In his own post about the big event, Owens wrote, “My person, forever #TheOwens #itsofficial,” and Biles commented, “i love you husband.”
On Saturday, May 6, 2023, the couple celebrated with a second wedding, enjoying a much more lavish ceremony in Cabo San Lucas. Biles told a fan on Instagram that their first wedding was partly a formality in preparation for their destination wedding.
“We had to get married ‘legally’ here in the U.S. since our wedding will be a destination wedding,” she wrote.
Owens shared a glimpse at their amazing rehearsal dinner in an Instagram reel:
For the big day, Biles wore a white lace dress, and Owens was in a beige tuxedo. The Olympian’s father, Ronald Biles, walked her down the aisle, and her uncle Paul officiated the ceremony. Owens also walked down the aisle with family, escorted by his mother, Arthurine Cannon. Other guests at the event included Melanie De Jesus Dos Santos, Aly Raisman, Maggie Nichols, Madison Kocian, Jordan Chiles, and Katelyn Ohashi.
Biles marked Owens’s 28th birthday with her first tribute to him as his wife. “7/22happy birthday to my soulmate 🤍🎂 ,” she wrote. “I can’t wait to see what this year has to offer you, you deserve it all & more! cheers to you husband!”
Owens has been playing in the NFL since 2018, when he signed with the Arizona Cardinals. He got a knee injury that year and remained on the injured reserve list before he was released from the team a year later in August 2019. That September, the Houston Texans signed him to its practice squad. The team signed him in January 2020 to reserve/future contracts. He later moved to the Chicago Bears, where he plays in 2024.
Owens is from St. Louis and played college football at Missouri Western State University. Before that, he played football in high school, at Christian Brothers College, in Missouri. His jersey number for the Chicago Bears is #36, and he’s 5’11”.
Biles trains at the World Champions Center in Spring, Texas. She resumed training at the center in May 2020 when it was safe enough to reopen amid the coronavirus pandemic. Biles competed in the Paris Olympics and made the team in June 2024.
When he was a player for the Texans, Owens was based in Houston, just a 26-minute drive from Spring.
It’s unclear when exactly Owens and Biles met or started dating. But if Instagram is any indicator, Biles has been a fan of Owens since the end of 2019. Owens doesn’t post often on his Instagram grid, but Biles’s first like was on his Nov. 27, 2019 shot.
The first Owens Instagram that Biles liked.
Her second like was on his March 9, 2020 photo, shortly after her breakup.
The second Owens Instagram that Biles liked.
She has liked every one of Owens’s Instagrams since.
Both Owens and Biles are dog lovers. Owens has an Instagram account for Zeus, the “most energetic English Bulldog you’ve ever met,” according to the dog’s Instagram bio. He very regularly updates Zeus’s IG with cute new dog shots:
Biles, meanwhile, has an Instagram account for her two Frenchies, Lilo and Rambo.
On July 22, 2020, Biles posted an Instagram tribute to him on her Instagram Stories, which the Shade Room captured (along with the great TikTok they created together). “Happy 25th birthday,” she wrote with a kissing face emoji. “Hope this year brings you everything you want & more.”
Biles, for what it’s worth, is a Pisces with a March 14, 1997, birthday—making her and Owens a very compatible astrological pairing.
Owens is family-oriented and regularly pays tribute to both his mother and sister on his Instagram. On Mother’s Day 2020, he wrote to his mom, “Happy Mother’s Day to my ❤️ you have been my biggest fan and supporter through it all. I’m so thankful for everything you’ve taught me, enjoy your day beautiful 😌”
He also credited his sister with getting him into football in 2018: “Happy birthday sis! Who knows where I’d be if you didn’t force me to start playing football 😂 it’s crazy how close we are even though we 11 years apart, imma keep making you proud! Love you sis ❤️”
When Biles was on her way to her second Olympic Games, Owens wore a red shirt that said “Because I can—Simone Biles” along with Biles’ parents and posted a picture with his Olympian girlfriend holding flowers.
Jonathan Owens and Simone Biles.
On June 7, 2021, Owens took to his Instagram to celebrate Biles becoming the first woman to win seven U.S. championship titles. “What an amazing experience 👏🏽 First time getting to watch you compete in person, and you didn’t disappoint. It’s so cool that I get to watch you do what you love and be the best at that ‼️ I’m so proud of you, my lil champ 🥰❤️ Trials up next, and you already know I’m there!! Love you, baby ❤️❤️,” he captioned the post.
