“I always say that the men are the catch,” Owens said in his interview with ‘The Pivot’ podcast, noting that he was “afraid to commit” but changed his tune.
Unlike most of the world, Jonathan Owens got to know Simone Biles as a person first, gymnast second.
The Green Bay Packers safety, 28, appeared on the latest episode of The Pivot podcast alongside his wife — who recently became the most decorated gymnast of all time — and recounted the story of how they met, including the fact that she reached out first.
Asked by co-host Channing Crowder, “How in the hell did you pull Simone Biles?”, Owens admitted he “didn’t know who she was” back in 2020 when they first connected, after matching on the Raya dating app.
“I’m like, ‘Lemme see who this is.’ I never really paid attention to gymnastics, so it piqued my curiosity,” said the NFL player.
He soon learned that Biles, 26, was more notable than he’d realized. “The first thing that I saw was that she just had a bunch of [Instagram] followers. So in my mind I’m like, ‘Okay, she’s gotta be good,’ ” Owens said on the podcast.
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Explaining how it was possible that he didn’t know who Biles was at first considering her notoriety, Owens said, “When she won the Olympics, I was in college and we didn’t have NBC, we didn’t have Olympics channels, and we were in [training] camp [in] late July, early August.”
“So I’m not paying attention. I never would’ve had a moment where I would’ve watched [her compete],” he added.
She messaged him first, which led to them “texting back and forth” before connecting in person for the first time three days later, according to Owens.
“We couldn’t do much, because COVID happened and everything was shut down,” said the football player, who was playing for the Houston Texans at the time. “So she came down to Houston. She lived in the suburbs, so she had to drive about 45 minutes. Then the rest is history.”
The couple tied the knot on April 22, 2023, at the Harris County Courthouse in Houston. A few weeks later, they hosted a second wedding celebration in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
Asked whether he believes he is the “catch” in his relationship with Biles, Owens said, “I always say that the men are the catch,” and that he “was fighting” against his natural feeling of being “afraid to commit” at that point in his life.
“I’m like, ‘It’s kinda early.’ But you know, it happens when you least expect it. When we hung out, we just hit it off instantly. Laughed the whole night,” he said.
He was also drawn to Biles’ answer about whom she considers her biggest competition (spoiler: herself), and said he really realized her impact when they were out one Sunday at a popular cookie spot.
“It was all these moms and they’re there with their kids and we walked past and everybody stopped and just [stared]. Kids were just shaking, like, ‘Oh, my God,’ ” Owens recalled.
Following the podcast episode’s premiere, Owens seemingly responded to criticism over his comments in a post on Instagram Thursday evening.
Sharing photos of himself and his wife loved up on their wedding day and in a couple of more casual shots, he wrote, “Unbothered 😂❤️ Just know we locked in over here 🤞🏽.”
Aside from sharing his post to her own Instagram Story, Biles also left a comment of support on her husband’s grid post.
“🤞🏾💋 for life,” she wrote.
