Meet The Black Woman Behind Those Stunning Simone Biles Vanity Fair Images

Legendary gymnast Simone Biles is reminding the world of who “the catch” in her marriage really is as she graces the latest cover of Vanity Fair. The athlete pops—for all the right reasons—in these photos because of Black woman photographer Adrienne Raquel. She has also taken portraits of Cassie, Keke Palmer and Lizzo.

We’ve all seen how piss poor of a job acclaimed photographer Annie Leibovitz did capturing Black women on the covers of Vanity Fair and Vogue in recent years. When she also photographed Biles for Vogue back in 2020—and the pictures were dismal.

Given Leibovitz’s other failed attempts to capture Black beauty included Viola Davis and Ketanji Brown Jackson, it’s refreshing that the publication finally realized the error of their ways and hired a Black woman to photograph Black women.

Biles’ cover story in Vanity Fair focuses heavily on Biles’ marriage to NFL player Jonathan Owens. Though the four-time Olympic gold medalist’s husband claimed to not know her back in 2020 when they matched on the dating app Raya, Biles—a.k.a. the greatest to ever do it—told the magazine how she’s recognized wherever she goes.

“I think everyone wants to be famous, and then when it happens, you almost hit a wall and you have an identity crisis. You’re like, Am I made out for this? Why did I wish for this?” she stated. “I’m not saying that [people] scream and line up like I’m Taylor Swift, [but] I still get a lot of attention. When five people come up to me and they’re rushing for a photo, I just get a little flustered.”

Biles and Swift are currently dating athletes and gained scores of attention when they were spotted together supporting their partners last month at a Packers and Chiefs game (Swift’s boyfriend is the Chiefs’ Travis Kelce).

Recently, Owens went viral over a podcast interview with “The Pivot” he did alongside Biles where he claimed to not know when they initially met. He doubled down on this story in the Vanity Fair piece. “A lot of people don’t believe me when I say I had no clue,” he stated.

“I never once was like, ‘Oh, let me check gymnastics out.’” However, after seeing her Instagram profile Owens said “I was like, ‘Man, she got a lot of followers, she must be pretty good.” On “The Pivot,” he said he’s “the catch” in their marriage. However, he hasn’t repeated the statement since. Still, Biles proudly stands by her man.

“I’m going to be honest, obviously he’s very fine,” Biles said about her hubby. “[But] besides his looks, he was so sweet and kind, and I think what I liked about him was his confidence. He truly believes he’s the best at everything.”