In the third episode of Biles’ Facebook docu-series Simone vs. Herself, Owens mentioned that he was not aware of Biles’s stature in the world of gymnastics. “Her work ethic was really the first thing that caught my eye,” Owens said, per Insider. “I never really watched gymnastics before I first started talking to her. When I met her, I honestly didn’t know who she was.”
“The coolest thing for me is that I get to witness someone who is literally in the pinnacle of their sport,” Owens added. “It’s motivating to see that and the impact that she has on people. We were walking past this group of girls, and they were shaking, ‘Oh my god, it's Simone!’ This is when I kind of knew. Like, okay, yeah, she’s the real deal.”
In her July 2021 WSJ cover story, Biles opened up about the beginning of her relationship with Owens. “He would say I slid into his DMs. I saw him, and I was like, ‘Oh, he’s pretty cute,’ so I said hi…and then I saw that he was in the Houston area, so we started chatting a little bit, and then we went to hang out a week or two later,” the gymnast told the outlet.
Biles then revealed that her sister pushed them together and invited Owens on their family lake trip.
On July 22, 2021, Biles celebrated her then-boyfriend’s birthday on Instagram.
As Biles prepared for the Olympics in Japan, she posted a tribute. “Here in Japan, it is already my favorite person’s birthday 🖤 HAPPY 26th BIRTHDAY BABE. @jowens_3 I love you so much. Can’t wait to celebrate with you when I get home! Thanks for keeping me sane during the craziest times. An ear to vent too, someone to share fun times with and make the best of memories 🖤 not sure how I got so lucky & what I’d do without you! But I hope you have the best day ever. Not too much fun without me tho hahaha 🥺🤞🏾🤍 forever yours, S,” Biles captioned the post.
Owens commented, “Thank you so much, baby I love you ❤️❤️.”
On Tuesday, July 27, Biles pulled out of the Olympic team event finals “due to a medical issue,” per USA Gymnastics’s statement.
Even though she exited, her team pulled through and won silver for the team category. Biles posted on her Instagram to celebrate the team’s accolade. “OLYMPIC SILVER MEDALISTS 🤍 I’m SO proud of these girls right here. You girls are incredibly brave & talented! I’ll forever be inspired by your determination not to give up and to fight through adversity! They stepped up when I couldn’t. Thanks for being there for me and having my back! Forever love y’all,” she wrote as a captioned photo of herself, Jordan Chiles, Sunisa Lee, and Grace McCallum holding their Olympic medals.
Owens showed his support for his then-girlfriend as he commented, “I’m so proud of y’all 🤞🏽❤️,” under the post.
On July 29, 2021, Owens shared a sweet tribute to his Olympian girlfriend. During the Olympics, Biles pulled out of the team and individual all-around final to focus on her mental health. Owens posted a gallery of photos of Biles and himself, captioning the post, “Imma ride with you through whatever baby ❤️. Your strength and courage is unmatched, and you inspire me more and more every day SB 🤞🏽. You are always going to be my champ, baby, and don’t you ever forget that I love you so much, and I can’t wait till you come home and I get to see that beautiful smile again. You know I’m always here for you, baby ❤️❤️ -JO.” Biles commented, “I love you so much 🤎🤞🏾” underneath the post.
After claiming the U.S. Gymnastics Championship for the eighth time in San Jose, California, Biles returned to her husband and shared a romantic shot of her a Owens reuniting. But it was just their hands. In the pic, Biles lays her manicured fingers over her husbands, showing her engagement ring by jewelry designer, ZoFrost. The NFL player's wedding band came from the same Houston designer.
“back together again,” she wrote.
Owens commented, “Back at home,” adding two heart emojis.
She later shared pictures of herself and Owens in a house under construction, implying they're building a nest together, and one shot of them holding hands.
On Saturday, Biles shared a carousel of photos from her trip to Chicago with her husband and some friends. The gymnast was there to support Owens as he played for the Green Bay Packers in his first regular-season game. The team beat the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field stadium. Biles captioned the post, “A weekend in windy city.”
