As expected with two athletes, Simone Biles and Jonathan Owens are both very competitive — to the point they bicker about their respective sports and strengths. “We’ve tried to pin each other … on difficulty and ability and all that stuff [and] at the end of the day, gymnastics is harder whether he agrees or not,” Biles teased on “2023 Back That Year Up.” “We fought over it a couple of times, and then we vowed once we got married, we wouldn’t talk about it again, but it keeps coming up every time,” she added, jokingly boasting that her husband struggled with her standard workout but she found his NFL exercise routine easy.
Though Biles’ comments were just playful banter and some aspects of competitiveness could, theoretically, deepen their bond, it also has potential to be their downfall. “[Being competitive] can be negative and lead to resentment if a partner feels their partner is copying them or being critical of them,” Nia Williams, relationship therapist and life coach, told Yahoo! Life U.K. “It becomes problematic when it transforms into a negative force, leading to envy, resentment, or a sense of inadequacy,” she added. So far, the two have publicly been very supportive of each other’s respective careers — but it’s important they keep it that way.
He called himself ‘the catch’ in their relationship. In 2023, Jonathan Owens faced backlash when he suggested he was the prize in his relationship with Simone Biles. On “The Pivot Podcast,” the NFL player spoke about how they met and boldly declared, “I always say the man [is] the catch. I always say we the catch.” Naturally, the athlete not giving his stunning partner –who boasts multiple Olympic gold medals — her flowers didn’t sit well with everyone. “No shade Simone Biles is AND will always be the catch in every way,” one viewer commented on YouTube. A second hit back, “I can’t believe [Jonathan] was so tone deaf that he didn’t use this as an opportunity to compliment his wife by saying no [he] is the catch. Hopefully he was joking but I’m tired of [Black women] being dissed as an option.”
The red flag is that Owens’ comment gave us misogynistic vibes and could potentially be a sign of narcissism — and dating someone with narcissistic tendencies rarely ends well. “If you’re in a relationship with a person with [narcissistic personality disorder], you may initially feel like you’re on the top of the world — as if you’ve struck gold, but eventually feel small and helpless,” licensed clinical psychologist and relationship expert Betsy Chung, PsyD, told Daily Mail.
As eyebrow raising as Owens’ comments were, Biles didn’t seem too bothered by them. “I didn’t think anything of that interview. He never said I wasn’t a catch. He said he was a catch because he is,” she explained on “Call Her Daddy.” Hopefully, Biles reluctance to read into Owens’ comments was because she has a deeper understanding of him and his behavior, because if she’s looking at their relationship via rizz-colored glasses and ignoring his controversial comments, that won’t bode well for their romance.
They have different levels of fame and money. Though Simone Biles and Jonathan Owens, who got engaged on Valentine’s Day, both live their lives in the spotlight, Biles is much more famous (and richer) than her husband. On Instagram, she boasts 12.4 million followers at the time of writing, while the NFL star has just over 652,000. When it comes to their net worth, Biles is gymnastic leaps and bounds ahead there, too. She’s amassed $25 million according to Celebrity Net Worth, while Owens lags behind at $2 million.
Having extremely different levels of star power and money could result in a power imbalance or dynamic shift between the two, particularly as Biles is the breadwinner. “Men who are not the primary earners may experience feelings of inadequacy or insecurity, which can affect their self-esteem and behavior in the relationship,” Monica Cwynar, a licensed clinical social worker, explained to Newsweek. “This can lead to resentment or emotional distance, further straining the partnership,” she added. This could be particularly true for Biles and Owens seeing as he’s so successful in his own right, and there aren’t many people with star power that can eclipse his in the way Biles’ does.
