Simone Biles‘ biological mother says that she hosted a watch party in her backyard in Ohio for her friends and family to join her as she cheered for the daughter she allegedly abandoned at the Paris Olympics.
The 4-foot-8 athlete did not disappoint, walking away from the international competition with three gold medals and one silver, maintaining her title as the most decorated U.S. gymnast of all time.
In an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com, her mother, Shannon Biles, said she was left with the hard reality that she had to celebrate in Columbus and not with her Olympian daughter, her son-in-law, Jonathan Owens, or Simone’s adoptive parents.
Shannon has been estranged from Simone for years since she was adopted by Ronald Biles, their biological grandfather, and his wife Nellie as a child. But the bad blood between Shannon and her accomplished daughter is rooted in those tough years where she suffered from addiction and had her children taken from her custody.
“It was hard to give up my kids, but I had to do what I had to do,” Shannon said before admitting, “I wasn’t able to care for them. I was still using and [my father] didn’t want me coming in and out of their lives when I wasn’t right.”
While Simone and her younger sister Adria went with Shannon’s father and stepmother, her other two elder children, son Tevin, 29, and daughter Ashley, 34, went to live with her aunt, Ron’s sister in Cleveland.
Now, sober, Shannon is slowly being cautiously welcomed back into the family. She says now she talks to her father and her youngest daughter Adria often. But not Simone. The gymnast has provided no pathway for her mother back into her life, to her mother’s chagrin.
“I would like to make amends with Simone personally,” said Shannon, who is also patiently waiting on her younger daughter. “I speak to Adria more than I speak to Simone. I would just ask her to forgive me. Can we move forward? Don’t judge me on my past. Let’s move forward.”
However, Simone, who has been open about her struggles with anxiety and mental health, seems to be holding on to the scars from her past.
This time of year we remember what we are thankful for & I am most thankful for my parents. There are no words to express my gratitude to them. All kids deserve a loving family. Let’s celebrate together and be thankful during #NationalAdoptionMonth pic.twitter.com/O1KYYaToQW
— Simone Biles (@Simone_Biles) November 22, 2017
During her Facebook Watch series “Simone vs Herself,” she didn’t shy away from recounting those difficult early years before her grandparents stepped in.
“Growing up, me and my siblings were so focused on food because we didn’t have a lot of food,” she recalled. “I remember there was this cat around the house and I’d be so hungry. They would feed this cat and I’m like, ‘Where the heck is my food?’”
To make matters worse, Simone recalls that her mother, seemed to favor the cat more than her own children, stating, she “always fed it, but she never fed us.”
The situation grew so dire that at the age of 3, Simone and her siblings ended up in the foster care, until Ron and Nellie adopted Simone and Adria when Simone was just 6 years old. That decision set the stage for Simone’s historic career, but the memories of neglect still haunt her, popping up in nearly every interview about her life.
“Her mother had many problems – whether with drugs or alcohol,” Ron once said during a sitdown with NBC in 2016. “The kids were eventually taken away from her. We took them in as family because they were family.”
Ron allegedly not only took the girls away from their mother but cut off communication with her because he didn’t want Shannon to disrupt the new life he and his wife had created for her children.
The single mom, however, has had mixed feelings about how her past has been portrayed, particularly by her father and stepmother.
In 2016, she told TMZ Sports, “I feel like they’re defaming my character. Because I know what happened.” Shannon said, “I was struggling back then but I’ve gotten better. Life goes on and that’s my past, it should be left in the past.”
In Shannon’s opinion, her father could have been far more gentle in how he spoke about her addiction or shared in the press her troubles.
“I feel like he didn’t have to be so harsh about it. I’m his firstborn and he could have been a little bit more classy with it,” she explained to TMZ. “He didn’t have to put me under the bus like that. I mean, I did go through my struggles and everything, but you didn’t have to go through it the way you went through it.”
Now, at 52, Shannon reflects with more understanding, acknowledging that her father’s tough love was necessary.
“I was hard-headed. I didn’t care, screaming, I want to see my kids, why you doing this to me?’ I didn’t understand at the time but years later, I understood why. I had to deal with me first,” she said.
Shannon’s deepest hope is that after more than 20 years of separation, Simone will eventually forgive her.
“I’m waiting for the opportunity but I’m waiting on her to be able to come to me. Let’s sit down. I just have to be patient,” she said.
Ma’am…be for real. pic.twitter.com/uABG0pVkSI
— Certified Hoodie Thief 🏁 (@KryssyLaReina) August 14, 2024
In addition to mending her relationship with Simone, Shannon told Daily Mail she hopes that Simone will reconnect with her biological father, Kevin Clemons.
“We both want to see her I talk to him all the time. He says, ‘If you talk to Simone, give her my number. I’d love to talk to her,’” but the reality is that she can’t make that happen for herself and will have little leverage in the broken relationship to join them together.
“I want her to reach out to me,” said Shannon about Simone. “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.”
Shannon said she hopes to have her own “sitdown” one day with Simone and answer questions Simone may have about her childhood and the dirty details of her mother’s parenting choices while addicted to drugs and alcohol.
“I’m an addict, I will always be an addict,” Shannon exclaimed.
A day after Shannon’s interview dropped, Spiritual Word captured a post from Biles, hitting back at folks over buying an expensive Hermes Birking bag. She said, “My parents bought me my Hermes bag. Don’t be mad at me, be mad at your parents.”
However, many took it as a slight dig at her birth mom. One person said, “This wasn’t for us this was for her biological mom,” while another added, “She’s basically telling the woman who birth her “She’s good over here.”
