With seven Olympic gold medals, over two dozen world championships, and multiple endorsement deals under her belt, Simone Biles is now one of the most decorated – and highly paid – female athletes in the world.
The accomplished gymnast is reportedly sitting on a $25million fortune – a figure that will only grow thanks to her impressive showing at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
But while the 27-year-old sporting sensation enjoys the well-earned, very valuable fruits of her labor, her birth mother Shanon still lives close to the poverty line in Simone’s birthplace of Columbus, Ohio.
The mom and daughter remain estranged and have little to no contact. Simone has consistently refused to reconcile with the woman who abandoned in childhood her decades ago.
Nor, it seems has the Olympic star offered any financial assistance.
‘Of course I would accept her help,’ Shanon said in an exclusive interview. ‘She hasn’t [offered] it so far. I’m here. I’m okay.’ Simone was shuffled through foster homes before her grandfather Ron Biles and his second wife Nellie adopted her as a six-year-old.
Now, an accomplished Olympic athlete, she hasn’t been shy about showing off what her prodigious talent has brought her, sharing videos and snaps treating herself to a luxury shopping spree to celebrate her successful performance at the Games this past month.
She was even forced to respond to comments from online trolls criticizing her for flaunting her wealth this week after she was seen with an Hermès handbag.
Simone clarified that the purse had actually been a gift in a cheeky Threads post on Wednesday saying: ‘My parents bought me my Hermès bag.
Don’t be mad at me, be mad at your parents.’
The superstar enjoys showing off her wealth on social media, where her other designer bags, clothing, and luxury Range Rover have been featured in photos.
She also recently shared a glimpse into the ongoing construction of the Texas mansion she will share with her NFL star husband Jonathan Owens.
But the flashy and comfortable lifestyle is a far cry from that of Shanon.
The 52-year-old, who was forced to give up her children due to her long-running battle with drugs and alcohol, is now sober but has struggled financially, living in the same corner red-brick row house in the crime-ridden neighborhood of Franklinton.
Shanon initially lost her four children – Simone is the third – to foster care and then to adoption when Ron and Nellie took Simone and her sister Adria to live with them in Texas. Her two eldest children Tevin, now 29 and Ashley, now 34, were taken in by Ron’s sister.
Since then, she has racked up a string of debts as well as offenses that have seen her in and out of the courts for three decades.
According to a Chapter Seven bankruptcy petition filed in October 2018, Shanon said she didn’t have a dollar to her name and just $34 on a prepaid card.
Among her assets were two unusable cars – a totaled Toyota Scion XB 2008 and a non-roadworthy GMC Sierra 2003 – worth a combined $2,125.
She also claimed homeware, electronics, clothes, shoes and jewelry worth $9,650 and even listed her dog, cat, and guinea pig.
Shanon claimed that her home was worth just $9,684.
She owed $14,234 to 21 companies, including medical and financial services, shopping websites, and a $3,834 student loan.
Shanon also reported that she earned $1,688-a-month, with expenses totaling $1,685.
The debt was eventually cleared in February the following year after striking an agreement to repay her main creditor, finance firm Integrity Funding Ohio LLC, in installments.
But the money problems have continued, with Shanon being sued by debt collecting agency LVNV Funding LLC in 2021 with a judgement against her to pay off $916.25.
Despite installments being collected through her wages she was still paying it off up to December 2023.
According to Franklin County Municipal Court records, Shanon, has faced court action 36 times for various traffic misdemeanors and criminal cases.
In January 2020, she was found guilty of assault and given a 180-day suspended prison sentence and probation until January 2022.
Since 2022, she’s managed to stay out of trouble and now works as a cashier at discount grocery store Save A Lot.
She admitted that she lives in hope for the day Simone reaches out so she can ask her daughter for forgiveness for the past she cannot change.
‘It was hard to give up my kids, but I had to do what I had to do. I wasn’t able to care for them. I was still using and [my father] didn’t want me coming in and out of their lives when I wasn’t right,’ she explained.
And she has told of her sadness that, to this day, she has no part in major life events such as Simone’s wedding last year to Owens.
She said: ‘I would like to make amends with Simone personally – I’m just waiting for her and Adria. I speak to Adria more than I speak to Simone.
‘I would just ask her to forgive me. Can we move forward? Don’t judge me on my past. Let’s move forward.’
Today Shanon is clean and sober, but she says very clearly: ‘I am a recovering addict and will always be an addict.
‘But there’s a way [to recovery]. You have to learn to stay away from people, places and things. Change your routine and live your life. Live your best life.’
When asked how her life looks today Shanon speaks with the caution that comes with recovery: ‘I’m not working right now because of medical issues but when I do work, I work as a cashier at Save A Lot.
‘I’m not the person I used to be. I’m okay, today. I’m a loving person. I’d give you the shirt off my back. I’m very different from what I’ve been portrayed.’
But however much she may have changed over the years, the distance between her and Simone has not.
Their thin relationship is characterized not by conflict so much as by absence – primarily the absence of any direct communication.
Simone’s biological father, Kevin Clemons who lives in Cleveland has no contact with his daughter either and struggled with his own addiction problems in the past.
Shanon is still in touch with him and, she said, he too would love to rebuild a relationship with his famous daughter.
