Celebrity

Simone Biles Is Engaged To Boyfriend Jonathan Owens: “THE EASIEST YES”

The Olympic gymnast met the NFL player on dating app Raya, and he had no idea who she was.

by Jake Viswanath
HOUSTON, TEXAS - DECEMBER 28: Simone Biles and Jonathan Owens attend a game between the Houston Rock...
Carmen Mandato/Getty Images Sport/Getty Images

Simone Biles has gold medals around her neck and an engagement ring on her finger. On Feb. 15, the Olympic gymnast announced she was engaged to Jonathan Owens after more than a year of dating. Biles revealed the news in an Instagram post filled with photos from his proposal, including a closeup of her oval-cut diamond ring. “THE EASIEST YES,” she wrote. “I can’t wait to spend forever & ever with you, you’re everything I dreamed of and more! let’s get married FIANCÉ.”

Owens commented on the post, saying that he was “ready for forever with you.” Her fellow Olympians and Team USA members Nastia Liukin and Sunisa Lee also left multiple comments, with Lee writing “OH MY GOSSSSHHHH” and “STOP IT RN,” and Liukin saying she was “SOOOOOO FREAKING HAPPPY.” MyKayla Skinner, who filled in for Biles in her event finals during the 2021 Olympics, wrote, “I have been waiting for this day to happen!!! Sooooo happy for u.” Biles’ former Dancing With the Stars partner Sasha Farber chimed in to say “Omggggggggg congratulations,” and Reese Witherspoon also congratulated her, writing “How wonderful!”

The NFL player proposed under a gazebo in Houston, near Biles’ hometown of Spring and where he plays football for the Texans. Owens also shared their photos, captioning his post, “woke up this morning with a fiancée,” and adding that Biles “had no clue what was coming.”

Biles confirmed that she was dating Owens in August 2020 by going Instagram-official, sharing two selfies of them snuggling up together. “It’s just us,” she captioned the post. But fans had already been speculating about the new relationship when she randomly wished him a happy birthday on her Instagram Story weeks before.

In June 2021, Biles told Glamour that she met Owens on the dating app Raya — and he had no idea who she was. Given that situation, she had to make the first move and follow him on Instagram. “He would say I slid into his DMs,” she told WSJ in July. “I saw him, and I was like, ‘Oh, he’s pretty cute,’ so I said hi…and then I saw that he was in the Houston area, so we started chatting a little bit, and then we went to hang out a week or two later.”

In an interview with Bustle in July 2021, Biles said that she finally met Owens in person “literally two days before” lockdowns caused by COVID-19. “We’re a quaran-couple!” she joked. “If quarantine didn’t happen, I wouldn't have met him.” Instead of the pandemic keeping them apart, the couple kept in touch through FaceTime and safe visits to each other’s houses. “We got to spend a lot of quality time to see if we really liked each other, and we did!” she said.