“She Was Depressed and Not Fun to Be Around”: Aaron Rodgers Turns Danica Patrick’s Breakup Story Upside Down With Explosive New Claims

“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. He leaves a trail of blood,” Danica Patrick said on the Sage Steele Show back in May 2025 when asked about her split from NFL star Aaron Rodgers. And now, Rodgers has offered a dramatically different version of their relationship, pushing back on Patrick’s account and claiming she was struggling emotionally after retiring from racing. His comments have reopened an old chapter while challenging the story Patrick previously shared publicly.

“I dated Danica. 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. Then it was going a certain direction, obviously. There was no intimacy. There was nothing. And I’m buying a house in Malibu and she goes, ‘Would you want to buy it together?’ and I said no.” Aaron Rodgers recently revealed his side of the story on the Not Just Football with Cam Heyward podcast.

Rodgers and Patrick had known each other for years before their romance became public. Patrick has previously recalled meeting the Green Bay Packers quarterback at the ESPYs in 2012, where Rodgers gave her his email address.

The two remained in occasional contact afterward, although their communication was not always consistent. Their relationship eventually became public in January 2018, following the end of their respective previous relationships.

Patrick had recently ended her five-year relationship with NASCAR driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr., while Rodgers had split from actress Olivia Munn after three years together. Their new relationship quickly attracted significant attention, bringing together two prominent names from the worlds of motorsports and professional football.

But the romance lasted only about two years. Patrick and Rodgers ultimately separated in July 2020, with their breakup coming after a period that included one of the biggest changes of Patrick’s life.

She retired from professional racing in 2018, after making her final Indianapolis 500 start. Patrick had previously spoken about losing her passion for racing and the difficulty of finding competitive sponsorship opportunities, bringing her historic career to an end.

Rodgers now claims Patrick was going through a difficult emotional period following that transition, while insisting that he initially tried to remain by her side rather than walking away.

The conversation about the Malibu property appears to have exposed how far apart the couple had become. According to Rodgers, Patrick responded by suggesting counseling, and the two attempted to work through their problems together. Their efforts ultimately did not save the relationship, but Rodgers’ latest comments suggest he strongly disagrees with the version of events that later emerged publicly.

That frustration appears to extend beyond Patrick’s account of their split. Rodgers has spent years dealing with a public image that has often focused on his complicated personal relationships.

“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 f—ing a–hole, even his family hates him. Nobody knew anything that was going on with it,” he said.

The family narrative became especially prominent during Rodgers’ years-long estrangement from his relatives, with disagreements over privacy, personal differences and the public discussion of family matters becoming part of the story.

Rodgers has since revealed that he reconciled with his brother Jordan Rodgers, marking a significant change after years of distance. On the relationship front, he started dating Brittani in December 2024 and married around March or April 2025. The details about her identity are kept private.

Patrick, meanwhile, has largely kept her current romantic life away from the spotlight as well. She is reportedly seeing a private partner whose identity has not been publicly confirmed by Patrick.

Now, Rodgers has placed his version of their relationship directly against the narrative Patrick shared years later. Her description centered on the emotional impact of the breakup, while Rodgers is portraying a relationship that had already deteriorated before it ended. The contrasting accounts have given an old celebrity romance a fresh layer of controversy.

The post “She Was Depressed and Not Fun to Be Around”: Aaron Rodgers Turns Danica Patrick’s Breakup Story Upside Down With Explosive New Claims appeared first on EssentiallySports.