Simone Biles Opens Up About Growing up in Foster Care and Understanding ‘Hardships’ Kids ‘Go Through’

Simone Biles talks about her childhood spent in foster care.

On Friday, the Olympic gold medalist, 26, reposted a clip from a new interview in which she spoke candidly about her experiences spending several years in foster care, along with her three siblings, as a child.

Captioning the post “foster child,” Biles wrote on her Instagram Story, “a conversation I had about [topic] it’s near and dear to my heart,” adding several heart-shaped hand emojis as she shared a clip of the interview with CNN.

In the clip, Biles explained how she ended up in foster care and her connection to Friends of the Children, a nonprofit organization that mentors children in challenging circumstances, as she was recognized by CNN Heroes for her work with the organization.

“I was actually a foster kid, so I know some of those struggles that these kids go through,” Biles said. “When my brother and sisters and I went to a foster family, it was because our biological mother was struggling with drug and alcohol addiction. I was three years old.”

Biles reposted a video of herself talking about growing up in foster care in an interview on Friday.

Simone Biles/Instagram

In the video, Biles recalled how she and her siblings sometimes went hungry before they were taken into foster care.

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“I just remember as kids we were so hungry and then I just remember that cat that would get full and we didn’t like it,” she continued in the video. “And so we were taken and, luckily, we actually got to stay in a foster home and we were all together… it was one of the best times ever. We were so excited.”

Biles was placed in a foster family with his sister Adria (pictured) and two brothers.

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During her time in foster care, Biles and her siblings Adria, Tevin and Ashley were visited by their grandparents, Ronald and Nellie Biles, CNN reported. After three years, Biles was adopted by her grandparents at the age of 6, and soon after discovered her passion for gymnastics.

According to the outlet, Biles happened upon the gym during a school field trip at the time. “I’ve never even heard of gymnastics before,” she added. “I thought, ‘oh, I bet I could do that!’

“Having parents and that support made me who I am today,” she said elsewhere in the interview, before discussing Friends of the Children and why she wanted to be involved. The athlete explained that the organization has been offering official mentors for more than 12 years for children in foster families. “It gives them love and support, because that’s what these kids need, so that one constant means the world to them,” she told CNN.

Biles was adopted by her grandparents at the age of 6 after spending three years in a foster family.

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Biles and his sister Adria (24) were adopted by their grandparents. Their siblings Tevina and Ashley were adopted by Ronald’s sister and grew up in Cleveland, Ohio.

Biles previously talked about being in a foster family as a child, as well as being a mother figure to her younger sister Adria from an early age.

“I wanted to take care of Adria obviously because she was a baby,” said Simone in her Facebook Watch series, Simon against himself. “I just felt like I had to look out for her because if the family doesn’t look out for you, who will?”

Speaking about Biles in a 2016 ESPN essay, Adria said, “She’s also kind and humble, and I’m so proud to have her as my sister.” She added: “I look up to her in every way.”

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Source: HIS Education