Green Bay Packers safety Jonathan Owens says his wife, Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast Simone Biles, is the one who “pulled” him using the celebrity dating app, Raya.
Owens appeared on the Dec. 19 “The Pivot Podcast” as he explained to hosts Ryan Clark, Fred Taylor, and Channing Crowder how he met his wife. The 28-year-old revealed that Biles messaged him first on the exclusive app after the two matched. He added that he didn’t know much about gymnastics at the time.
After Crowder asked him, “How in the hell did you pull Simone Biles?” Ownes laughed and replied, “It’s really how she pulled me, man. That’s the question.”
Owens went on to describe the “organic story” of how the duo met on Raya as Biles, 26, looked on from the side and occasionally interjected. The former Texans player said he had been living in Houston for seven months when a friend told him about the app and he came across Biles’ account.
“Literally I’d been on the app for a couple of days, man, and it’s like she pops up and I’m like, ‘Let me see who this is. Gymnastics. I ain’t never…’ I had never really paid attention to gymnastics, so it piqued my curiosity,” said Owens. “I’ll see what’s up. I swiped her, and it said we matched.”
The 28-year-old recalls putting his phone down to go “work out,” and when he returned Biles had found his personal social media page.
“So, I go do my workout, and I come back and I had some likes on my Instagram,” he continued as Biles smiled on the sidelines. “I’m like, ‘OK, so, I see what’s up,’ but then I still waited. ‘I’m gonna wait until I take a shower and everything.’ I still waited … and then I come back to my phone, and then she messaged me on the app, ‘Hey.'”
Owens went on to say that he didn’t know who Biles was before they matched on Raya, but the couple connected and met just a few days after matching on the app. “We hit it off instantly,” he added. “The rest is history.”
Taylor then tried to make things messy by asking Owens, “So, you really was the catch?” The NFL strong safety replied, “I always say the man’s the catch,” before adding that he didn’t want to commit at first.
“I was afraid to commit,” he said. “I’m like, ‘Ah, man, this is my third year [in the NFL]. You know, I’m trying to, ahhh,’ I’m like, ‘It’s kind of early.’ But, you know, like I said, man, it happens when you least suspect it. And we hung out, man and we hit it off instantly and just laughed the whole night.”
After meeting on the app in 2020, Owens and Biles began dating and one day after Valentine’s Day they revealed their engagement in February 2022. The pair tied the knot earlier this year in a Houston courthouse in April followed by a second ceremony in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, in May.
While they should still be in the honeymoon phase of their marriage, Biles is busy setting the record straight as she denied rumors that the couple is expecting their first child after fans speculated this month that she was pregnant.
In response to the negative criticism for not knowing who Biles was Owens shared a celebratory post featuring images from a whimsical wedding day and two more recent pics of the couple together. “Unbothered Just know we locked in over here,” he captioned the post with a laughing emoji and another of a red heart.
Biles proudly responded in his comment section with ” … for life.” On her Instagram page, she wrote “mood” as the caption of a photo of her and Owens at the wedding showing off their pearly white teeth.
