Shailene Woodley wasn’t the only ex Aaron Rodgers was harping on about in a recent podcast. The oldest active player in the NFL had some things to say about his breakup with Danica Patrick six years after the former couple called it quits.
In the interview, Rodgers expressed his frustration that his past relationships continue to come up, before going on a rant that would make headlines. “I dated two women who nobody gives a s*** about unless they drop my name,” he said on teammate Cam Heyward’s “Not Just Football” podcast.
First, Aaron revisited his relationship with the retired NASCAR driver, where he pushed back hard against Patrick’s description of their 2020 split.
Rodgers said he has watched his former girlfriends tell “their version of the history” and claimed the stories have painted him as a “monster” of a partner. “And number one, why you still talking about me? It’s been years,” Rodgers said.
© GettyHis comments come after Patrick opened up about their breakup last year on The Sage Steele Show, describing the relationship as “emotionally abusive” and saying the split caused her the most pain she had experienced.
Patrick said the relationship had become her entire life because they lived together and shared practically everything. She said the experience “wore me down to nothing” and famously added that Rodgers “leaves a trail of blood.”
“People could never imagine that I would lack … any confidence or belief in the simple things about who I am. Everything was torn to bits,” the professional driver continued. “Yeah, he leaves a trail of blood.”
Rodgers now says that is not how he remembers it. “She tells a story that I was so blindsided by getting left by you, and there’s a trail of blood that he leaves,” Rodgers said. “I’m like, what are you talking about?”
According to Rodgers, the relationship had already deteriorated significantly before they officially split. The couple began dating in 2018, after being introduced through mutual friends. Their relationship quickly became one of the biggest sports power couples, with Patrick regularly sharing glimpses of their life and Rodgers supporting her after her retirement.
But Rodgers says Patrick’s retirement and mental health changed the dynamic between them. “She had just retired. She was depressed and not fun to be around,” he said. “But I didn’t leave her because I was trying to be there and be a good partner.” He said their relationship eventually reached a point where “there was no intimacy” and “there was nothing.”
One moment Rodgers specifically remembered involved a Malibu house he was considering buying. Patrick apparently asked whether they should purchase it together. “And I said, ‘No,’” Rodgers recalled.
© GettyPatrick, according to Rodgers, understood what that meant for their future and suggested they go to couples counseling. She said, ‘Well, let’s get counseling.’ So then we got counseling,” he said.
Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, “and we’re stuck together,” Rodgers said. The couple ultimately split in July 2020 after more than two years together. Her representative confirmed at the time that they were “no longer together.”
His latest comments also reveal something he says was happening internally during the relationship: he had already met the woman he now considers the love of his life.
Rodgers said he met his future wife, Brittani, in 2017, before his relationship with Patrick. According to Rodgers, Brittani eventually returned to Europe, and he regrets not asking her to stay or proposing at the time.
That separation, he said, sent him into a “tailspin” and contributed to him becoming emotionally unavailable in the relationships that followed. “I was emotionally unavailable, I think, for those seven or eight years,” Rodgers said in the same interview. “I’d met the person that changed my life. And after that, I just poured everything I had into football.”
So while Patrick has described feeling emotionally worn down by Patrick, he’s also admitting that he was already struggling to fully show up emotionally.
Patrick has since moved on with her life, while Rodgers eventually reunited with Brittani. The couple married privately in 2025.
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