*Jonathan Owens admits the attention surrounding his relationship with Olympic champion Simone Biles initially changed how he carried himself. The Indianapolis Colts safety says he struggled with criticism before learning to tune out the noise.
“It was tough at first because I’m a pretty quiet, private person,” Owens told The Athletic. “It almost makes you a shell of yourself, at first, because of all the criticism.”
Owens said Biles helped him change his approach to public scrutiny. He now accepts that outsiders will form opinions regardless of how he lives.
The NFL player faced intense criticism after appearing on “The Pivot” podcast in 2023. During the interview, Owens said “the men are the catch” and discussed not knowing who Biles was before they met.
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Owens told The Athletic that he had turned off his social media notifications when the backlash erupted. Biles eventually alerted him to what people were saying online.
“I didn’t have my notifications on, and Simone was like, ‘Have you been on your Instagram?’ ” Owens recalled. “That was my first time of really, really being in the public eye and people trying to hate on you — ‘Oh, you’re Mr. Biles!’ — and stuff like that.”
Owens’ perspective has changed since that episode. PEOPLE reports that he now welcomes a nickname people previously used to mock him.
“I take it as respect,” Owens said. “You see who my wife is. Says a lot about me as well.”
Owens and Biles met through a dating app in 2020 and married in 2023. Their relationship began the same year Biles ended her romance with fellow gymnast Stacey Ervin Jr.
EURweb covered the couple when Biles made their romance Instagram official in August 2020. The Olympian shared photos of herself cozying up with Owens, then a safety for the Houston Texans.
“It’s just us,” Biles captioned the snapshots.
Earlier that year, Biles discussed her split from Ervin in a Vogue cover story. “It’s hard being young and having that long of a relationship and then ending it,” she said. “But it was for the best.”
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