Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers has stated that his 2022 split from actress Shailene Woodley was initiated by Woodley, who he claims left him for another man. Rodgers made these assertions on the podcast "Not Just Football with Cam Heyward," directly contradicting the narrative that he ruined her life and caused her significant distress.
Rodgers explained that he proposed to Woodley, who accepted, but she later expressed a desire to explore other relationships before marriage. "A couple days after that, she tells me, 'Before we get married, I gotta go f–k 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 said on the podcast. He added that Woodley removed her engagement ring by March, only a few months after the December proposal, and that their attempts at reconciliation in 2021 were unsuccessful.
"There wasn’t even a relationship in 2022 to break off," Rodgers clarified. "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 addressed Woodley directly, stating, "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?"
A representative for Woodley did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Woodley and Rodgers first sparked dating rumors in July 2020 and announced their engagement in February 2021. They called off their engagement in February 2022, briefly reconciled, and then split again in April of that year.
In a 2024 interview with Outside magazine, Woodley discussed experiencing a traumatic event in early 2022, the same year she and Rodgers definitively ended their relationship. She described feeling like she "lost my soul, my self, my happiness, my joy" and understood "depression and anxiety and, like, complete soul detachment." Woodley also alluded to staying in a "toxic situation" due to empathy for someone else. She admitted that discussing their former romance often made her cry, describing it as "not right. But it was beautiful."
During a September 2024 interview with Bustle, Woodley spoke about her disinterest in "performative behavior" in relationships, stating it felt like "the ultimate form of soul death." She suggested that a "broken heart that healed and broke again" led her to fall in love with unavailability multiple times. She added that she gives her all in relationships but has learned to walk away from situations without needing to understand why they didn't work out.
Both Rodgers and Woodley have since moved on. Woodley has been linked to actors Lucas Bravo and Milo Callaghan. Rodgers revealed in June 2025 that he had married Brittani, whom he first met in 2017. He stated they reconnected after his relationships with Danica Patrick and Woodley and secretly eloped in 2025.