In the comments, Owens wrote, “My biggest cheerleader.”
In a Dec. 19, 2023 interview on The Pivot, Owens was asked by co-host Channing Crowder, “How in the hell did you pull Simone Biles?”
He responded, “It's really how she pulled me.”
He explained that when she DMed him he “didn‘t know who she was” because he “never really paid attention” to gymnastics.
“The first thing that I saw was that she just had a bunch of [Instagram] followers,” he went on. “So in my mind I'm like, ‘Okay, she’s gotta be good.’”
It was early in the COVID-19 pandemic, so there wasn’t much they could do together.
“She came down to Houston,” he recalled. “She lived in the suburbs, so she had to drive about 45 minutes. Then the rest is history.”
Co-host Ryan Clark then asked if Owens thought he was the catch, and he replied, “I always say that the men are the catch.”
He added, “I was fighting it. I was afraid to commit. But it happened when [I] least expected it, and we hung out, and we hit it off instantly.”
The interview sparked quite a bit of criticism towards Owens, as Biles is among the greatest athletes in history. Some of her fans found his comments disrespectful. However, it seems like Owens is fine with the response. On December 21, he posted a carousel of photos with Biles, including shots of their wedding in Mexico.
“Unbothered,” he captioned it, adding a laugh-crying and heart emoji. “Just know we locked in over here.”
In a comment underneath, Biles added a cross-finger and kiss emoji and wrote, “for life.”
She also posted a photo of her and Owens to her own timeline, writing, “Mood” in the caption.
And in her Stories on December 23, she posted a meme asking, “Are y’all done yet?”
In the second part of her Netflix series Simone Biles Rising, Biles spoke candidly about how bothered she was about the criticism her husband got over his comments about him being “the catch” in their relationship.
She said his podcast remarks were “taken out of context,” per Page Six. She added, “Social media gives [followers] this false sense of reality that they really know who you are and how you function. Most of the time they don’t understand the mental toll that it takes, especially going into an Olympic year.”
She added, “I know we signed up to be judged in the gym, but when you guys are going to talk about him or my family, yeah, I’m gonna come at you guys.”
The gymnast appeared in a recent interview for Peacock’s 2023 Back That Year Up, hosted by Kevin Hart and Kenan Thompson. It's unclear when the interview was filmed, before or after Owens’s controversial comments, but she stated they discuss who is the better athlete.
“I think we’re good at our own sports,” she said. “We’ve tried to pin each other against on like, difficulty, ability and all that stuff. So, at the end of the day, gymnastics is harder—if he agrees or not.”
Thompson responded that she gave a “nice politician answer.” But he suggested Biles should be the obvious winner, since he knows who she is.
“We fought over it a couple of times and then we vowed—once we got married— we wouldn’t talk about it again,” Biles admitted. “But it keeps coming up every time. He has done my workout in the gym, and he could barely do it, and then I went to their NFL workout, and I crushed it.”
In a cover story with Vanity Fair, Biles revealed more about her wedding day and meeting her husband.
“I had just broken up [with someone] and my friend was like, ‘Get on Raya, get on Raya,’” Biles said. “My guard went straight up when she said dating site.”
They matched within her first week on the app.
“The second week I met him in person, and the rest is history. We were hooked,” Biles explained.
Owens also commented on the profile, saying, “She doesn’t like to admit it, but she messaged me first,” adding onto the idea he had no idea who she was by saying, “A lot of people don’t believe me when I say I had no clue.”
“If I’m going to be honest, obviously he’s very fine,” Biles said of Owens. “[But] besides his looks, he was so sweet and kind, and I think what I liked about him was his confidence. He truly believes he’s the best at everything.”
About their wedding, she said, “I’ve never had so much fun in my life. I was 19 when I won my first Olympics, and I was like, ‘How am I supposed to top this?’ My wedding topped it. It was the greatest feeling ever.”
Owens flew to join the Packers right after the ceremony.
“I cried a lot,” Biles said. “We’re both so busy, so it’s not like I’m sitting [around] waiting for him to come home, but it’s just hard.”
She also said there were 144 guests at the grand event.
