Aaron Rodgers shared an unexpected update after reuniting with his once estranged family members.
“I feel like it was part of the full-circle nature of this last season for me,” Aaron, 42, said in a recent interview with USA Today Sports while reflecting on his reconciliation with parents Darla and Ed and older brother Luke Rodgers.
Aaron continued, “There’s been a narrative out there. There’s not been a lot of information that’s truthful about it. And I think that the personal life should stay personal and private. But I feel like it was part of the full-circle to just one time post something, and never again. So that that narrative can finally be put to rest.”
The quarterback shocked fans in late July after sharing a carousel of photos with his family following years of apparent tension.
“Another bonding week,” he captioned the upload last month, posing with Luke and their parents. (Younger brother Jordan Rodgers was notably absent from the reunion.)
During an interview with NFL Network’s Kyle Brandt, Aaron shared more insight into why he reconnected with his family, giving his wife, Brittani, most of the credit.
“There’s been a lot of conversation about it outside of my own conversations for so many years,” he said on Saturday, August 1. “You know, a big part of it was getting married and having those conversations with my wife that allowed me to kind of open up to the possibility of coming together — it’s been a couple-year process now, the conversations with [my family].”
Aaron admitted that he’s stayed “very closed off about that part of my life” and preferred to “keep it that way,” but he wanted to set some of the “narrative” straight.
“It’s been really beautiful to reconnect with them — all of them,” he continued. “And I got to spend a long weekend recently — [where] those [social media] pictures are from — in Nashville with my parents and his brother and his sweet wife and their incredible two kids. So I got to be an uncle, so it’s really special.”
After Aaron’s Instagram post went viral, TMZ published footage of the athlete spending time with his mom and dad in April at the inaugural Pleasant Valley High School Athletics Hall of Fame dinner in Chico, California. According to the outlet, Aaron thanked his parents during his speech at the event, which celebrated his journey from Pleasant Valley High School to the NFL.
Now decades into his professional career, Aaron is no stranger to finding himself in the headlines. He insisted to USA Today Sports, however, that he pays no attention to the outside noise.
“I don’t give a [crap] about anything that people think about me unless they’re in my corner and I would ask them for advice,” he said. “I don’t care about the criticism from people like that. Most people have made up their mind about me, so it doesn’t matter what I say.”
