NFL star Aaron Rodgers has made a startling claim about his failed engagement to actress Shailene Woodley, alleging that she told him she wanted to be with another man only days after accepting his marriage proposal.
Rodgers made the claim during an appearance on Cam Heyward’s Not Just Football podcast on Thursday, September 10, while discussing his past relationships and pushing back against what he described as misleading public narratives about his breakup with Woodley.
According to Rodgers, he proposed to Woodley and she accepted, but he claimed the relationship quickly began to fall apart.
“I dated Shailene, I proposed and she said yes,” Rodgers said, before alleging that she later told him that, before they married, she wanted to be intimate with another man.
Rodgers did not identify the man he was referring to.
Rodgers gives his side of the breakup
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The Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback used the podcast appearance to challenge the public perception of what happened between him and Woodley.
Rodgers suggested that Woodley may have felt pressured to make a decision about the proposal, although he stressed that she could have declined.
He then described what he claimed happened only days later, saying Woodley told him she wanted to be with another man before their wedding.
The allegation has generated significant attention because the couple’s relationship was once regarded as one of Hollywood and sports’ most high-profile romances.
Engagement ended before public split
Rodgers and Woodley began dating in 2020 and publicly confirmed their engagement in early 2021.
Their relationship eventually ended, with news of their split becoming public in 2022.
Aaron Rodgers now claims, however, that the relationship had effectively broken down much earlier than the public understood.
He said Woodley removed her engagement ring by March and that the pair made attempts to reconcile afterward.
According to Aaron Rodgers, those efforts were unsuccessful.
He argued that there was effectively no relationship left in 2022 to break up because, in his telling, the couple had already separated emotionally and romantically.
Woodley has previously described the relationship differently
Aaron Rodgers’ latest comments are particularly notable because Woodley has previously spoken about the emotional impact of their relationship and breakup.
The actress has described the relationship as both beautiful and difficult and previously discussed experiencing significant emotional struggles around the period when the relationship ended.
Rodgers, however, strongly disputed the idea that he was responsible for ruining Woodley’s life.
During the podcast, he pushed back against what he described as a narrative portraying him as the person who caused her emotional suffering.
His latest account therefore offers a markedly different perspective on why the engagement ended.
Rodgers says public narratives were misleading
The NFL veteran said people did not know what was happening behind closed doors during his relationships.
He argued that public commentary about his personal life often relied on incomplete versions of events.
Aaron Rodgers also discussed his previous relationship with retired racing driver Danica Patrick during the same podcast appearance.
Patrick has previously made critical comments about their relationship, including describing Rodgers as emotionally abusive. Rodgers rejected that characterization and offered his own explanation for why their relationship failed.
Rodgers has moved on
Rodgers has since married a woman named Brittani, whose identity he has largely kept private.
During the podcast, he revealed more about their relationship, saying they first met in 2017 before she moved back to Europe.
He described not proposing to her at the time as one of his biggest regrets and said their eventual reunion transformed his personal life.
Aaron Rodgers and Brittani later eloped, and he has credited their relationship with helping him become more emotionally available.
His discussion of Woodley therefore came as part of a much broader reflection on his romantic history and the events that eventually led him back to his current wife.
Woodley has not publicly responded to the latest claim
As of the latest reports, Woodley has not publicly responded to Rodgers’ new allegations.
The comments remain Rodgers’ account of events surrounding their relationship and should not be treated as independently verified facts.
The renewed discussion has nevertheless brought the former couple’s high-profile romance back into the spotlight more than four years after their split.
For now, Aaron Rodgers appears determined to set the record straight from his perspective, while Woodley’s response, if any, could provide another perspective on what happened behind the scenes.
