Shailene Woodley: Aaron Rodgers relationship was ‘toxic situation’

Article content

This season has been incredibly rough for Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets, but it turns out that being in a relationship with him was no walk in the park for Shailene Woodley.

The actress said in a recent interview with Outside magazine that she has been quiet about her past relationship with ex-fiancé Rodgers because it makes her cry.

The star of the Divergent movie series opened up about her relationship with the Jets quarterback, which ended in early 2022.

“I haven’t shared much about my relationship with Aaron because it always makes me cry,” she told the outlet, which noted that the actress’ eyes welled up. “It was not right. But it was beautiful.”

Woodley, now 33, and Rodgers, 41, dated for two years before their February 2022 breakup, just over a year after going public.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Try refreshing your browser, or
tap here to see other videos from our team.

Play Video

“I had a really awful, traumatic thing happen in early 2022,” Woodley told the magazine, but did not go into detail about her trauma.

“I felt like I lost my soul, my self, my happiness, my joy. I really understood depression and anxiety and, like, complete soul detachment.”

Woodley explained that she chose to stay in a “toxic situation” because she was empathizing with “someone else.”

Woodley did not name the person, but added, “empathy kind of kept me in this loop of feeling everything for everyone.”

She credited her stylist, Kris Zero, with helping her get through the toughest times. Woodley recalled her depression started to fade roughly six months after the traumatic experience.

“I knew I was depressed when I looked at a tree and felt nothing. That was the lowest low of my life,” Woodley said, adding that Zero would wake her up every morning by blasting music to get her out of bed.

“Sometimes I was so angry at her,” Woodley said. “But then we’d go surf, and for 10 minutes that day I thought life could be OK again. Then the depression would come back and she’d go, ‘We’re volunteering at the horse ranch!’ And we’d find a random f—ing horse ranch, and we’d clean up horse s—. We’d clean hooves and brush the horses, and for 20 minutes that day I thought life could be OK again.

“And then the depression came back and she’d wake me up the next morning and go, ‘Let’s go on a hike and bring trash bags and clean up trash!’”

Woodley and Rodgers both are reportedly single now, but the actress, who most recently starred in Killer Heat this year with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Richard Madden, says that she would like have a child one day.

“One of my biggest dreams is to be a mom,” Woodley told the magazine.

Rodgers has played for the Jets for the past two disastrous seasons. On the first drive of his first game with the team last year, he suffered a torn Achilles and was sidelined for the rest of the season.

This season, the Jets have been embroiled in controversy and infighting while stumbling out to a 3-9 record despite pre-season predictions of a playoff berth.

Head coach Robert Saleh and general manager Joe Douglas have both been fired and there have been reports that Rodgers could be benched in favour of backup Tyrod Taylor.