Besides her historic wins at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Simone Biles has had a lot going on in her personal life this month. However, the special occasion she celebrated on Saturday, Aug. 24, was not about her. Rather, it was about her parents.
Simone Biles posted an adorable video over the weekend of her adopted parents, Ronald and Nellie — who happen to be her actual grandfather and his wife of nearly five decades — slow dancing together at Ronald’s 75th birthday party. In the clip, where the two are lovingly embracing each other on the dance floor, Biles writes, “47 years strong, my parents are so cute.”
The jovial event comes 16 days after Ronald’s actual birthday which they celebrated in Paris when Simone competed in the Olympics. Ronald brought in the halfway mark of his 70s with a sweet surprise, which Simone captured on Instagram, of him holding a chocolate cake in a suite as he watched the track and field competition.
But the celebration was soon bombarded with drama on Aug. 13, when Ronald’s daughter, who is also Biles’ estranged birth mom, Shanon Biles, expressed wanting to develop a relationship with the 11-time Olympic medalist. Shanon, a recovering drug addict who lost custody of eight of her children, including Simone at the time, told Daily Mail she is choosing to be “patient” and wait for her gymnast daughter to “be ready” to “come to” her to make amends.
Shanon says she keeps in contact with her father, and he gives her updates on Simone and her younger sister, Adria, whom he also adopted. However, the relationship between Ronald and Shanon wasn’t always that way. The mother of eight says she felt after her father adopted two of her daughters he “flipped a switch on [her]” when it came to keeping in contact.
She said initially there was “no communication, don’t call, and don’t visit,” and that her father didn’t let her see Simone and Adria for another six years. Shanon claims she does have a direct phone number to speak to Simone but wants to wait for her second-eldest daughter to come to her first.
‘I want her to reach out to me,” she says. “She’s 27 now. She’s married. I would have liked to have been a part of that, but I just have to wait for her. You can’t push anybody.” Shanon says she even speaks to Simone’s younger sister Adria more than she speaks to Simone. Shanon’s eldest two children, Ashley and Tevin, whom she also lost custody of during her battle with drug abuse, went to live with a family member as well. They moved to Cleveland with their aunt and have each had their own troubles with the law.
Shanon’s other daughter, Micah, who shares a different father from Simone and is part of the last four children that Shanon had, rushed to defend her mom following the backlash she received from the interview. Viewers criticized Shanon for expecting Simone to reach out to her after her mishaps. Still, Micah reminded followers on her TikTok that “life happens to everybody” and that Simone “was taken care of.”
Micah claimed that “Simone chose not to have a relationship with my mom, which is fine. That was her choice.” But the main point of the 23-year-old’s message was that she didn’t want anyone to “bash” her mom because, in her opinion, she “tried.”
Simone has yet to respond to her biological mom but has never shied away from giving her grandparents, whom she refers to as mom and dad, their props for giving her and her sister a new life.
Fans have taken to social media to provide their opinion on Simone’s recent dedication to her father.
“How could you honor that man he is the reason that you’re relationship with your real mom (NOT no Nelly !”) is ruined I pray that GOD intervenes ASAP SAD,” one X user wrote.
A more supportive fan wrote, “@Simone_Biles just read an article on your upbringing… you’re grand parents are incredible and you are even more incredible! Well done on you’re success. You have made millions of British people very proud! A national hero.”
In the series “Simone vs Herself,” she said, “Being separated from my biological mom, being placed in foster care before I officially got adopted by my grandparents, it just set me up for a better route at life.” She added, “I feel like I wouldn’t be where I am unless that turning point happened. I would still be Simone Biles, probably not Simone Biles that everybody else knows, the world knows.”
