Shailene Woodley Seemingly Refers to Aaron Rodgers Breakup as 'Darkest, Hardest Time in My Life'

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Shailene Woodley found a creative outlet to work through a time when she was struggling in her personal life.

The Divergent actress, 31, told Net-a-Porter's digital title PORTER that filming the upcoming Showtime series Three Women — based on the 2019 book about a writer who interviews three different women to gather a snapshot of what sex lives are like for American women — proved challenging during one of the "darkest" periods in her life.

"It was hard to film because I was going through the darkest, hardest time in my life; it was winter in New York, and my personal life was s----, so it felt like a big pain bubble for eight months," she said. "I was so grateful that at least I could go to work and cry and process my emotions through my character."

Three Women was filmed between October 2021 and the following May. That February, PEOPLE reported that Woodley and NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers had ended their engagement just over a year after making it public. They were then spotted spending time together; PEOPLE confirmed that April that they'd broken up again.

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The actress added, "Three Women feels like it matters a lot — mostly, I think, because it mattered so much to me. I feel honored to be a part of it, because it genuinely gave me a North Star in a time in my life when my compass … calibration did not exist. And I think it has the potential to provide a North Star for other people out there too."

Woodley also told Net-a-Porter that attention on her relationship with Rodgers, 39, felt "violating."

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"It honestly never really hit me that millions of people around the world were actually watching these things and paid attention to them. Then, I dated somebody in America who was very, very famous," said the Big Little Lies star. "It was the first time that I'd had a quote-unquote 'famous' relationship, and I watched scrutiny, opinions, the desire for people to know my life and his life and our life — it just felt violating in a way that, before, it was fun."

She added, "I'm a very private person, and so I found that any time I posted anything, I instantly felt like I was sharing too much of who I am with people I didn't necessarily trust."