From gold medal to diamond ring! Gymnastics star Simone Biles got engaged to NFL player Jonathan Owens on Valentine’s Day, and the pair just opened up about their super sweet love story.
They connected the way celebrities do—you know, Instagram—in March 2020, just as the pandemic hit stateside, and soon fell into a routine of constant connection. “We clicked really really well in the beginning because we’re athletes and we have the same busy schedules,” Biles revealed to Today. “But other than that, since it was kind of a COVID relationship. We’re with each other 24/7, so I feel like now when we’re not with each other, it’s almost weird. We’re always texting or calling each other. It’s kind of gross in a way.”
As for Owens, he started to suspect Biles was The One a month after they first got together, when she met his bulldog, Zeus. “My dog really loved her,” he said. “I could kind of see his face, like, whenever I would pick my bookbag up in my apartment, he would think we’re leaving to go to her place, so he would sprint to the front door. And I’d be like, ‘Huh, you really like her!’”
Zeus the matchmaker!
We’re catching up with @Simone_Biles and @jjowens_3 about their engagement and what’s next in their lives. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/tfEbe4tZc5
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) February 18, 2022
As they continued hanging out, Owens realized, “I started to want to see her more,” and eventually Biles “stopped leaving” his place. They moved in together, and Owens knew what the next step was: to ask Simone Biles’s dad for his approval to propose.
“I was a little nervous at first,” he said of the meeting with her father. “And for the longest [time], Simone was sitting right next to us so I couldn’t really say what I wanted and then she left so I was like, ‘Okay. I finally got the cue.’”
With his future father-in-law’s sign-off, the Houston Texans safety knelt down on one knee on February 14 and got the yes that matters most. The pair also shared a video from the proposal and the subsequent celebration on the very platform that connected them. “I can’t wait for this new chapter of life with you, I’m honored to be your future wife 🤍,” Biles wrote. “I love you so much Jonathan James Owens!”
Originally published in Glamour.com