"We were scared... none of us said a word during car ride" - When Simone Biles recalled her fears on being taken to foster care with Adria & siblings

Simone Biles once recalled that she and her three siblings were scared while being taken to foster care for the first time. The American gymnast was later adopted by her grandparents, Ronald Biles and his second wife Nellie Biles.

Biles' biological parents, Shanon and Kelvin Clemons, struggled with drug and alcohol addiction and were unable to take care of their children. As a result, the children struggled for food as well with the gymnast once claiming that a stray cat was fed over them.

The neighbors of the Biles family in Columbus, Ohio intervened and called for social services to take the children to foster care. Recalling the moment in her 2016 memoir 'Courage to Soar: A Life in Motion, A Life in Balance', Biles, who was just three years old, said she understood the meaning of their car ride.

"Most people might think that at age three I was too young to know what it meant to be placed into foster care, but the truth is I understood everything. When the social worker piled the four of us into her car, I knew exactly what was going on. We were going to live with a new family, and we didn’t know if we’d like it there," Simone Biles wrote.

The 27-year-old also added that all four siblings were scared.

"I think we were all a little scared, because none of us said a word during the car ride. Yet as clearly as I remember the heavy silence in the backseat of that car, with Ashley holding four-month-old Adria on her lap, the rest of my foster care memories are fuzzy images," she added.

Biles and her siblings spent three years in and out of foster care before she and her younger sister, Adria, were adopted by Ronald and Nellie Biles. The other two siblings, Ashley and Tevin, were adopted by their great-aunt.

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Simone Biles' biological mother asks the gymnast to forgive her

Green Bay Packers v Chicago Bears - Simone Biles in attendance to cheer for husband Jonathan Owens (Source: Getty)

While Simone Biles has claimed she does not hold any animosity towards her biological mother, Shanon, and has always wished her well, the seven-time Olympic champion hasn't seemingly maintained a good relationship with her.

Speaking in an interview with Daily Mail in 2024, Shanon said she wanted to clear the air between the two and ask the gymnast to forgive her.

"I would like to make amends with Simone personally — I’m just waiting for her and [her younger sister] Adria,” Shanon told the Daily Mail. “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," she said.

Biles also claimed to speak to her mother only on holidays but has expressed happiness over the 52-year-old's efforts to stay clean.