Simone Biles was “hooked” on Jonathan Owens just two weeks after they first connected on the invite-only dating app, Raya.
The famed Olympian, who married the Green Bay Packers defensive back last spring, recalled splitting with someone else before a persistent friend urged her to join the app at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I had just broken up [with someone] and my friend was like, ‘Get on Raya, get on Raya,’” Biles told Vanity Fair in a cover interview for their February 2024 issue, published Wednesday. “My guard went straight up when she said ‘dating site.’”
But that didn’t stop the 26-year-old gymnastics superstar from shooting her shot with the then-Texans player.
“She doesn’t like to admit it, but she messaged me first,” Owens, 28, said.
Biles, meanwhile, did not name who she dated before Owens.
She split with former gymnast Stacey Ervin Jr. in March of 2020 after nearly three years together, previously telling Vogue that “it was for the best.”
Biles explained that she matched with Owens the first week she joined the exclusive app, which has been used by a number of celebrities.
“The second week I met him in person, and the rest is history,” she told Vanity Fair. “We were hooked.”
Owens gushed over her smile.
“I just noticed her laugh,” he said of their initial interactions. “It was just contagious. We could talk all day and we’d stayed up late, and there just wasn’t an awkward moment.”
In quarantine, most of their dates included watching movies, playing games and drinking sangria at each other’s houses.
Owens also talked again about how he had “no clue” who Biles was when they first met, including her success at the 2016 Rio Olympics, where she won four gold medals and a bronze.
“A lot of people don’t believe me when I say I had no clue,” Owens said, explaining that he wasn’t tuned in to the Rio games because he was at training camp at Missouri Western State University at the time. “I never once was like, ‘Oh, let me check gymnastics out.’”
It was social media that clued him in on just how popular Biles was in her sport and beyond.
“I was like, ‘Man, she got a lot of followers, she must be pretty good,” he said.
The NFL safety’s comments were reminiscent of his interview on The Pivot podcast in December, when he said he was “the catch” in the couple’s relationship.
Owens faced criticism over the remark, as some fans believed he should have given the title to his wife, who is the most decorated gymnast of all time — and arguably, the more famous one in the relationship.
The newlyweds remain united in the wake of the interview.
Biles and Owens tied the knot in a courthouse ceremony in April 2023 before getting married again in a destination wedding in Mexico.
In June, the seven-time Olympic medalist announced her return to competition after she struggled with “the twisties” two summers ago at the Tokyo Olympics.
Biles was named the AP Female Athlete of the Year for a third time on Dec. 22, after winning national and world all-around titles.
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