Aaron Rodgers and Shailene Woodley’s Relationship Timeline: The Way They Were

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Aaron Rodgers and Shailene Woodley’s Relationship Timeline: The Way They Were

Who manifested who? Shailene Woodley and Aaron Rodgers’ whirlwind relationship had fans talking from beginning to end. According to Woodley, the pair met sometime in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic. Though rumors about a potential romance were sparked in July 2020, the relationship was kept tightly under wraps for some time after. Fans only found out the couple were dating a few days before their engagement was announced on February 6, 2021. Rodgers previously dated race car driver Danica Patrick. The two began dating in January 2018 and broke up in July 2020. The former pair met in 2012 at the ESPY Awards, years before their romance began. “We both remember meeting each other, it was quick,” Patrick said on Jenny McCarthy's SiriusXM show in May 2018. “I got his email address, and I remember thinking to myself, ‘Oh, not a phone number? Just an email address?’” Before Rodgers, Woodley dated rugby player Ben Volavola. The relationship was first confirmed when the activist posted an Instagram picture holding Volavola’s hand in 2017. [jwplayer zPq1MHB5-zhNYySv2] Following their breakup, the Divergent actress opened up to Bustle in April 2020 about her love life, admitting she’d previously used relationships to “distract” from getting acquainted with her own self. “I was in a relationship with someone and we were very much on the road to marriage and children,” she said. “I realized I was still at an age where I wasn’t able to fully commit. I couldn’t be available to him in the way that I wanted to be. I didn’t fully love myself.” Both Woodley and Rodgers are fans of mindfulness. After announcing his engagement at the NFL Honors Dinner, the Super Bowl champion reminded people “to read books, to meditate, speak things to life, manifest the desires of your heart, question everything and spread love and positivity.” Woodley has previously spoken about her relationship with anxiety and meditation as well. The twosome, however, parted ways more than one year after they were first linked. Us Weekly confirmed their split in February 2022. Scroll through for a timeline of their relationship: [podcast_block]

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July 2020

Rodgers split with girlfriend Patrick after more than two years together. In a statement to Us Weekly on July 16, 2020, Patrick’s rep confirmed that the pair were “no longer together” after she unfollowed him on Instagram.

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July 2020

Sports gossip blog Terez Owens first reported on Rodgers’ relationship with Woodley, speculating that Woodley had something to do with Rodgers and Patrick’s split.

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September 2020

Without revealing too much, the NFL star opened up about recent changes in his personal life. “I have a new and increased love of life, and I have made decisions and changes and habits that put me in a lot better headspace," he explained on The Pat McAfee Show on September 22, 2020. “There’s just a lot of things that have come together in my life over the last few months that have really been enjoyable.”

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February 2021

Officially an item! “Aaron and Shailene are dating!” a source told Us Weekly on February 3, 2021. “They started off as friends, but things have turned romantic. The two are staying in contact while they are living away from each other. The relationship is long-distance for right now, but they are making it work.”

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February 2021

Engaged! Days after the insider confirmed the pair were dating, Rodgers made a big announcement at the February 6, 2021, NFL Honors awards.

“2020 was definitely a crazy year filled with lots of change, growth, some amazing, memorable moments, 180 straight days of having my nose hair scraped, playing for very little fans or no stands the entire season. I got engaged and I played some of the best football in my career,” the Green Bay Packer said. He then listed a bunch of people to thank before shouting out “my fiancée,” without naming her.

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February 2021

Woodley confirmed the engagement during an interview with Jimmy Fallon on February 22, 2021, giving viewers of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon a peek at her sizable engagement ring.

“I never thought I’d be engaged [to] somebody who threw balls for a living,” the Big Little Lies actress joked, noting the couple had been engaged “for a while.” Woodley also confirmed the pair met during the coronavirus pandemic, remarking that she’d actually never seen her fiancé play football. 

