Aaron Rodgers is pushing back on Danica Patrick’s version of their breakup.
More than six years after the former couple ended their relationship, Rodgers opened up about Patrick during a wide-ranging appearance on the “Not Just Football” podcast with Pittsburgh Steelers teammate Cam Heyward on Thursday, Sept. 10.
The 42-year-old quarterback directly addressed comments Patrick previously made about their relationship and disputed her description of how their split unfolded.
“She tells a story that, ‘I was so blindsided by getting left by you, and he leaves a trail of blood around.’ I’m like what are you talking about?” Rodgers said. “That is not what happened by any means.”
Rodgers and Patrick began dating in 2018 and split in July 2020. Patrick, one of the most recognizable drivers in NASCAR history, has since spoken publicly about the emotional toll she says the relationship took on her.
Now, Rodgers is telling his side.
Aaron Rodgers Pushes Back on Danica Patrick’s Account of Their Split
Patrick discussed her relationship with Rodgers during a May 2025 appearance on The Sage Steele Show, where she described the relationship as “emotionally abusive.”
“It wore me down to nothing,” Patrick said at the time. She also said of Rodgers, “He leaves a trail of blood.”
Rodgers addressed those remarks while discussing his past relationships with Heyward.
“I dated Danica [Patrick]. She had just retired. She was depressed and not fun to be around, but I didn’t leave her because I was trying to be there and be a good partner,” Rodgers recalled.
He said the relationship eventually began moving in a different direction.
“Then it was going a certain direction, obviously. There was no intimacy. There was nothing,” Rodgers continued. “And I’m buying a house in Malibu and she goes, ‘Would you want to buy it together?,’ and I said no.”
According to Rodgers, Patrick suggested couples counseling, which they attended. The two eventually ended their relationship in July 2020.
Rodgers then challenged the characterization of Patrick being blindsided by the breakup.
“She tells a story that, ‘I was so blindsided by getting left by you, and he leaves a trail of blood around.’ I’m like what are you talking about? That is not what happened by any means,” Rodgers said.
Patrick’s previous comments reflect her own account of the relationship and its impact on her. Rodgers’ new remarks offer a sharply different version of what was happening privately before they separated.
Aaron Rodgers Says Public Didn’t Know What Was Happening Behind the Scenes
Rodgers’ comments about Patrick were part of a larger discussion about his personal life and the public narratives that have followed several of his relationships.
He also spoke about his relationship with actress Shailene Woodley, whom he dated after Patrick and later became engaged to before they split.
Rodgers argued that outsiders did not know what was happening inside either relationship.
“There’s Danica with her story, a trail of blood, blindsided by me leaving her and alright, there’s zero intimacy, didn’t want to buy a house there was really nothing there. Then I date Shailene…” Rodgers said.
“And again, I feel like this needs to be told because there’s just narratives out there which, by the way, forever, what people hit me on all the time was he’s such a [expletive], even his family hates him,” he continued. “Nobody knew anything that was going on with it.”
Rodgers also revealed that he met Brittani, who is now his wife, in 2017, before his relationship with Patrick began.
“I was emotionally unavailable, I think, for those seven or eight years because I met the person that had changed my life,” Rodgers said. “And after that, I just poured everything I had into football, and I think I got a lot out of that for sure.”
Rodgers said the two were separated geographically for much of that time and both eventually became engaged to other people before finding their way back to one another.
“But I knew I was supposed to be with this one person, but we were separated by an ocean for a lot [of] it,” Rodgers said. “Then, she was engaged, then I got engaged and luckily, for me, came back together.”
Rodgers and Patrick have each now publicly offered their own perspectives on a relationship that ended more than half a decade ago.
Patrick has described the experience as deeply damaging to her emotionally. Rodgers, in his latest interview, disputed parts of that account and made clear that he believes the public narrative surrounding their breakup does not reflect what happened behind closed doors.
Aaron Rodgers Fires Back at Danica Patrick Over Explosive Breakup Claim