Jonathan Owens Proud To Be Called ‘Mr. Biles’ After 2023 Backlash

Simone Biles’s husband, Jonathan Owens, wasn’t a fan favorite after saying “men are the catch” while a guest on an episode of The Pivot podcast in 2023. After taking a break from interviews for a few years, the Colts safety is now speaking out about how difficult it was to navigate the backlash he received at the time.

“It was tough at first because I’m a pretty quiet, private person,” Owens said during a recent interview with The Athletic. During the sit-down, the football player also discussed his NFL career and how he met Biles.

Recalling the controversy, he continued, “It almost makes you a shell of yourself, at first, because of all the criticism. They’ve got something to say about everything you do,” Owens said. “But just my wife helping me get to a point of just [understanding] they’re going to talk s–t either way it goes. So, you might as well live your life how you want to.”

In addition to being under fire for saying he was “the prize,” the athlete also received vitriol from Internet users for claiming he didn’t know who Biles was when they first met. Consequently, the Internet nicknamed him “Mr. Biles.”

Initially, Owens wasn’t aware that the 2023 interview was blowing up online. It wasn’t until the Olympic gold medalist brought it to his attention, hours after commentary had reached a fever pitch, that he realized he was the subject of a viral conversation.

“I didn’t have my notifications on, and Simone was like, ‘Have you been on your Instagram?’” Owens told The Athletic. “That was my first time of really, really being in the public eye and people trying to hate on [me]—‘Oh, you’re Mr. Biles!’—and stuff like that.”

“But that’s what comes with it. You take the good with the bad, and at the end of the day, I’m living my dream,” he stated.

Owens doesn’t see being called “Mr. Biles” as an insult. Instead, he sees it “as respect.”

He said proudly, “You see who my wife is. Says a lot about me as well. Like, my confidence, and who I am as a person that she chose to be with me.”

The 31-year-old added, “It’s respect, because as a man in this field, [one of the] things they judge you on is who is your significant other. That says a lot about your confidence.”

The couple, who met in 2020 on a dating app, got married in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, in May 2023 after having a courthouse ceremony April of that year.

It’s been a few years now, so Owens says he has “adjusted” to the fame that comes with being married to the superstar gymnast. Nonetheless, he admitted, “It’s still crazy to think about sometimes, the rooms you can be in and people I’ve met.”