Everything Newly Single Shailene Woodley Has Said About Love and Past Relationships

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Everything Newly Single Shailene Woodley Has Said About Love and Past Relationships

A journey to find love. Before her whirlwind romance with Aaron Rodgers made headlines, Shailene Woodley was open about the ups and downs of finding her perfect partner. "When you’re truly in love, for me, it’s … you’re my lighthouse!” The Oscar nominee told Elle in March 2015, explaining that she is "heart-centered" in her approach to relationships. "You’re somebody who holds me high, keeps me safe, you’ve got my f–kin’ back. … You also love me whole, wild and free. You let me do me, and I’m gonna let you do you! And I’ll be the home that you return to." Woodley continued: "I'm all-loving. I fall in love with people based on who they are. ... This is who I am! And I love you if you love me for who this person is. And if not, I'll still love you, but I ain't fallin' in love with you!'" Though she was willing to share her perspectives on love as a concept, the Divergent star has kept many of the details about her love life private. In 2017, Woodley was linked to New Zealand rugby player Ben Volavola but she didn't confirm that she was in a relationship until one year later. "We were very much on the road to marriage and children," she told Bustle about their relationship in April 2020, revealing that they had quietly split. [sendtonews type="float" key="Yo8uJu1i38-2836156-14453"] In February 2021, Green Bay Packers quarterback Rodgers revealed that he was engaged, with Us Weekly later confirmed that the Big Little Lies alum was his fiancée. "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," the athlete said at the NFL Honors Awards that month. "I got engaged and I played some of the best football in my career." Woodley confirmed the engagement two weeks later, confessing on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon that Rodgers popped the question "a while" before the news broke. Us confirmed in February 2022 that the pair had called it quits after more than a year of dating. "Shailene has been super busy with work,” a source told Us at the time, adding that Rodgers was "focused" on football. "Everything was so different during lockdown, and they had been living in their bubble. Friends of Shailene didn’t believe Aaron is the best match for her." Keep scrolling to see everything Woodley said about love and relationships ahead of the breakup. [podcast_block]

Credit: Shutterstock (2)

Everything Newly Single Shailene Woodley Has Said About Love and Past Relationships

A journey to find love. Before her whirlwind romance with Aaron Rodgers made headlines, Shailene Woodley was open about the ups and downs of finding her perfect partner. "When you’re truly in love, for me, it’s … you’re my lighthouse!” The Oscar nominee told Elle in March 2015, explaining that she is "heart-centered" in her approach to relationships. "You’re somebody who holds me high, keeps me safe, you’ve got my f–kin’ back. … You also love me whole, wild and free. You let me do me, and I’m gonna let you do you! And I’ll be the home that you return to." Woodley continued: "I'm all-loving. I fall in love with people based on who they are. ... This is who I am! And I love you if you love me for who this person is. And if not, I'll still love you, but I ain't fallin' in love with you!'" Though she was willing to share her perspectives on love as a concept, the Divergent star has kept many of the details about her love life private. In 2017, Woodley was linked to New Zealand rugby player Ben Volavola but she didn't confirm that she was in a relationship until one year later. "We were very much on the road to marriage and children," she told Bustle about their relationship in April 2020, revealing that they had quietly split. [sendtonews type="float" key="Yo8uJu1i38-2836156-14453"] In February 2021, Green Bay Packers quarterback Rodgers revealed that he was engaged, with Us Weekly later confirmed that the Big Little Lies alum was his fiancée. "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," the athlete said at the NFL Honors Awards that month. "I got engaged and I played some of the best football in my career." Woodley confirmed the engagement two weeks later, confessing on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon that Rodgers popped the question "a while" before the news broke. Us confirmed in February 2022 that the pair had called it quits after more than a year of dating. "Shailene has been super busy with work,” a source told Us at the time, adding that Rodgers was "focused" on football. "Everything was so different during lockdown, and they had been living in their bubble. Friends of Shailene didn’t believe Aaron is the best match for her." Keep scrolling to see everything Woodley said about love and relationships ahead of the breakup. [podcast_block]

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On Not Dating Costars

Though she has starred in her fair share of romance-centered films and TV shows, Woodley was more focused on her career than finding "The One" in her early 20s. "I haven’t had time to think about a relationship!" the Fault in Our Stars actress told Teen Vogue in March 2014. "I literally have not had a boyfriend in almost five years. I’ve never even hooked up with anybody I’ve worked on a movie with."

