Shailene Woodley faced ‘hardest time’ in her life amid Aaron Rodgers’ vaccine controversy

Shailene Woodley reveals that she went through “the darkest, hardest time in my life” while filming her new Showtime series in the fall of 2021, a time that coincided with the final months of her relationship with then-fiancé Aaron Rodgers and when he sparked national controversy by ranting critically about the COVID-19 vaccine.

In a new interview with Net-A-Porter’s Porter magazine, the 31-year-old “Divergent” actor talked about dating “somebody in America who was very, very famous,” without naming Rodgers. She said it was hard to film the series, “Three Women,” during the months before and after her relationship with the Green Bay Packers quarterback ended in February 2022.

“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 (expletive), so it felt like a big pain bubble for eight months,” Woodley said to Porter magazine, according to the Daily Mail.

“I was so grateful that at least I could go to work and cry and process my emotions through my character.” https://t.co/57cnPZgzgT

— BuzzFeed (@BuzzFeed) January 23, 2023

“I was so grateful that at least I could go to work and cry and process my emotions through my character,” Woodley also said.

Principal photography for “Three Women” took place in Long Island and Schenectady, New York, in October and November 2021.

In early November 2021, Rodgers did serious damage to his public image as a widely regarded NFL star by going on an angry anti-COVID vaccination rant on “The Pat McAfee Show.” The reigning NFL Most Valuable Player was accused of being an arrogant, narcissistic crackpot with a persecution complex after he claimed he was a victim of “the woke mob” and that the media had launched “a witch hunt” to pin him down on whether he had been vaccinated.

Unfortunately for Woodley, she was caught up in Rodgers’ controversy, first because she’s a Hollywood star known to advocate for alternative medicines and natural, herbal remedies. But she did herself no favors by coming to his defense in ways that came across as tone-deaf, given that public health officials had raised serious concerns about the potential harm caused by Rodgers’ anti-vaccination statements in the midst of a global pandemic.

Woodley took to social media to post snarky, expletive-laced and even sexually suggestive Instagram defenses of Rodgers against the media circus. At one point, she boasted about knowing “Aaron’s body very well” in response to a tabloid report that misidentified Rodgers in photos and falsely accused him of breaking his 10-day quarantine after testing positive for COVID.

Woodley acknowledged to Porter that being in “a quote-unquote ‘famous’ relationship” became difficult.

“It honestly never really hit me that millions of people around the world were actually watching these things and paid attention to them,” she said. “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.”

Through December 2021 and January 2022, the couple were the subject of speculation about the status of their relationship, with sources repeatedly insisting they were still together.

A source close to the couple told People in December that they were trying to make their relationship work “on their terms.” The source said, “They have a different, non-traditional relationship.” A month later, another insider told People that the couple “disagreed on a lot of things,” including politics, but that they tried to keep the peace by not debating those topics.

However, the likelihood of a split became apparent when the Chico-reared Rodgers failed to thank Woodley or even mention her name when he won his third NFL MVP award in early February 2022.

Reports soon followed that they had ended their engagement. Rodgers then appeared again on “The Pat McAfee Show” in late February, when he said he didn’t regret speaking his mind about the COVID-19 vaccine, but he said he regretted how those comments impacted his loved ones, BuzzFeed News reported.

“One thing that I am sad about and definitely apologetic is I didn’t realize in the midst of the COVID conversations how much my situation was affecting my loved ones and my people,” Rodgers said. “I didn’t realize the kind of shrapnel that was being flaked off of what I felt like were the bullets coming at me because I was too locked in on me and defending myself and trying to get a message out.”

Rodgers then apologized directly to Woodley — or “Shai” — and others, saying he was “very sorry” for the blowback they encountered.

Rodgers and Woodley first revealed they were engaged after he won his MVP award in 2021. The couple reportedly began dating during the pandemic lockdown in July 2020, around the time he ended his two-year relationship with race car driver Danica Patrick.

Since ending things with Rodgers, Woodley has apparently kept busy by working some more on “Three Women” and on other film and TV projects and continuing her environmental activism. “Three Women,” based on the bestselling book by Lisa Taddeo, focuses on a group of women who realize they want to make changes in their lives.

Rodgers, meanwhile, failed to lead the Packers to the playoffs and he’s not saying whether he’ll return to play another season with the team. But in another of his weekly interviews o”n The Pat McAfee Show,” the one-time Cal Golden Bears player said he may again drink ayahuasca — the plant-based psychedelic he has touted for months in past interviews, People reported. 

Rodgers also has recently been romantically linked to Mallory Edens, the daughter of Wes Edens, one of the Milwaukee Bucks’ primary owners, People also reported.

While Rodgers and Edens have been spotted alongside each other at Bucks games for years, a source told that they are now dating. “It’s more than friends, but it’s casual,” the insider told People. “He’s not looking to rush into anything. It’s low-key for now.”