Everything Shailene Woodley and Aaron Rodgers Said About Their Relationship Before Their Split

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Everything Shailene Woodley and Aaron Rodgers Said About Their Relationship Before Their Split

From smitten to single. Shailene Woodley and Aaron Rodgers kept their relationship relatively private before their split, but their rare quotes about each other offer possible insights into why they called off their whirlwind engagement. Us Weekly confirmed in February 2021 that the actress and the NFL star were dating after first being linked in July 2020. “They started off as friends, but things have turned romantic,” a source revealed at the time. “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.” Rodgers shocked some when he announced in February 2021 that he was engaged, though he did not share the name of his fiancée at the time. Woodley cleared up any confusion later that month by confirming that she was the mystery woman to whom the Green Bay Packers quarterback was referring. “We met during this whacky, whacky time and all the stadiums were closed that he was playing in, so I have yet to go to a football game,” the Big Little Lies alum explained during a February 2021 appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. “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. And I’m still constantly learning.” [jwplayer zPq1MHB5-zhNYySv2] Woodley and Rodgers seemed like an unlikely couple to some, but their chemistry was apparent. “While some might be perplexed of how compatible they are, it’s obvious among those close to them that they’re meant to be,” an insider told Us in April 2021. “They’re a great match because they’re both hardworking, career-focused, have a similar lifestyle and are down to earth.” The source added that the athlete “wouldn’t have proposed if he wasn’t 100 percent serious about Shailene being The One.” However, Us confirmed in February 2022 that Woodley and Rodgers called it quits, with an insider revealing that the pair had not “been spending any time together” in recent weeks. “Shailene has been super busy with work,” one source said, adding that the California native was always “focused” on football. “Everything was so different during lockdown, and they had been living in their bubble.” Scroll through the gallery below to revisit the now-exes’ quotes about their short-lived romance. [podcast_block]

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Everything Shailene Woodley and Aaron Rodgers Said About Their Relationship Before Their Split

From smitten to single. Shailene Woodley and Aaron Rodgers kept their relationship relatively private before their split, but their rare quotes about each other offer possible insights into why they called off their whirlwind engagement. Us Weekly confirmed in February 2021 that the actress and the NFL star were dating after first being linked in July 2020. “They started off as friends, but things have turned romantic,” a source revealed at the time. “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.” Rodgers shocked some when he announced in February 2021 that he was engaged, though he did not share the name of his fiancée at the time. Woodley cleared up any confusion later that month by confirming that she was the mystery woman to whom the Green Bay Packers quarterback was referring. “We met during this whacky, whacky time and all the stadiums were closed that he was playing in, so I have yet to go to a football game,” the Big Little Lies alum explained during a February 2021 appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. “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. And I’m still constantly learning.” [jwplayer zPq1MHB5-zhNYySv2] Woodley and Rodgers seemed like an unlikely couple to some, but their chemistry was apparent. “While some might be perplexed of how compatible they are, it’s obvious among those close to them that they’re meant to be,” an insider told Us in April 2021. “They’re a great match because they’re both hardworking, career-focused, have a similar lifestyle and are down to earth.” The source added that the athlete “wouldn’t have proposed if he wasn’t 100 percent serious about Shailene being The One.” However, Us confirmed in February 2022 that Woodley and Rodgers called it quits, with an insider revealing that the pair had not “been spending any time together” in recent weeks. “Shailene has been super busy with work,” one source said, adding that the California native was always “focused” on football. “Everything was so different during lockdown, and they had been living in their bubble.” Scroll through the gallery below to revisit the now-exes’ quotes about their short-lived romance. [podcast_block]

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Engaged!

Rodgers subtly announced his engagement to Woodley in February 2021. “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 played some of the best football in my career,” he said in an NFL Honors speech before thanking his “fiancée.”  

Later that month, the Secret Life of the American Teenager alum confirmed their engagement. “So it’s kind of funny. Everybody right now is freaking out over it and we’re like, ‘Yeah, we’ve been engaged for a while,’” she explained on The Tonight Show. “He’s, first off, just a wonderful, incredible human being. But I never thought I’d be engaged with somebody who threw balls for a living. Like, I never thought as a little girl … ‘Yeah, when I grow up, I’m gonna marry someone who throws balls! Yeah!’ But he’s really just so good at it.”

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The Best Thing

Rodgers gushed over his relationship with Woodley in March 2021. “I’m recently engaged so [I’ve] been enjoying that part of my life,” he said during an Instagram Live interview. “Obviously that’s the best thing that’s happened to me in the last year.”

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Instantly Serious

“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 Divergent star told Shape magazine in June 2021. “We jumped in headfirst and got some of the sticky bits out of the way early.”  

Woodley believed that she “would have met Aaron in any context, any space in time because I feel we were meant to be together.” 

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Their Personal Space

The Fault in Our Stars actress got real about the decision to protect her relationship with Rodgers. “When we announced that we were engaged, we wanted to do that only because we didn’t want someone else to do it before we did,” she 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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No Wedding Plans

Woodley told Entertainment Tonight in July 2021 that she was focused on “enjoying” her engagement to Rodgers. “There’s no wedding planning happening,” she revealed. “There’s no rush. We’ve got no rush.”  

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Time Apart

The football player discussed his long-distance relationship as he returned to Wisconsin for the NFL season. “It’s a busy work time for her, so [my decision] probably came at a good time for both of us to be able to focus on our work,” he told Haute Living in September 2021. “I think it’s going to be a good thing. I mean, her work was shut down for an entire year [during the pandemic], and she’s booked a number of projects. She enjoys working and her own routine, which I obviously enjoy too.”

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Standing by Her Man

Woodley defended Rodgers in November 2021 amid his vaccination controversy. “Literally, y’all need to calm the f--k down,” she wrote via her Instagram Story at the time, referring to reports that her then-fiancé was spotted out after testing positive for COVID-19. “This is straight up HILARIOUS.”

“I know Aaron’s body very well. First off, his feet, ahem and no offense to this rando dude, are a LOT bigger,” she continued alongside photos of a man that a media outlet claimed was Rodgers. “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. … Also, cute car dude, but Aaron would never drive this.”