Aaron Rodgers Claims Shailene Woodley Said She Had to 'Go' See Another Man After Proposal

Aaron Rodgers has offered a new and highly personal account of his broken engagement to Shailene Woodley, claiming the actress told him shortly after accepting his proposal that she needed to be with another man.

The Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback made the allegation during a recent appearance on the Not Just Football With Cam Heyward podcast, revisiting a relationship that ended publicly in 2022.

Rodgers said he proposed to Woodley in December 2020 and that she initially accepted. According to his account, however, the relationship quickly deteriorated, and he said she had stopped wearing her engagement ring by March 2021.

Rodgers maintained that attempts to repair the relationship followed, but that he considered it effectively over long before their split became public. His comments have renewed interest in the former couple, particularly after Woodley previously spoke about a difficult period around their split without discussing the relationship in detail.

In a 2024 interview with Outside, she described a past relationship as a 'toxic situation' and said she had experienced severe depression and felt she had 'lost' herself. Woodley's representatives were contacted for comment but had not responded at the time of publication.

Rodgers Gives His Version of the Split

Rodgers' account centres on what happened after he proposed to Woodley in late 2020. The pair had begun dating during the pandemic and quickly moved into a serious relationship.

Woodley later confirmed their engagement publicly in February 2021, telling Jimmy Fallon that they had actually been engaged for some time. At the time, she spoke warmly about Rodgers, describing him as a 'wonderful, incredible human being' and saying she never expected to become engaged to a professional football player.

Behind the scenes, however, Rodgers now claims the relationship was already under significant strain. According to his account, the engagement ring was removed in March 2021, and he considered the relationship effectively over long before their split became public.

He also claimed the pair tried to reconcile but could not restore the relationship. That version differs significantly from the public timeline, in which their engagement was not officially reported as over until February 2022.

Their Engagement Quickly Became Complicated

The couple's relationship attracted intense attention because of how quickly it developed. Woodley and Rodgers were first linked in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Woodley later explained that they moved in together almost immediately because travel restrictions made maintaining a conventional long-distance relationship difficult. Their relationship began under unusual circumstances, bringing them together quickly during the pandemic.

Their engagement was confirmed after Rodgers referred to his fiancée during his NFL MVP acceptance speech. Woodley subsequently confirmed the news herself.

By February 2022, reports emerged that the engagement had ended. It was reported at the time that the pair had stopped spending significant time together, while another source described the split as amicable.

That public account now sits alongside Rodgers' claim that he considered their relationship effectively over much earlier. The former couple have not publicly offered a shared account of exactly what happened between their engagement and eventual split.

Woodley Previously Described a Painful Period

Woodley has discussed the emotional consequences of a difficult period around the relationship without publicly giving the detailed account Rodgers has now provided. In a later interview with Outside, she described going through what she called a 'toxic situation' and said she lost her sense of self.

She also discussed experiencing depression and anxiety around the period when the relationship ended. Woodley did not publicly accuse Rodgers of specific misconduct in that interview, and she did not specifically attribute those experiences to him.

Rodgers Comments Reopen an Old Relationship

The timing of Rodgers' remarks has brought renewed attention to a relationship that had largely faded from the headlines.

Rodgers, now 42, has since married a woman named Brittani, whom he has described as someone he met years before his relationships with Danica Patrick and Woodley.

He has also spoken about regretting not proposing to Brittani earlier in their relationship.

Woodley, meanwhile, has continued her acting career and has generally kept details of her private life away from the spotlight.