“We met during this whacky, whacky time and all the stadiums were closed that he was playing in. I didn’t really grow up with sports, especially American sports. It was never really on my radar,” she explained. “When we met, also, I knew he was a football guy, but I didn’t know like what kind of a football guy he was. And I’m still constantly learning.”


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February 2021

In her best supporting actress Golden Globes acceptance speech on February 28, 2021, Jodie Foster gave a shout-out to the sports star, causing fans to wonder if she’d played a role in setting her The Mauritanian costar up.


“I did not set up Shailene and Aaron,” the actress told Us Weekly and other reporters in the press room following the event. “I have never met Aaron Rodgers, but it is possible that I do like to talk about Green Bay Packers and sometimes I can talk a little bit too much about that. So, of course, Shailene was very aware of my enthusiasm for the team.”

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March 2021

The quarterback said during an Instagram live interview with Zenith Watches' CEO Julien Tornare on March 4, 2021, that “there’s been a lot of good” in his life as of late. Still, his engagement to the actress had been the high point. “Obviously that’s the best thing that’s happened to me in the last year,” he said. 

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March 2021

The couple were seen spending time in Arkansas in March 2021, nearly two months after they revealed they are engaged. The duo were all smiles in a photo shared by a local restaurant at the time. They held hands when posing for the snap, after eating a meal at the Best Breakfast Café at the Best Court boutique hotel in Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas. One day prior, the athlete and the actress were seen boarding a plane together from Mexico.

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April 2021

Woodley encouraged her followers to watch Rodgers guest host Jeopardy! during the first week of April. “This guy right here is super sexy, super attractive … just shaved his neck this morning, has a little man bun growing. This guy is hosting Jeopardy! tonight!” she gushed via Instagram Stories ahead of his first episode.

The couple subsequently went live via Instagram to answer fan questions about the long-running game show. After his week of hosting wrapped, Woodley took to the app again to celebrate. ”Who dat sexy man?" the actress said before she flipped the camera to Rodgers. "Oh, dat guy right there.”

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May 2021

The couple attended the Kentucky Derby with Miles Teller, his wife, Keleigh Sperry Teller, and more friends.

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May 2021

The couple enjoyed an adventurous double date with Miles and Keleigh in Hawaii. "

Ponds with soulmates," Keleigh captioned a glimpse at the foursome enjoying their time cliff-diving during the May 2021 trip.

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June 2021

"Starting a relationship where you immediately move in with someone — because it's a pandemic and you can't just get on a plane and go back and forth on weekends — taught us a lot about each other very quickly," the Last Letter From Your Lover actress told Shape, reflecting on the early days of her romance with Rodgers. "We jumped in headfirst and got some of the sticky bits out of the way early."

After she "didn't see anyone for three months" at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Woodley and her fiancé spent plenty of quality time together in Canada. "I have the perspective that I would have met Aaron in any context, any space in time, because I feel we were meant to be together," she told the outlet.

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July 2021

Woodley gave an update on where she and her fiancé stand in the wedding planning process, telling Entertainment Tonight they're simply "enjoying" being engaged for the time being. "There's no wedding planning happening," she explained. "There's no rush. We've got no rush." 

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July 2021

A year into their relationship, the Last Letter From Your Lover star revealed she still doesn't understand football. 

“I still am always [like], ‘Oh, you scored a goal.’ He’s like, ‘It’s a touchdown.’ Or I’ll be like, ‘You crossed the line,’ and he’s like, ‘It’s a yard,’ or whatever,” she laughed during an appearance on Late Night With Seth Meyers. “I still can’t get it right, but I’m learning, slowly but surely.” 

She added that the Green Bay Packers games are the only ones that hold her interest "because I have people to actually root for."

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November 2021

“I know Aaron’s body very well. First off, his feet, ahem and no offense to this rando dude, are a LOT bigger,” Woodley wrote via her Instagram Story after one news site posted an alleged photo of Rodgers out in L.A. amid his COVID-19 quarantine. “Also, for those of us who know Aaron beyond the worlds of obsessed sport [stories] … it’s no secret he has the hairiest hands on the f—king planet. This oblivious homie, clearly, does not.”

