In December, now-Chicago Bears safety Jonathan Owens appeared on “The Pivot” podcast and kicked off a viral firestorm over comments he made regarding his relationship with Olympic gold medal gymnast Simone Biles.
At one point, he said that he “didn’t know who she was” when he and Biles first connected on the dating app Raya.
“I literally had the app for a couple days and she pops up,” Owens told Ryan Clark on The Pivot Podcast. “I’m like, ‘Let me see who this is. Gymnastics?’ I never really paid attention to gymnastics so it piqued my curiosity. So I’m like, ‘OK that’s a lot, I’ll see what’s up.’
“I didn’t know who she was at the time, but the first thing I saw was that she just had a bunch of [social media] followers, so in my mind I’m like, ‘OK, she’s gotta be good.”
Owens also went on to say that he felt like he was the “catch” in the relationship.
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Those and other comments went viral, prompting various trends on social media platforms around how famous Owens was compared to Biles and whether other women’s boyfriends and husbands were aware of who the most decorated gymnast in history was.
Biles and “The Pivot” host Ryan Clark both offered defenses of Owens in the wake of the drama, but now Biles is sharing just how much the entire situation impacted her.
Biles appeared on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast on Wednesday and shared what it was like for her to watch the interview go viral.
“I was in the room. I was sitting on the chair, you just couldn’t see me on the videos. I was there for the whole entire video,” Biles said. After initially sitting through the interview, she said she “was feeling great” about it. That was until she started to check social media after the interview went live.
“I thought everything was okay, and then I go on Twitter and everybody’s like, ‘divorce this man, he’s mean,'” Biles said on the podcast, noting that the public got it all wrong. “He’s the sweetest, he praises the ground that I walk on. Truly, I’ve never met a man like him.”
“He never said I wasn’t a catch. He said he was a catch, because he is. I’ve never met a man like him,” she added.
At first, Biles found the comments about Owens and their marriage humorous, but the constant build and intensity of the reactions soon soured.
“I thought it was hilarious at first, and then they hurt my feelings, and then one night I broke down,” Biles said. “You don’t know him. You don’t know who he is, and if anybody’s met him they know he’s the sweetest guy and will do anything for anybody.”
By all accounts, Biles and Owens have a strong relationship, so it doesn’t really matter what anyone else thinks. But it’s a reminder of how every viral trend and social media reaction has a human being on the other end whose life gets impacted, famous or not.
About Sean Keeley
Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.