In mid-January, the gymnast shared shots of the couple’s bulldogs, Rambo and Zeus, sporting matching Green Bay Packers jerseys as the team heads to the playoffs. On Sunday, January 14, the Packers played the the Dallas Cowboys during the NFL Wild Card Round. She wrote over the adorable pic, “the dogs are ready for this weekend” and “GO PACK GO 🏈🏈🏈”
Owens re-shared the image, writing underneath, “They ready!!!”
On April 17, 2024, Biles made an appearance on the Call Her Daddy podcast, where she finally addressed the controversy surrounding the viral interview with Owens. When speaking on The Pivot podcast in December 2023, Owens was asked how he managed to “pull” Biles.
“It’s really how she pulled me, man. That’s the question,” he replied, adding that he had never heard of Biles before they matched on the dating app Raya.
“I always say that men are the catch,” Owens continued.
While the internet had a lot to say about Owens’s comments, Biles didn’t seem to mind.
“I didn’t think anything of that interview, and he never said I wasn’t a catch. He said he was a catch. Because he is,” she told Call Her Daddy host Alex Cooper. “I’ve never met a man like him. A lot of people that meet him are like, ‘Oh my gosh, I want a man like that, like Jonathan.’”
“I was in the room,” Biles added, explaining that she was with Owens while they were recording the podcast episode. “I was sitting on the chair. You just couldn’t see me on the videos. I was there for the whole entire video. I was feeling great. I was like, ‘My man just killed that.’”
“They even panned over to me with that viral moment, and I just rolled my eyes and laughed,” Biles continued.
She shared that she never expected Owens to receive so much backlash for what he said, saying that she thought “everything was OK. Then, I go on Twitter and everybody’s like, ‘Divorce this man, he’s mean.’” But Biles disagreed.
“He praises the ground that I walk on. Truly, I’ve never met a man like him. He still opens my doors,” she said. “I’m not saying that to be like, ‘He still opens my doors because that’s to be expected of men,’ but he truly goes out of his way to do anything for me.”
“First of all, that interview had nothing to do with me. It was all for him. So, I think they were mad that he didn’t include me in the interview, but he has to have his moments too. And I let him have it,” Biles explained. “Whenever I go to football games, sometimes I get field passes, but I’m not like, ‘Hey, look at me, Simone Biles is here.’ I just want to see my man in that uniform. Give me a little kiss. ‘Good luck out there.’ It’s like this is his moment, that’s his interview. What, was I supposed to interrupt that interview?”
Biles admitted that, while she thought the internet’s reaction to the podcast was funny at first, all of the hate that Owens was receiving started to “really hurt,” and she “broke down.”
“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,” she expressed. “If anybody’s met him, they know he’s the sweetest guy and will do anything for anybody.”
“Talk about me all you want, but don’t come for my family,” Biles said.
Biles made the U.S. gymnastics team for the 2024 Paris Olympics and revealed in early July that Owens would be able to join her despite his NFL team having training camp at that time. “The Bears are actually granting him a couple days off from training camp, so he’ll be there, yes,” she told USA Today. “For just a short little time.”
“Anytime we can show up for one another in support, we just get super excited because our schedules don’t align that much,” Biles added. “So whenever it does, it’s really important for the both of us to show up in support.”
After Biles won the individual all-around competition, making her the most decorated American Olympic gymnast ever, Owens made a heart sign with his hands from the stands. ESPN posted a photo on X, formerly known as Twitter, of the adorable reaction.
Owens was seen taking photos of his wife and cheering her on throughout the competition.
Owens added a permanent tribute to his wife on his ring finger. Over 2024’s Fourth of July weekend, Biles shared an Instagram Story that revealed Owens’s new “S” tattoo dedicated to her.
“😱😱❤️❤️🤞🏾🤞🏾,” Biles wrote over the photo.
Owens shared two pictures of himself with Biles after Team USA won at the Paris Olympics in which he is wearing her gold medal.
“Witnessing history every time you step on the mat 😍🔥,” he wrote in the caption. “Congrats baby on becoming the most decorated American gymnast in Olympic history!!!! Just wow!!!! 8 of them!!!!! So thankful i was there to see it ❤️💙.”
Popular TikToker Kiera Breaugh created a video on TikTok with the photos telling him to “take her medal off,” and implying he was wearing it as though he had won it. Biles went to the comments herself and told Breaugh that she had actually encouraged him to wear it.