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On Being in an Open Relationship

When it comes to romance, the Descendants star likes to keep an open mind. "Listen, I’m someone who has experienced both an open relationship and a deeply monogamous relationship in my life, and I think we’re in a day and age where there should be no rules except for the ones designed by two people in a partnership—or three people, whatever floats your boat!" Woodley told the New York Times in April 2020. "But there has to be a level of responsibility in any relationship dynamic, and that responsibility is simply honesty and communication and trust. Apart from that, it’s really none of our business what people choose to do with their lives."

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On Loving Herself

After dating Volavola for three years, Woodley realized that she needed to love herself before she could fully love someone else. "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," she told Bustle in April 2020. "I didn’t fully love myself."

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On Her First Time

Starring in coming-of-age movies like The Spectacular Now gave the actress a chance to rewrite her own romantic history. "I lost my virginity, like, seven times on screen!" Woodley told Bustle. "I lost my own virginity in a really unromantic, unsexy way, [so] it’s very therapeutic for me that by playing these characters I was showing young women what they can wait for."

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On Developing Intimacy

In an "Ask Her" column for men's website Leo in January 2021, Woodley offered up advice for someone who was having a difficult time connecting with their partner in the bedroom. "Oy … I have been here. And to be quite honest, it has happened more than once in my life," she wrote at the time. "All I can say is, from my perspective as a woman who knows what she wants and isn't afraid to say it, honesty and transparency are everything. If you don't feel safe in communication with your partner, then chances are, you may never be able to cultivate a truly connective sex life."

She continued: "[Bad sex] is simply two people who haven't quite found the language that speaks to their unique lives together yet. Or, two people who don't know how to be deeply vulnerable with one another. That s--t can take time. ... Most of the time, sex is a lesson in true intimacy."

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On Falling in Love with Someone Very Different

Despite falling in love with one of the most famous football players in the NFL, Woodley knew next to nothing about the game he played. “I never thought I’d be engaged [to] somebody who threw balls for a living," she joked to Jimmy Fallon in February 2021. "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. 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."

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On Falling in Love During the Pandemic

Woodley and Rodgers met at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and things between them became serious pretty quickly. "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 star told Shape in June 2021. "We jumped in headfirst and got some of the sticky bits out of the way early."

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On Keeping Her Romance Private

"When [Aaron and I] announced that we were engaged, we wanted to do that only because we didn’t want someone else to do it before we did," the Secret Life of the American Teenager alum told The Hollywood Reporter in July 2021. "And we didn’t do it for months and months after we had become engaged, but the reaction to it was really a lot, and so we were like, ‘Let’s just politely decline [to talk about the relationship] for a little while and live in our little bubble.'"

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On Learning About Football For Aaron

During the 2021-2022 NFL season, Woodley made an effort to learn about the sport in order to support her then-fiancé. "I still am always [like], ‘Oh, you scored a goal.’ He’s like, ‘It’s a touchdown,'" the Snowden actress confessed during a July 2021 appearance on Late Night With Seth Meyers. "Or I’ll be like, ‘You crossed the line,’ and he’s like, "It’s a yard,' or whatever. I still can’t get it right, but I’m learning, slowly but surely."

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On Her Love of Romance

Following her split from Rodgers, Woodley reflected on her evolving view of love. "Maybe im a hopeless romantic, but i believe in mystery, in surprise, in authenticity ... over + beyond anything else," she wrote via Instagram in August 2022. "I also believe that you can’t give it all away over the internet. keep it sexy in the flesh, you know?"

Woodley continued: "Instagram should be a place we come to laugh at ourselves + society. not beat ourselves up for it. be strange. be youthful. be emo + artistic. be a sexpot. fuck it. it all works out and then we die anyways. it’s not that deep."