MyKayla Skinner’s husband, Jonas Harmer, recently expressed his support for her amid the ongoing social media drama involving Simone Biles.
“Proud of you for apologizing when you did, staying quiet when you did, and now standing up for yourself. You’re the strongest person I know!” Harmer commented under Skinner’s Instagram apology video on Tuesday.
The tension between Skinner and Biles began in June when Skinner made critical remarks about the Team USA women’s gymnastics team in a since-deleted YouTube video. “Besides Simone, I feel like the talent and the depth just isn’t like what it used to be,” she said. “The girls just don’t have the work ethic.”
Skinner faced immediate backlash from fans, but the controversy flared up again when Biles, 27, appeared to respond to Skinner’s comments after winning the gold medal with her teammates. Biles posted a celebratory Instagram photo captioned, “lack of talent, lazy, olympic champions ?????,” which many interpreted as a direct jab at Skinner.
Following the post, Biles revealed that Skinner had blocked her on social media. Amid the escalating drama, Skinner, 27, addressed the situation in an emotional Instagram video, pleading with Biles to ask her followers to stop harassing her and her family over her previous comments.
“Things have really gotten out of hand lately, and it’s one thing to disagree with me regarding something I have said or a point I was trying to make, but it’s something else entirely when that turns into cyberbullying or even worse,” Skinner said in her video.
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“Watching people cheer on the bullying which has led to threats of physical harm to me, my husband, and our daughter is disgusting.”
Skinner, who competed alongside Biles in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, welcomed her first child with Harmer in September 2023. She admitted that her comments in the YouTube video were poorly articulated and that the “last thing” she wanted was “to cause harm or offend our US Olympic Team.”
She mentioned sending handwritten apologies to everyone on the USA gymnastics team after her YouTube video but only heard back from Biles, who allegedly responded positively.
“You guys can imagine my surprise last week when I was celebrating our team winning gold, just to see this all brought up all over again by a caption on an Instagram post,” Skinner said.
“If Simone truly believes that I called our team lazy and lacking talent and that’s how she really feels, I am really heartbroken over it. Not just heartbroken because it isn’t how I feel … but heartbroken because Simone’s latest post and others that followed it fueled another wave of hateful comments, DMs, articles, and emails – hate that includes death threats to me, my family, and even my agent.”
Skinner publicly asked Biles to help stop the harassment. “So, to Simone, I am asking you directly and publicly to please put a stop to this. Please ask your followers to stop,” Skinner pleaded. “You have been an incredible champion for mental health awareness, and a lot of people need your help now. We’ve been hurt and attacked in ways that I am certain you never intended.”
As of now, Biles has not publicly responded to Skinner’s request, and her representative did not immediately respond to Page Six’s original request for comment.
Skinner’s plea received mixed reactions on social media. Some fans joined her husband in supporting her vulnerability, while others reminded her that the drama originated from her own comments.
