Fox News Confirm The Rumors; Simone Biles and husband Johnathan Owens announce they are expecting a baby.
According to an online rumor, 11-time Olympic medalist and U.S. gymnast Simone Biles reportedly announced she is pregnant and retiring. She supposedly made the announcement during the 2024 Paris Olympics, with Fox News purportedly revealing “she is ‘expecting a baby.'”
At the same time users shared this rumor, Biles was busy winning some of those very same Olympic medals. The Associated Press reported, “The woman who didn’t think she’d even be here a couple of years ago will leave Paris — and perhaps her final Olympics — with three golds and a silver and something perhaps even more valuable: peace.”
One reader emailed Snopes in early August 2024, asking, “Is Simone Biles pregnant and retiring?” Another person inquired, “I have seen in two places that Simone Biles is currently pregnant and one place denying the pregnancy. Which is true?”
Social media users either copied and pasted the same text or simply shared the rumor in their own words. The copied-and-pasted text named Biles’ husband, Chicago Bears football safety Jonathan Owens, and read as follows:
JUST IN: Fox News Just Reported that America’s most decorated Olympic gymnast of all time, Simone Biles Announces Retirement at 27 After Securing Gold at Paris Olympics, Reveals she is ‘expecting a baby’ with her husband, Jonathan Owens. This joyous revelation marks a new chapter in her life as she steps away from competitive gymnastics to focus on her growing family.
However, this rumor was false. If Fox News had truly reported about this matter or if Biles announced her pregnancy or retirement, prominent news organizations around the world would have picked up the story.
According to a search of both FoxNews.com and Fox News TV channel’s text captions, the news network did not report any developments about Biles announcing a pregnancy or retirement, nor did she make any such statements on her own in late July 2024. We also located no credible records of Fox News publishing and then removing any related content from its website. A Fox News spokesperson told Snopes by email, “This was never reported by Fox News.”