What you need to know
When you know, just ask Simone Biles.
The 28-year-old Olympic gymnast pinpointed the exact moment she found out it was her now-husband, Jonathan Owens, when she spoke exclusively to PEOPLE about her first date with the NFL player and the feelings she felt when they first met five years ago.
And that wasn’t just a general feeling for Biles, 30, who was introduced to the Chicago Bears’ safety team in March 2020. It was something even more special that she couldn’t explain.
“Oh my god…I wouldn’t even be dazzled. What’s the right word? I couldn’t stand a girl saying, ‘Oh my god, I knew he was the one…’ What does that feel like? What does that mean?” she asked with an irritated laugh.
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The seven-time Olympic gold medalist tried to choose the words that would most accurately describe how she felt on their first date, but she couldn’t find them. However, she remembers the words she said to her friends right after they met.
“I don’t know what to say, but I remember immediately after meeting Jonathan, I went home and told my friends, because they had set up a little date at their house,” she said. “I came back and thought, ‘Oh, I’m going to marry him.’
This feeling was new to Biles, who had only been with one man before marrying Owens. The feeling made her question her instincts, but in hindsight she realizes it was a sign that she had found eternal love.
“Why did I say that? I don’t know. I don’t know why I said that,” she laughed. “It was just a random weird feeling that I had never felt before, and then it happened. I think that’s why he was so kind and gentle and made me laugh.”
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She added: “Obviously there was a lot going on. But why would I say that? I don’t know.”
Prior to their official first date, Biles and Owens happened to pass each other during a Texans game in January 2019. The gymnast was invited to lead the team out of the tunnel, and ironically, the football star was in the background of her photo that day.
But it wasn’t until March 2020 that the pair officially met on the dating app Raya, and Biles was the first to make the move.
“He would say I slid into his DMs,” she told The Wall Street Journal. “I saw him and thought, ‘Oh, he’s such a cute guy,’ so I said hi…and then I found out he was in the Houston area, so we started chatting a little bit, and a week or two later we went to hang out.”
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The two made their romance Instagram official in August 2020, and have shown glimpses of their relationship on social media over the years, including posts of each other cheering each other on at their respective sporting events and sweet photos full of PDA.
In February 2022, Owens proposed to Biles. The two married in April 2023 in an intimate ceremony at a courthouse in Texas. They then held a second wedding in Mexico in May of the same year.
Biles is currently taking a “break” from competitive gymnastics following her historic run at the 2024 Paris Olympics and is enjoying the joys of being a soccer WAG.
“It’s a really fun time. I’ve actually missed a lot of his competitions throughout his career because I’ve been doing my own thing,” she told PEOPLE in reference to her gymnastics schedule. “So it’s obviously a lot of fun to actually be there and be in a different atmosphere.”
She is also a proud WAG.
“He broke down a lot of barriers. He was undrafted, he was a free agent, he was from a D2 school. So that’s my number one priority,” she said, adding, “Just showing up and supporting my husband.”
