Shailene Woodley’s split from Aaron Rodgers was ‘the darkest, hardest time in my life’

Shailene Woodley covers the latest issue of Porter, net-a-porter’s in-house digital magazine. She’s promoting Showtime’s Three Women, an adaptation of Lisa Taddeo’s book of the same name. Shailene plays a version of Taddeo, a journalist with sort of a sociologist’s eye for women’s stories. I got halfway through Three Women and I gave up, but it was sort of interesting, I guess. It definitely feels like it has the potential to be a good miniseries. Meanwhile, Shailene is getting back to who she really is, a granola-crunching hippie who suns her bajingo. The Aaron Rodgers interlude was definitely strange, made weirder by the fact that he turned into an anti-vaxx douche spouting Trumper talking points. But they’ve been over for months now and she seems somewhat relieved. Some highlights from Porter:

She spent last summer in Europe, observing Italians: “[They] could sit on a bench in the park and just watch the world go by, and that was enough.”

Filming Three Women after her split from Rodgers: “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 sh-tty, so it felt like a big pain bubble for eight months. I was so grateful that at least I could go to work and cry and process my emotions through my character.”

The subject matter of Three Women: “I had, at a very young age, become obsessed with sex and intimacy, and the way that we relate to it as Americans,” she says. When Woodley read Three Women, she remembers “being very struck by Lisa’s desire to explore these themes in this country….Sometimes it’s frustrating, because a lot of the things that I read are all about women’s empowerment and feminism, but the way the stories are being told are actually not portraying women in an empowered way. To me, empowerment simply means truth, vulnerability, acknowledging the good and the bad, the pros, the cons, the ugly, the beauty. The conversation I had with Lisa was about that; we’re not here trying to make a show that’s championing women all around the world to become the best versions of themselves – it’s a show that’s just acknowledging the reality that women face.”

Her 30s: “I’ve always loved getting older, but it’s almost like I feel an exhale; I’ve been waiting so long to experience not giving a f–k about what other people think about me and my life and the choices I make. I’m so excited to continue letting go of so many of the things that controlled me in my twenties; to really experience the joy of life in a way that, when you’re younger, is more difficult to experience – because it’s controlled by the way you were raised instead of the identity that you create as your own person.”

Why she took a break from social media: “I recognized that there was more noise than ever and most of the people I was following, they’d be posting about something, and yet, I knew behind closed doors, they didn’t actually know what they were talking about, and I’m so allergic to people talking about things that they know nothing about. I think because of ‘cancel culture’, everybody feels like they have to be wise and intelligent about something, but no one actually wants to do the work of being quiet and taking the time to read books and educate themselves and listen to people who are actually well-informed on subjects, and to be critical thinkers.”

The attention on her relationship with Rodgers: “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 [the] 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.”

[From Porter]

I really hope this is about Aaron: “I knew behind closed doors, they didn’t actually know what they were talking about, and I’m so allergic to people talking about things that they know nothing about…” Because that dude was into some wild and stupid vaccine conspiracies and I hope this is her gentle way of calling him out. If she’s not referencing Aaron… well, who knows. Shailene fit that description for a while too, especially around the 2016 election (I haven’t forgotten). I hope her 30s are better than her 20s – most women tend to feel that way, like their 20s were absolute dogsh-t shenanigans and their 30s were the decade where they came into their own.

Cover & IG courtesy of Porter.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

20 Responses to “Shailene Woodley’s split from Aaron Rodgers was ‘the darkest, hardest time in my life’”

Comments are Closed

We close comments on older posts to fight comment spam.

  1. Mabs A'Mabbin says:

    Bajingo needs to be a video game title.

  2. Emily_C says:

    Just reading books and even thinking critically are not it. You have to have good information, know good books from bad, or your “critical thinking” can easily end up at flat earth type stuff. Garbage in, garbage out. The only way to combat this is a good foundational education that covers the basics in science, history, literature, and art.