The actress defended her fiancé amid claims that he was breaking quarantine protocol after testing positive for COVID-19 earlier in the month and missing one Packers start. “Literally, y’all need to calm the f—k down,” she added, pointing out why Rodgers wasn’t out in the city amid his 10-day quarantine.

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February 2022

Multiple sources confirmed to Us that the twosome split after more than one year together.

“Shailene has been super busy with work,” one insider told Us, noting that Rodgers is always “focused” on football. “Everything was so different during lockdown, and they had been living in their bubble. Friends of Shailene don’t know believe Aaron is the best match for her.”

A second source said the former couple “haven’t been spending any time together.”

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February 2022

Rodgers wrote a lengthy Instagram message less than one week after news broke of his and Woodley’s split, giving a shout-out to “some of the incredibly special people in my life,” including his ex-fiancée.

“@shailenewoodley, thanks for letting me chase after you the first couple months after we met, and finally letting me catch up to you and be a part of your life," he wrote. “Thanks for always having my back, for the incredible kindness you show me and everyone you meet, and for showing me what unconditional love looks like, I love you and am grateful for you.”

One day later, the NFL player apologized to the Insurgent actress for his COVID-19 vaccine controversy, noting how much his remarks ended up affecting those around him. "One thing that I am sad about and definitely apologetic is I didn’t realize in the midst of the COVID conversations how much my situation was affecting my loved ones and my people," he said during an episode of The Pat McAfee Show. “I was too locked in on me and defending myself and trying to get a message out."

Rodgers added: "I am very sorry to those people, Shai and my loved ones. I didn’t realize the kind of shrapnel they’d be taking. … Understanding kind of the entire gravity of the situation I was thrust into and decided to speak on multiple times had an effect on a lot of people. To those people, I just say, ‘I’m sorry.’"

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February 2022

Woodley and Rodgers were spotted hanging out together in Los Angeles one week after news of their split broke. “Things are different now, but they were definitely over,” a source told Us after their outing. “Now that Aaron is in [the] off season, he has more downtime and can focus more on a relationship. Shailene is understanding and open — she hasn't shut the door completely or [she] would've never agreed to meet up with him.”

The insider added that the duo were “talking things through” privately, but “their love for each other never went away.”

Despite reconciliation rumors, Rodgers and Woodley had not decided where their relationship stood. “No one, including them, knows what the future holds — they can possibly get back together or they can decide they aren't meant to be,” the source said. “That's up to them to figure out.”

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March 2022

“Shailene doesn’t know if she wants to get back together yet,” a source exclusively told Us after the estranged couple was seen at the same wedding earlier in the month. The twosome previously sparked reconciliation rumors when they spent time together at the Erewhon Market in Los Angeles one month prior.

“Aaron is very in love with Shailene and is trying to get her back,” the insider added. “He thinks their differences don’t matter and that they would make a great fit.”

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April 2022

Woodley shared a cryptic social media message hinting that she and Rodgers had split for good following a brief reconciliation earlier in the year.

"Grief expressed out loud for someone we have lost, or a country or home we have lost, is in itself the greatest praise we could ever give them," the quote from author Martín Prechtel read via Woodley’s Instagram Story. "Grief is praise, because it is the natural way love honors what it misses."

The post concluded: "Seeing grief in this way helps us respect what we are going through, rather than being mired in shame and discouragement on top of the paint we already feel.”

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May 2022

Us confirmed that the duo are “no longer together” after seeing each other “on and off” following their initial February 2022 split. The twosome “remain on amicable terms,” a source exclusively told Us, explaining that when it comes to the healing process, Rodgers “appears to be moving on just fine.” Woodley, however, “is more upset over the split,” per the insider, who added, “Ultimately, Shailene was not happy in the relationship."