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Is Simone Biles Adopted by Her Parents? Inside Her Complicated Family Dynamic
As fans watch Simone Biles‘ parents cheer her on at the Paris Olympics, some are wondering if she’s adopted and what the situation is with her biological mom and dad.
Is Simone Biles Adopted by Her Parents?
Yes! Simone’s adoptive parents, Ron and Nellie Biles, are actually her grandparents. They legally adopted Simone, who was six years old at the time, and her younger sister, Adria, in 2001.
What Has Simone Biles Said About Her Adoption?
The Olympic gold medalist shared the conversation she had with Nellie about whether or not she wanted to legally become their daughter in a July 2016 interview with Texas Monthly.
At the time, the siblings were living with their grandparents in Spring, Texas, and called Ron and Nellie “Grandpa” and “Grandma.”
Nellie sat Simone and Adria down to talk. “She said, ‘It’s up to you guys. If you want to, you can call us Mom and Dad,'” the decorated gymnast recalled. “I went upstairs and tried practicing it in the mirror — ‘Mom, Dad, Mom, Dad.’ Then I went downstairs, and she was in the kitchen. I looked up at her and I was like, ‘Mom?’ She said, ‘Yes!’”
When explaining her adoption story while competing on Dancing With the Stars season 24 in 2017, Simone said, “My parents saved me. They’ve set huge examples of how to treat other people, and they’ve been there to support me since day one. There’s nothing I could say to them to thank them enough.”
Who Are Simone Biles’ Biological Parents?
Ron’s daughter Shanon Biles gave birth to Simone on March 14, 1997, in Columbus, Ohio. The athlete is the third of Shanon’s four children.
Simone’s biological dad is Kelvin Clemons. He and Shanon met as teenagers.
Both suffered from drug and alcohol addiction issues. Kelvin was not part of Simone’s young life, nor is he today, and Shanon was unable to care for her children due to her struggles.
Simone Biles Was Placed in Foster Care
Simone was 3 years old when she and her siblings were sent to live in foster care due to Shanon’s addiction issues.
Ron stepped in and brought Simone and Adria to live with him and Nellie in Spring, Texas. “The social worker called and said the kids were in foster care,” Ron told Time in a 2016 profile about Simone. “I said, ’send them to me.’”
Ron and Nellie weren’t able to adopt Simone and Adria until three years later, as Shanon maintained parental rights. After she was deemed unfit to care for the girls, they were put up for adoption and Simone’s grandparents legally adopted her.
“When I was younger, I thought every kid was adopted,” Simone told Time in 2016. “I didn’t understand why people made it such a big deal. To me it’s just normal.”
“I wonder what my life would be like if none of this happened,” she continued. “I want to know why my mother did what she did. But those aren’t questions for me because that was her lifestyle when I wasn’t even born. I have everything I need so there are no blanks left unfilled. I never felt I had questions or needed answers or had a part of me that was missing.”
What Happened to Simone Biles’ Biological Parents?
The most decorated gymnast of all time has little contact with Shanon and no contact with Kelvin.
“When I talk to Simone, it’s a brief conversation, like, ‘I miss you, I love you, I can’t wait to see you, I’m proud of you, I’m watching. You go girl.’ It’s never anything personal,” Shanon told The Daily Mail in 2016.
She added that she didn’t want to come between the parental bond Simone has with Ron and Nellie, explaining, “I don’t want to overstep my boundaries with my dad because I appreciate everything he has done.”
Shanon told the outlet that while Kelvin wasn’t in contact with Simone, he was following her triumphs at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, where she took home four gold medals.
“He just called me Sunday. I said, ‘I’m watching Simone, are you watching her? Are you watching her? Call me back later,’” she explained. “He knows that’s his daughter and he’s very proud of her.”
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