    • Emmi says:

      Sometimes I wish I had gone to a trade school and learned something truly useful. LOL Because I need to hire someone for everything, really. I don’t even work in the field I studied so it sometimes feels extra wasteful, getting an MA. But the one thing that I learned that should be taught from an early grade imo is doing research. Proper research. For my final thesis I spent so much time in the library because online sources just weren’t there yet. I also took a seminar on media literacy. That was year 4 I think and it was eye-opening. I’m not surprised at all how social media has shaped discourse. Because it almost takes an advanced degree just to not be swept up in the flood of (dis)information every day.

  3. K8erade says:

    I’m glad Shaliene got away. Aaron is a walking red flag.

    • Erin says:

      I’m also pretty sure he was dabbling in conspiracy theories before her too, he just started becoming more bold about it because trump made it ok for idiots to show themselves. There was a ex teammate of his that said the first thing AR asked him when they met was if he believed in 911 and I’m pretty sure that was before Covid.

  4. Josephine says:

    I love how she seems to be arguing that “cancel culture” means that people should actually be responsible for what they project. Sorry, but you should be responsible just because you are a decent human being. These celebs are always so burdened by consequences and responsibility. It’s not that hard – be positive, shut your mouth and let experts speak, listen more, don’t be an a**hole.

    • shopaholic says:

      except the downside to cancel culture is that it’s a slippery slope. where do we draw the line and who gets cancelled and who doesn’t? and is there no room for redemption? i wonder about it bc i also don’t want to teach my kids that you are defined by one mistake for the rest of ur life.

      • Lucy says:

        Realistically, if they’re straight white males, the “cancel” isn’t real.

      • Emily_C says:

        @Lucy — Only if they’re straight rich white males. Or if they’re rich anything, really. “Cancel culture” is very real otherwise.

      • Josephine says:

        I truly think that republicants have mostly created and demonized the term “cancel culture” and have way, way overstated its effect. Very few people have suffered any long term harm from cancel culture. People who do and say horrible things have a temporary negative response to that bad behavior and pretend that they’ve been canceled for sympathy. This country has an incredibly short memory.

        I’ve taught my kids from day one that social media is forever and they’ve dabbled only because of that. I’ve also taught them to stop and think before speaking and acting. Thir actions are subject to being recorded and following them, but we’re fortunate to live in an area where schools, coaches and other adults are repeating the message to be careful on social media.

  5. TIFFANY says:

    She’s not Hollywood, but is in a career that requires her to be Hollywood.

    Got it. 😐

    • Kirsten says:

      I’m not sure where she says this (or something like it)? But even so, it’s not weird to like your job but not really care for/fit in with the culture of your job.

      • TIFFANY says:

        It is literally on the cover under her headline. They sure would not have used that without consent.

  6. K8erade says:

    I’m glad Shaliene got away. Aaron became a walking red flag.

  7. girl_ninja says:

    She has always come off as pretentious to me but with good intentions? She seems to try to be better unlike that huge ass disappointment of a brat Aaron Rogers. That must have been a punch to the gut to see that the person you love turn into a complete fool and completely different ideology than you.

  8. CourtneyB says:

    Those photos remind me of Kate Winslet.

  9. j.ferber says:

    Why, girl? You dodged a bullet. He has interior motives inside his interior motives. No doubt he is a master manipulator both because his team still wants him (though he can’t get rings) and many attractive women fall for his faux- huckster charm.

  10. Cecil Belle says:

    Woodley has always been pretentious and pretty disingenuous as well. She calls the scrutiny “violating” but was happy to shill that relationship every chance she got for months when she thought it benefited her. Lots of Hollywood couples manage to keep their personal business out of the press while she and Rogers went for maximum exposure. The cringy engagement confirmation on Fallon and the awkward Disneyland photo op were just the start. In the end he seemed to be looking for a long distance relationship solely based on his on his terms. He’s been a sports superstar forever and probably doesn’t like the word “no” and in his world rarely has to hear it. Shailene really, really wanted a ticket on the Rodgers bus – she just didn’t like where she wound up getting off.

  11. Ocean says:

    Most of these people (celebs) lose touch with reality sooner or later. Please, AR doesn’t even bat for her team. They were so obviously a PR arrangement! Maybe some affection there but seriously, who bought these two…

    Aside, she looks good with the hair-colour change and the green suits her.