Shawn Johnson East Explains Why She and Nastia Liukin Didn't Speak to Each Other for 8 Years

Mar. 15, 2025

Photo: Chance Yeh/FilmMagic

Shawn Johnson Eastis looking back at a time when she didn’t speak to her former Olympic teammate and best friendNastia Liukinfor eight years.

While onAccess Hollywood’s “Behind the Easel,” Johnson East shared the real reason why the two lost touch for nearly a decade.

“Nastia and I were best friends, training, and at the Olympics we were roommates,” Johnson East, 32, said. “We were 16 and 18 years old, we were kids. I felt like we were under the spotlight and scrutiny so much to be each other’s top, biggest competitors. And we had figured out on the competition floor how to be best friends and competitors. But when the world started kind of interjecting how we should handle it, they said we should also be each other’s worst enemies as well.”

The rift lasted for eight years, Johnson East says — until their significant others intervened.

“Our boyfriends at the time got so tired of hearing us talk about each other that they said. ‘Enough of this, just go talk to each other again,’ and we did," she recalled. “And ever since then, it’s just like we haven’t skipped a beat.”

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(Shawn Johnson Gallery) Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin.© Elsa / Getty Images

Now, Liukin, 35, and Johnson are fixtures in each other’s orbit.

“We both said the same thing, ‘I don’t know what happened but I miss you and I miss us,’ ” Johnson recalled about their reconciliation. “And it’s been that way ever since.”

source: people.com