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In a revealing segment of Netflix's "Simone Biles Rising," premiered October 25, 2024, Olympic champion Simone Biles confronts the unexpected challenge of defending her marriage from social media criticism. The controversy ignited following her husband Jonathan Owens' December 2023 appearance on "The Pivot" podcast, where the Chicago Bears safety's comments about being "the catch" in their relationship sparked public outrage.
The backlash intensified when Owens admitted he hadn't known about Biles - the most decorated gymnast in history - when they matched on Raya in 2020. "These comments were taken entirely out of context," In the third episode of the docuseries, Biles mentioned that fans started to mockingly refer to Owens as "Mr. Biles" across social platforms.
The couple's initial response remained light-hearted, with Owens posting wedding photos on Instagram captioned "Unbothered. Just know we locked in over here." Biles echoed this sentiment with a simple "For life" comment. However, during an April 2024 appearance on "Call Her Daddy" podcast with Alex Cooper, Biles revealed the deeper impact of the criticism: "One night, I broke down... why are you guys talking about my husband like this?"
Jonathan, speaking in the Netflix documentary, emphasized the human cost of public judgment: "We're all human at the end of the day, regardless of what your job is." His sentiment related to Simone as she added, "Most don't understand the mental toll that it takes, especially going into an Olympic year."
Addressing the misinterpretation of Jonathan's "catch" comment, Biles clarified on Cooper's podcast: "He never said I wasn't a catch. He said he was a catch because he is." She further emphasized that their relationship transcends her athletic achievements: "They equate our love to the amount of trophies and medals and accolades that I have, and that's not how you measure love."
Simone 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."
