Aaron Rodgers is offering his version of what happened with Shailene Woodley, more than four years after the former couple’s relationship ended.
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The Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback, 42, discussed their romance publicly for the first time during a Thursday appearance on his teammate Cam Heyward’s podcast, Not Just Football.
Rodgers said he and Woodley became engaged after he proposed in December 2020. According to Rodgers, the relationship began falling apart soon afterward.
“I date Shailene, I propose and she says yes. She maybe felt like she was forced to make a decision. She could have said no,” Rodgers said. “But not a couple of days after that, she tells me, like ‘Before we get married, like, ‘I got to go f— this guy.’”
Rodgers went on to dispute how their breakup has been characterized publicly.
He claimed Woodley’s account was that he “ruined her life and gave her crazy depression because I left her,” while saying that, from his perspective, she had already decided to end the relationship.
The NFL star said Woodley removed her engagement ring by March 2021 and that they tried to reconcile multiple times afterward.
“I proposed in December, [she] took off the ring by March, and we had a couple of times when we tried to get reunited and nothing ever happened, and there wasn’t even a relationship in ’22 to break off. She literally told me ‘I don’t want to be with you.'” he said. “There’s just a lot of narratives out there that are just not true.”
Woodley has previously discussed experiencing a serious period of depression without publicly attributing it to Rodgers.
In a 2024 interview with Outside Magazine, the actress described a traumatic experience that occurred in early 2022.
“I had a really awful, traumatic thing happen in early 2022,” she said. “I felt like I lost my soul, my self, my happiness, my joy. I really understood depression and anxiety and, like, complete soul detachment. … I knew I was depressed when I looked at a tree and felt nothing. That was the lowest low of my life.”
Woodley did not identify Rodgers as the cause of her depression. Their split was confirmed in February 2022, and she spoke about their relationship elsewhere in the same interview.
“I haven’t shared much about my relationship with Aaron because it always makes me cry,” she recalled. “It was not right, but it was beautiful.”
Rodgers and Woodley first sparked romance rumors in 2020 before confirming their engagement in 2021. Their relationship ended the following year.
Rodgers’ podcast appearance offers his most detailed public account of the relationship yet, while Woodley has not publicly responded to his latest comments.