Aaron Rodgers is revealing shocking new details of his explosive breakup with Shailene Woodley.
On an episode of “Not Just Football with Cam Heyward,” Rodgers explained that he didn’t “ruin” the actress’ life during their 2022 split.
“I proposed to Shailene and she said yes. Now, she maybe felt like she was forced to make a decision. She could have said no,” Rodgers began.
“A couple days after that, she tells me, ‘Before we get married, I gotta go f— this guy,’ and I’m like — because her story is that I ruined her life and gave her crazy depression because I left her. But in actuality, she told me that, and then she took off the ring by March — I proposed in December — and we had a couple of times where we tried to get reunited and nothing ever happened,” he said.
SHAILENE WOODLEY IMPLIES AARON RODGERS ‘UNAVAILABILITY’ WAS REASON FOR SPLIT
“There wasn’t even a relationship in 2022 to break off. She literally told me, ‘I don’t want to be with you’ after we tried some reconciliation in 2021. There’s just a lot of narrative out there that isn’t true,” Rodgers clarified.
The Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback addressed Woodley directly on the podcast.
“I’m actually a good partner. I don’t wish you any harm … and Shai, you left me, you took the ring off. What are we talking about regarding me ruining your life?” Rodgers asked.
A representative for Woodley did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Woodley and Rodgers first sparked dating rumors in July 2020, but the two kept their relationship under wraps until going public a few days before they announced their engagement in February 2021. In February 2022, the former couple called off their engagement but briefly reconciled before splitting again that April.
During a 2024 interview with Outside magazine, Woodley shared that she went through a traumatic event in 2022, the same year she and Rodgers split for good.
“I had a really awful, traumatic thing happen in early 2022,” she said, without naming anything specific. “I felt like I lost my soul, myself, my happiness, my joy. I really understood depression and anxiety and, like, complete soul detachment.”
Woodley did say that she chose to stay in a “toxic situation” because she was empathizing with “someone else.”
Without naming the person, Woodley said that “empathy kind of kept me in this loop of feeling everything for everyone.”
During the same interview, the 34-year-old actress admitted that she hasn’t “shared much” about her former romance with the 42-year-old NFL star “because it always makes me cry.”
“It was not right. But it was beautiful,” the “Big Little Lies” star told the outlet after her “eyes welled up.”
In a September 2024 interview with Bustle, Woodley alluded to the reason behind their split as she shared her disdain for pretentious behavior.
“I’m very uninterested in the performance of people at this moment in life. I’m uninterested in the external value that we put on everything,” the Emmy Award nominee said. “I find the performance of being something else in order to receive love or acceptance or work from others to be the ultimate form of soul death.”
Woodley told the outlet that her opposition to performative behavior was due to previously suffering from a “broken heart.”
LIKE WHAT YOU’RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS
“A broken heart that healed and broke again,” she explained. “I fell in love over and over with unavailability. I’m very open as a human. I love easy, and I care easy, but I do not love lightly, and I do not care lightly.”
“It’s really taken me a lot of time to understand that it’s not on me to fix or heal or do anything about [a relationship] other than protect the deep care and love that I have for the world and for my people,” Woodley continued. “Ultimately, that has helped me walk away without the need to understand why certain things didn’t play out the way that I may have desired them to.”
“I give all of myself,” she added of her approach to relationships. “I used to be a person who, if you crossed me and disrespected that, would continue to give and give. And now you cross me, I respectfully go, ‘Thank you so much for that information. Have a beautiful life. I wish you well.’ Not interested.”
GET ENTERTAINMENT SCOOP DELIVERED RIGHT TO YOUR EMAIL BY CLICKING HERE
PUT YOUR ENTERTAINMENT KNOWLEDGE TO THE TEST AND SEE HOW YOU SCORE
Both Woodley and Rodgers have moved past their relationship. Woodley has been publicly linked to French actor Lucas Bravo and actor Milo Callaghan in the years since her split from the NFL star.
Rodgers revealed in June 2025 that he had gotten married and confirmed he was wearing a wedding ring. Rodgers later identified his wife as Brittani, explaining that they first met in 2017, reconnected after his relationships with Danica Patrick and Woodley, and secretly eloped in 2025.
