Simone Biles and Jonathan Owens may be one of our favorite celebrity couples, but that doesn’t mean their romance is perfect. The Olympic gold medalist and NFL player began their romance in 2020 after meeting on the dating app Raya and became engaged less than two years later. But while there are some undeniably cute things about the pair (such as their history of coordinated Halloween costumes) there are a few aspects of their relationship that have us concerned for their future.
One is Owens’ body language while hitting red carpet with Biles, such as at the 2025 Met Gala. The NFL player didn’t seem too comfortable amid the flashbulbs while posing with the iconic gymnast, which Traci Brown, CSP, body language expert and behavior analyst, highlighted. “There’s a lot going on around them. So it’s a bit difficult to make a generation [sic] about their entire relationship. But we can tell he’s not too excited to be there,” she explained to Nicki Swift. “That smile, once he shows it, is just with his lips not his eyes and he turns it off like a switch. Real smiles dissipate slowly as the emotion fades.” Though that could be down to the two being in an unnatural situation, it could also suggest Owens isn’t so comfortable with the intense spotlight that come with dating an A-Lister. And that’s not the only thing we’ve noticed.
Simone Biles and Jonathan Owens are both ultra-competitive
As expected with two athletes, Simone Biles and Jonathan Owens are both very competitive — to the point they bicker about their respective sports and strengths. “We’ve tried to pin each other … on difficulty and ability and all that stuff [and] at the end of the day, gymnastics is harder whether he agrees or not,” Biles teased on “2023 Back That Year Up.” “We fought over it a couple of times, and then we vowed once we got married, we wouldn’t talk about it again, but it keeps coming up every time,” she added, jokingly boasting that her husband struggled with her standard workout but she found his NFL exercise routine easy.
Though Biles’ comments were just playful banter and some aspects of competitiveness could, theoretically, deepen their bond, it also has potential to be their downfall. “[Being competitive] can be negative and lead to resentment if a partner feels their partner is copying them or being critical of them,” Nia Williams, relationship therapist and life coach, told Yahoo! Life U.K. “It becomes problematic when it transforms into a negative force, leading to envy, resentment, or a sense of inadequacy,” she added. So far, the two have publicly been very supportive of each other’s respective careers — but it’s important they keep it that way.
He called himself ‘the catch’ in their relationship
In 2023, Jonathan Owens faced backlash when he suggested he was the prize in his relationship with Simone Biles. On “The Pivot Podcast,” the NFL player spoke about how they met and boldly declared, “I always say the man [is] the catch. I always say we the catch.” Naturally, the athlete not giving his stunning partner –who boasts multiple Olympic gold medals — her flowers didn’t sit well with everyone. “No shade Simone Biles is AND will always be the catch in every way,” one viewer commented on YouTube. A second hit back, “I can’t believe [Jonathan] was so tone deaf that he didn’t use this as an opportunity to compliment his wife by saying no [he] is the catch. Hopefully he was joking but I’m tired of [Black women] being dissed as an option.”
The red flag is that Owens’ comment gave us misogynistic vibes and could potentially be a sign of narcissism — and dating someone with narcissistic tendencies rarely ends well. “If you’re in a relationship with a person with [narcissistic personality disorder], you may initially feel like you’re on the top of the world — as if you’ve struck gold, but eventually feel small and helpless,” licensed clinical psychologist and relationship expert Betsy Chung, PsyD, told Daily Mail.
As eyebrow raising as Owens’ comments were, Biles didn’t seem too bothered by them. “I didn’t think anything of that interview. He never said I wasn’t a catch. He said he was a catch because he is,” she explained on “Call Her Daddy.” Hopefully, Biles reluctance to read into Owens’ comments was because she has a deeper understanding of him and his behavior, because if she’s looking at their relationship via rizz-colored glasses and ignoring his controversial comments, that won’t bode well for their romance.
They have different levels of fame and money
Though Simone Biles and Jonathan Owens, who got engaged on Valentine’s Day, both live their lives in the spotlight, Biles is much more famous (and richer) than her husband. On Instagram, she boasts 12.4 million followers at the time of writing, while the NFL star has just over 652,000. When it comes to their net worth, Biles is gymnastic leaps and bounds ahead there, too. She’s amassed $25 million according to Celebrity Net Worth, while Owens lags behind at $2 million.
Having extremely different levels of star power and money could result in a power imbalance or dynamic shift between the two, particularly as Biles is the breadwinner. “Men who are not the primary earners may experience feelings of inadequacy or insecurity, which can affect their self-esteem and behavior in the relationship,” Monica Cwynar, a licensed clinical social worker, explained to Newsweek. “This can lead to resentment or emotional distance, further straining the partnership,” she added. This could be particularly true for Biles and Owens seeing as he’s so successful in his own right, and there aren’t many people with star power that can eclipse his in the way Biles’ does.
Jonathan Owens initially ignored Simone Biles’ advances and wasn’t looking for a committed relationship
Jonathan Owens showed us more red flags in his “The Pivot Podcast” interview while recalling how his romance with Simone Biles began. He explained they matched on a dating app, and the iconic gymnast then liked a few of his Instagram photos. However, he suggested he didn’t react to her obvious advances. Biles sent the athlete a message after being met with silence, and Owens got a little too candid when he admitted they probably wouldn’t be together had she not made that extra move. “If she wouldn’t have messaged me, chances were, I probably wouldn’t [have messaged her], I probably would have just … [my] mind would have went somewhere else and wouldn’t have,” he said.
The athlete also went on to reveal he wasn’t looking for a committed relationship when Biles expressed her interest. “I was fighting it,” he admitted. When co-host Ryan Clark suggested Owens wasn’t that interested in Biles, he didn’t wholeheartedly agree, but noted, “I was afraid to commit. I’m like, ‘Ah man. This is my third year [playing football]. This is kind of early.'”
Owens not initially responding to Biles’ digital advances suggested he wasn’t that into her, and the two were clearly on different pages at the start of their romances. Luckily, Owens changed his mind about wanting a committed relationship, but him admitting publicly he probably wouldn’t have messaged Biles first was surely humiliating for his wife and a detail better left unsaid.
Their busy schedules forced them into long-distance
Simone Biles and Jonathan Owens make one of the busiest couples in sport. While Owens spends a lot of time focused on his NFL career, Biles is busy training and competing as a gymnast. And that means spending a lot of time apart. “A lot of people think it’s just a one-year commitment, but it truly is the four years leading up to the Olympics,” Biles explained to Olympics.com in 2025 of her dedication to being an Olympian. She also confirmed they’d only just taken their honeymoon in South Africa, despite tying the knot almost two years earlier.
Biles hasn’t been shy about sharing how difficult she finds being away from her husband, who plays for the Chicago Bears and previously the Green Bay Packers, despite them building a home in Houston, Texas. “Unfortunately, we’re actually long-distance,” Biles said on “Today” in 2023. “We started long-distance less than a week before … we were married. “Right after [our wedding] he went to Green Bay and signed, and two days later, he was up there, so it’s been different,” she added. The following year, Biles told E! News, “Since my husband and I got married we’ve been doing long-distance.” She added they’d been able to spend more time together over the Holidays and they’d bought a home in Chicago, though both still have to travel for their careers.
Though long-distance romances can work (including the sex aspect), a 2010 study suggested relationships where couples can’t spend regular time together in person don’t last as long as conventional, in-person romances. It found short- or medium-distance couples stay together for an average of 7.3 years, while long-distance relationships only last an average of 2.9 years.