“Crazy thing is, I put my medal on every single one of my family members and took pictures, so don’t ever make assumptions 🙄,” she wrote in a now deleted comment on Thursday, August 1. “Like y’all are so fucking miserable. Leave us alone.”
Breaugh responded to Biles’ comment with a sense of humor, posting a second TikTok saying that she was “honored to be told to fuck off by such a talented woman.”
“She put the medal on him,” Breaugh continued. “I can’t really be mad if she told him to. And you know what? Maybe I am miserable. I'll be called miserable by the most decorated gymnast of all time. I think that’s fine.”
After her Paris Olympics run, Biles was asked about her hopes for the future and whether having children is among them. She told The Today Show hosts, “Yes, me and Jonathan always talk about kids. He would have had them yesterday if we could have. Obviously we both have goals we want to achieve before we start a family, so yes that’s def in our future.”
She also reflected on Owens’s first time at the Olympics. “He was so excited,” she said. “He was more excited to pin trade, and obviously he loved going to see me compete. He was still keeping score. For him, it meant the world to him because he’s seen the amount of hours that I’ve put in, so to actually see in person, he was like, ‘Wow, this is amazing,’ and he was just so excited to be there.”
On November 24, days before Thanksgiving, the couple had a romantic moment at Owens’s game against the Minnesota Vikings. Biles kissed her husband in the field before the sporting event started. His team, the Chicago Bears, ultimately lost to the Vikings in a very close game: 27-30.
In a November 27 interview with Us Weekly, Biles shared her plans to travel to Detroit on Thanksgiving, where Owens and the Chicago Bears were facing off against the Detroit Lions.
“I’ll fly up in the morning and fly right back, just so we can still spend Thanksgiving together,” Biles said. “Holidays are revolving around sports right now, especially in the football world with them sometimes playing.”
Back home in Chicago, things will be set up by some extra help.
“We’ll just have a chef come and cook,” Biles explained. “I think some of his teammates will come through and grab a plate, especially if they don’t have family in the area. It is a little bit more difficult, but it is kind of nice that we can just relax.”
She added that the chef will “already be at the house cooking” when she and Owens get back, adding, “It will be prepared by the time we get home.”
On December 22, Owens kissed Biles on the field during his game against the Detroit Lions at Soldier Field in Chicago. Biles was dressed in all black, wearing leggings, a puffer jacket, snow boots, a bucket hat, and a quilted purse.
They kissed again later and gazed at one another lovingly.
At his December 26 game against the Seattle Seahawks at Soldier Field in Chicago, Biles showed up wearing a special outfit for Owens—a sweatsuit set featuring prints of his face.
They then shared a romantic kiss on the field.
Nearly two years after their April 2023 wedding, Biles and Owens went to South Africa on their honeymoon. On February 19, the couple shared glimpses of their trip on Instagram, which included a safari.
Biles posted several Instagram Stories, including photos of her spotting giraffes and visiting a local daycare. Owens also shared videos on his Instagram Story, along with a photo of Biles having a sweet moment with a child at the daycare. He wrote, “Simone putting him back to sleep, she’s such a natural 🥹❤️.”
On her main feed, Biles posted several carousels from the trip. One featured her feeding an elephant. She captioned it, “consider this my postcard from South Africa 🇿🇦🩶🐘.”
The gymnast shared another post featuring photos from their safari. She wrote, “DND: out on safari 🐆🐘🦁🦏🐒🦓🦒🦛.”
Biles and Owens attended the Met Gala as members of the event’s exclusive host committee. Biles wore an electric-blue bustled minidress with a matching cape. She paired the look with Zales diamonds. Owens opted for an all-white suit with blue accents.
On April 24, Biles revealed that she and Owens were working with “two totally different designers,” but had still “seen each other’s looks.”
“We’re trying to still be cohesive and still on brand with the theme of the night, but I’m really excited about it,” she told E! News at the Time100 Gala.
At the time, Biles also admitted she was still deciding between two final looks. “It is a custom dress,” she hinted. “But I have two options right now that we’re teetering back and forth with.”
The night marked the couple’s first joint Met Gala appearance. Biles made her debut at the event in 2021, wearing an 88-pound Swarovski crystal-embellished ensemble by AREA x Athleta.
Additional reporting by Hilary Weaver.
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