Simone Biles’s biological mother is Shanon Biles, and later reporting identifies her biological father as Kelvin Clemons. When Simone was young, she and her siblings entered foster care because their mother was unable to care for them amid reported substance-use problems. Simone’s maternal grandfather, Ron Biles, and his wife, Nellie, adopted Simone and her younger sister, Adria, and raised them as their parents. Public accounts of Simone’s later contact with her biological parents are dated and incomplete, so they do not establish what those relationships are like today.
Why Simone Biles and her siblings entered foster care
Simone was born in Columbus, Ohio. Published accounts say she and her siblings entered foster care when she was young after social services intervened because their mother could not care for them. In a 2021 account of a family discussion on Simone vs Herself, The Guardian reported that Nellie Biles attributed the intervention to alcohol and drug issues.
Simone described her own childhood memory in that discussion: “I don’t remember a lot about foster care, but I definitely knew that we had been taken from our biological mom and then you just think you’re going to go back to her.” She also recalled being hungry before the foster-care placement. Those are her reported memories; the public accounts do not provide grounds to add details beyond what she described.
Who adopted Simone Biles?
Simone’s maternal grandfather, Ron Biles, and his wife, Nellie, took responsibility for Simone and her younger sister, Adria, and later adopted them. They raised the girls and are the parents Simone publicly recognizes. By birth, Ron is her maternal grandfather and Nellie is his wife; through adoption, they became Simone’s legal parents.
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The Guardian’s 2019 profile describes Ron and Nellie as Simone’s maternal grandparents and says she calls them Mom and Dad. The family’s 2021 account also describes how Nellie approached parenting children who were not biologically hers.
What happened to Simone’s siblings?
Simone’s older siblings, Ashley and Tevin, remained in Ohio and were adopted by a relative. The Guardian’s 2021 report identifies that relative as their father’s sister; The Washington Post’s 2016 account also reports that another relative adopted them.
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What is known about Simone’s biological parents?
Her biological mother, Shanon Biles
Profiles identify Shanon Biles as Simone’s birth mother. The Guardian’s 2019 profile reports that Shanon struggled with addiction and was unable to care for Simone and her siblings. This describes the reported circumstances around the children’s placement, not Shanon’s whole life or identity.
Her biological father, Kelvin Clemons
The Guardian’s 2019 profile refers to Simone’s father as Kelvin and says he had not been part of her life at that time. A 2024 Women’s Health explainer identifies him as Kelvin Clemons and summarizes claims from Shanon’s interviews that he was not in contact with Simone. That outlet’s account is a dated report, not independent confirmation of his present-day circumstances or their current relationship.
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What Simone has said about her family
In a 2016 TIME profile, Simone reflected on wondering what life might have been like if her early circumstances had been different. She also said she did not feel that a part of herself was missing and chose to focus on the family she had with Nellie and Ron. These remarks belong to that interview and should not be treated as a description of her private feelings today.
For a supplementary family-background account, Macmillan’s publisher page for Epic Athletes: Simone Biles provides an outline of her story. It is a children’s biography, rather than an account written by Biles herself.
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