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Four thousand miles and a lifetime of hurt stood between Shanon Biles and a front row seat at the Paris Olympics.Â
But nothing can diminish the pride with which she beams at the mention of daughter Simone’s triumphant return to form three years after she bowed out of the Tokyo games.
Now, speaking exclusively to DailyMail.com, Shanon, 52, has said 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 after her drug addiction led to her to abandon her children.
But still longs to make amends.
‘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 to DailyMail.com.
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 NFL player Jonathan Owens.
She said, ‘I would like to make amends with Simone personally – I’m just waiting for her and [her younger sister] 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.
‘I’m waiting for the opportunity but I’m waiting on her to be able to come to me. Let’s sit down. I just have to be patient.’
Shanon revealed that she was so proud of the Olympic performance which confirmed Simone, 27, as the G.O.A.T that she threw a party out in the backyard of her row house in Columbus, Ohio.
Friends and neighbors gathered to celebrate Team USA and the dominance of the floor, vault and balance beam which saw Simone take home three golds and one silver medal.
It was a bittersweet affair.
But Shanon has had to learn patience since the day she lost her children, first to foster care and then to adoption when her father, Ronald, 75, and his wife, Nellie, stepped up to care for Simone and Adria, bringing them to live with them in Texas when Simone was just six.
Shanon’s two eldest children Tevin, now 29 and Ashley, now 34, were taken in by Ronald’s sister.
Ronald was forced to step in when Shanon’s life spiraled out of control due to drug and alcohol addiction resulting in her children going in and out of foster care in Columbus, where they were born and where Shanon still lives.
The 52-year-old racked up a string of debts and, for years, has lived in the same corner red-brick row house in the crime-ridden neighborhood of Franklinton.
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.
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.
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.
Shanon explained, ‘What I hear about Simone I hear through my dad. I speak to my dad all the time. We’re good now. It was just his birthday, and I called to wish him happy birthday.’
Several time zones away, Ronald celebrated that birthday with Simone, Adria and Nellie in Paris with Adria taking to Instagram to post a picture of him in the Olympic stands and reveal that he had been gifted a Death Row Records chain by Snoop Dogg.
Shanon said, ‘If I need to know anything I call my dad. I ask him about Simone, and he keeps me posted.’
There was a time when Shanon resented her father. In the immediate aftermath of Simone and Adria’s adoption she felt that he had betrayed her and cut off all contact between her and her children.
She told DailyMail.com, ‘When we signed the [adoption] papers it was like my dad flipped a switch on me – no communication, don’t call, and don’t visit. That’s how it was in the beginning.
‘It took me six years before I saw my children again. I was respecting my Dad to let the kids transition, he felt that was the best thing for them.
‘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 he didn’t want me coming in and out of their lives when I wasn’t right.
‘I was hard-headed. I didn’t care, screaming, ‘I want to see my kids, why you doing this to me?’
‘I didn’t understand at the time but years later, I understood why. I had to deal with me first.’
Biles and her sister Adria, 22, a former gymnast, were brought up by Ronald and Nellie over 1,000 miles away from Shanon in Houston, Texas
Meanwhile, her two elder siblings, Ashley and Tevin Biles-Thomas, were raised by Ron’s sister Harriet in Cleveland and have been in trouble with the law.
According to court records Ashley, 34, has been a defendant in civil, traffic and criminal cases 29 times since 2009.
She was given a suspended prison sentence in August 2021 for driving while impaired. On Facebook in August 2022 she posted that ‘just got out the prison joint’ – although it’s not known why she was in.
In 2019, she was found guilty of assault and sentenced to 180 days in jail – with all but 25 days suspended – and two years probation.
Other offenses include being arrested for various drunk-driving, drug and weapon offenses, theft and counterfeiting, with short stints in prison.
In June 2021, brother Tevin, was acquitted of shooting three people at a New Year’s Eve party in 2018 due to lack of evidence.
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.
Shanon said, ‘We both want to see her. I talk to him all the time. He says, ‘If you talk to Simone, give her my number. I’d love to talk to her.’ But I can’t even talk to her. I have to go through my dad.’
To this day Shanon doesn’t know how much Simone and her sister know about those days and she longs for the opportunity to tell them, ‘how it really was’.
She said, ‘I want to let her know I love her and I’m very proud of her. But I’m still waiting.’
Shanon has Simone’s telephone number, but she has never called it, feeling instead that the outreach has to come from Simone.
She added, ‘I can’t keep dwelling on it. Whenever she’s ready I’m here and willing to receive.
‘I do have a direct number, but I won’t use it. I want her to reach out to me. She’s 27 now. She’s married. I would have liked to have been a part of that, but I just have to wait for her. You can’t push anybody.
‘It hasn’t happened yet, but I have patience. I’m waiting on her.’
Speaking directly to Simone she said, ‘I would like to sit down and talk to you and answer any questions you may have. I don’t know what you’ve been told but I want you to hear the real deal.’
