Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers has claimed ex-fiancee Shailene Woodley asked to sleep with another man shortly after their engagement, launching an explosive attack on his former partners.
Speaking on the Not Just Football podcast on Thursday alongside teammate Cam Heyward, the 42-year-old Super Bowl champion quarterback refuted public narratives about his past high-profile relationships with both Woodley and former NASCAR driver Danica Patrick.
Rodgers, who is preparing for his 22nd and final season in the National Football League, accused both women of using his name for attention while detailing intimacy issues, depression, and failed reconciliations during their respective relationships.
Rodgers proposed to 34-year-old Paradise actress Woodley in December 2021 after the couple went public with their romance a year earlier. However, the relationship ended just three months later in March 2022.
Recounting the engagement on the podcast, Rodgers stated: "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 claimed that Woodley made a startling request just days after accepting his proposal. "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," Rodgers told Heyward.
The veteran quarterback pushed back against claims that he abandoned Woodley or caused her mental distress, explaining that the couple's relationship had already fractured. "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. There wasn't even a relationship in 2022 to break off," he said.
Rodgers added that Woodley rejected further attempts to patch things up. "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," he claimed.
Rodgers' comments contrast sharply with Woodley's previous public statements regarding their split. In a 2024 interview, the Hollywood star described the breakdown of their romance in early 2022 as a "traumatic thing" that profoundly affected her mental health.
"I had a really awful, traumatic thing happen in early 2022," Woodley said at the time. "I felt like I lost my soul, my self, my happiness, my joy."
Woodley explained that her own empathy kept her trapped in what she called a "toxic situation." She stated: "Empathy kind of kept me in this loop of feeling everything for everyone."
Describing the depth of her depression during that period, Woodley added: "I knew I was depressed when I looked at a tree and felt nothing." Calling it "the lowest low of my life," Woodley revealed that her depression began to dissolve after spending six months engaging in activities with her best friend, stylist Kris Zero.
Reps for Woodley were contacted by The Daily Mail for comment following Rodgers' podcast interview.
Allegations against Danica Patrick
In the same interview, Rodgers directed strong criticism at former professional auto racing driver Danica Patrick, who he dated for over two years between January 2018 and July 2020.
Patrick, a former IndyCar and NASCAR competitor who retired from racing in November 2017, made her red-carpet debut with Rodgers at the 2018 ESPY awards. By late 2019, the couple purchased a home together in Malibu, California, where they spent the first few months of 2020 living together during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rodgers rejected assertions made by his former partners regarding their splits, expressing frustration over how he has been portrayed. "No one cares what they have to say until they say my name," Rodgers said to Heyward. "I dated two women who nobody gives a f*** about unless they drop my name and they like to say their version of the history of what actually happened."
Addressing the narratives surrounding his past, Rodgers continued: "So I'm this monster of a partner and it's just f***ing horses***. Number one: Why are you still talking about me? It's been years."
Rodgers claimed that Patrick suffered from depression following her retirement from motor racing, which negatively impacted their daily life and personal intimacy. "I dated Danica. She had just retired. She was depressed and not fun to be around. But I didn't leave her because I was trying to be there and be a good partner. Then it was going a certain direction obviously. There was no intimacy; there was nothing," he alleged.
Recounting the circumstances surrounding their house purchase in Malibu, Rodgers described a tense conversation about their future. "I'm buying a house in Malibu and she goes, 'Do you want to buy it together?' And I said no. And she said, 'You know what that means then?' And I said, 'Yeah, that's the way things are going.' She said, 'Well, let's get counseling.' Then we got counseling. Then Covid hits and we're stuck together," Rodgers recalled.
Rodgers dismissed Patrick's account of how their relationship ended. "She tells a story that she was so blindsided and getting left by you, and that he leaves a trail of blood around him. And I'm like, what are you talking about? That's not what happened," he stated.
Rodgers' comments come more than a year after Patrick publicly described their relationship as "emotionally abusive," claiming that the relationship "wore me down to nothing" and portraying Rodgers as a "monster partner."
Reps for Patrick were also contacted by The Daily Mail for comment on Rodgers' statements.
Retirement plans and life after football
The outspoken quarterback is entering his 22nd and final season in the NFL after signing a $25 million contract to return to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Rodgers and the Steelers will open their regular season schedule on Sunday in a matchup against the Atlanta Falcons.
Off the field, Rodgers has quietly settled down, having discreetly married his new wife, Brittani, last year. A source revealed to The Daily Mail that Rodgers intends to step away from the public eye entirely once his playing career concludes.
"After this season, don't expect to see much of Aaron Rodgers in the public eye," the insider shared. "Once his career ends, he plans to step away from that world almost entirely. Outside of a future Hall of Fame appearance or maybe the occasional Kentucky Derby sighting, he has no interest in television work or staying in the spotlight."
The source added that Rodgers' decision to retire from public life is firm, regardless of how his final season unfolds or whether an injury shortens his playing time. "His focus is fully shifting toward life as a husband and, hopefully, a father, regardless of how this final season plays out. Even if an injury cuts things short, his decision is already made. It's a promise he made to both himself and his wife," the source said.
