"It was for the best"- When Simone Biles ended her relationship with Stacy Ervin Jr. before meeting Jonathan Owens in 2020

Modified May 23, 2024 21:35 GMT

Before marrying Jonathan Owens, Simone Biles was in a three year long relationship with gymnast turned WWE star Stacy Ervin Jr. The couple broke up in March 2020, and a few months later, the Olympic champion claimed the relationship had ended for the best.

Biles and Ervin Jr. crossed paths in 2017 when the gymnast's grandmother employed Ervin Jr. as her gym's coach. A clip of the WWE star went viral at the World Championships in Germany, where he was seen cheering and fistbumping in excitement for Biles.

When Biles won the all-around title, he penned a heartfelt congratulatory note for the world champion. Ervin Jr. wrote:

"MY WOMAN IS A 5x WORLD CHAMPION IN THE ALL-AROUND & I COULDN’T BE MORE PROUD. I get hyped every time I watch her do her thing & today was no exception. Congratulation, babe! The whole world is proud of you!"

Biles was equally in love with Ervin Jr.; at one point claiming that he was the “man of her dreams.” However, the two broke up without notice in 2020. The change was first noticed by fans when Ervin Jr. didn't wish Biles on her birthday.

In an interview with Vogue that followed the breakup, the 27-year-old talked about how hard it was to be in a committed relationship at such a young age. She also expressed that the relationship had ended for good reasons.

"It’s hard being young and having that long of a relationship and then ending it. But it was for the best", she expressed.

While the breakup rumors started in March 2020, Simone Biles met Jonathan Owens during the same month. Now married, the couple had met via a dating website, Raya.

Simone Biles made the first move on Jonathan Owens

Simone Biles claimed that it was she who made the first move when she saw Jonathan Owens’ profile Raya. The six-time world champion revealed that she found Owens ‘pretty cute’ and ‘slid into his DMs’.

"He would say I slid into his DMs," the gymnast told the Wall Street Journal. "I saw him and I was like, 'Oh, he's pretty cute,' so I said hi ... and then I saw that he was in the Houston area, so we started chatting a little bit, and then we went to hang out a week or two later."

While Biles was already a multiple-time Olympic champion in 2020, the NFL player said in 2021 that he didn't know who Biles was when they first met.

"I didn't know who she was," he told Texas Monthly in June 2021. "I just hadn't heard of her, and when I told her that, that's one of the things she liked."

The two got engaged in February 2022 and married on April 22, 2023 in the presence of close relatives. They married the second time on May 6 in a luxurious ceremony in Cabo San Lucas.