Shailene Woodley Reflects on “Darkest, Hardest Time in My Life” Following Aaron Rodgers Split

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Shailene Woodley is opening up about her breakup with Aaron Rodgers—without naming names. Speaking to Net-a-Porter, Shailene said that working on her new project Three Women was extremely difficult for her because she was going through such a hard time during filming. And while she didn’t mention Aaron specifically, the timing of Three Women’s production lines up with their breakup, sooo gonna go ahead and read into this:

“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 shitty, so it felt like a big pain bubble for eight months,” Shailene said. “I was so grateful that at least I could go to work and cry and process my emotions through my character.”

Shailene also spoke about the spotlight on her relationship, saying, “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. 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.…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.”

Three Women (which is based on Lisa Taddeo’s book) was filmed between October 2021 and May 2022. News broke that Shailene and Aaron ended their engagement in February 2022—so right around the middle of Shailene filming. The breakup was kinda messy too and involved Shailene and Aaron briefly hanging out again, only to split for good in April 2022.

“Shailene felt everything was on Aaron’s terms, and it wasn’t making her happy,” a source told People in April. Before that, back in February, another insider told the outlet, “They’re very different people with busy careers and there were obstacles that they couldn’t surmount. They will remain friendly; there’s no bad blood and no drama. It just didn’t work out for them.”

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