Jordan Chiles says that she’s never spoken with Simone Biles about the abuse she suffered at the hands of Larry Nassar because she was “devastated.”
Chiles recently spoke with People about her new memoir, I’m That Girl: Living the Power of My Dreams, and explained what she meant.
“When that whole thing happened, trust me, I was devastated,” she said. “Still, to this day, I’ve never talked to her about it. I don’t think I ever will talk to her about it because that was her life, and you never know how hard it is on somebody.”
Chiles also explained how she’s supported Biles in the past with quality time together instead of discussing what happened. "I think just having my presence was the best thing that I could give to her, rather than sitting down somewhere and having a whole conversation because that's very devastating," Chiles admitted. "If we ever have the conversation, I would literally probably [just] cry.”
Chiles and Biles have been close since meeting in 2014. They trained at the now-closed Karolyi Ranch National Team Training Center in Huntsville, Texas, where Nassar sexually abused hundreds of female gymnasts. He was arrested in 2016 and received decades in prison for sexually abusing hundreds of victims as a sports doctor at Michigan State University.
In her memoir, Chiles expressed that she was never one of his victims.
Chiles also talks about having suicidal thoughts because of the verbal and emotional abuse of a former coach. In a recent People interview, Chiles opened up about why she decided to write about it.
“I wanted to get it off my chest. I wanted to let people know that I had really, really down times. I've been in the dark, I've been in the deepest part of the ocean," Chiles said.
"[Writing about] it was hard at first,” she added. “But I'm happy that I was able to revisit those things and I'm happy now that people get to read it and understand, and hopefully that gives them the confidence to be like, ‘You know what? Maybe I need to talk about something [too].’”