Aaron Rodgers is spilling the details of how his relationship with actress Shailene Woodley came to an end.
Rodgers appeared on the Not Just Football with Cam Heyward podcast, where he slammed claims that he was a “horse s--t” partner to the actress, who won her first Emmy on Sunday for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for her role as Annie Clay in Hulu’s Paradise.
“I date Shailene, and I propose, and she says yes. Now she maybe felt like she was forced to make a decision. She could have said no. But not a couple days after that, she tells me, ‘Before we get married, I got to go f--- this guy.’ And I’m like, ‘cause her story is that I ruined her life and gave her crazy depression because I left her. But the actuality is she told me that then she took off the ring by March. So I proposed in December, took off the ring by March. And we had a couple times where we tried to get reunited, and nothing ever happened.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to a representative for Woodley for comment.
Rodgers, who amplified conspiracy theories about the COVID vaccine from which Woodley publicly distanced herself in January 2022, said the former couple’s relationship was over before they officially announced its end in February of 2022. “There wasn’t even a relationship in ‘22 to break off,” Rogers said. Woodley recalled the time period in an interview with Outside Magazine in 2024.
“I felt like I lost my soul, my self, my happiness, my joy. I really understood depression and anxiety and, like, complete soul detachment,” she said because of a “toxic situation.” Woodley added that “empathy kind of kept me in this loop of feeling everything for everyone.”
The former NFL player and 2011 Super Bowl MVP disputed the characterization. “She literally told me, ‘I don’t want to be with you,’ after we tried to have some sort of reconciliation in 2021. So, I’m like, there’s just a lot of narratives out there that are just not true, and they portray things a certain way because they can get away with it.” He went on to say, “The height of their fame was when they were with me. They get clicks when they say my name, just like the idiots on TV get clicks when they say my name.”
Rodgers also dated retired NASCAR driver and Trump fan Danica Patrick from 2018 to 2020. She called their relationship “emotionally abusive” during a 2025 appearance on the Sage Steele Show, and said that Rodgers left a “trail of blood” by the end.
Rodgers addressed those comments as well. “She tells a story that I like, totally blindsided by, getting left by you and there’s blood, that ‘He leaves a trail of blood around.’ I’m like, what are you talking about? That is not what happened by any means.” The Daily Beast has reached out to Patrick for comment.
The football star also spoke at length for the first-time about his wife, whose identity he has not revealed. Speculation surrounding the mystery woman prompted some to suggest that Rodgers’ wife was an AI chatbot rather than a real person. He revealed in 2025 that he had married a woman named “Brittani.” This week, Rodgers said the pair first met in 2017, before she returned to Europe.
“My biggest regret is not begging her to stay or proposing right there, because that sent me right there into a tailspin of what can I be accused of as a partner in a relationship,” he said.
