Shailene Woodley says the only reason she and Aaron Rodgers announced their engagement was so a tabloid wouldn’t get ahead of them

• Shailene Woodley and Aaron Rodgers announced their engagement in February.

• The actress told THR on Friday that they had gone public, so a tabloid didn’t get ahead of them.

• She said they refused to talk about the relationship afterwards, instead remaining in their “bubble”.

• Visit the Insider homepage for more stories.

By the time Shailene Woodley and Aaron Rodgers announced their engagement in February, it was old news for the leading actress and Green Bay Packers quarterback.

The couple had been secretly engaged for months already, and if it was up to them, they would have kept him that way.

“When we first announced we were engaged, we only wanted to do it because we didn’t want anyone else to do it before us,” the “Divergent” actress explained in her Hollywood Reporter cover on Friday. .

She continued, “And we didn’t do it for months and months after we got engaged, but the reaction to it was really really strong, and we were like, ‘Let’s politely decline. [to talk about the relationship] for a little while and live in our little bubble. ‘”

The couple went under the radar at the start of the pandemic after meeting through mutual friends. Woodley did not identify the buddies but did mention in his THR interview that they were musicians.

Because she resides in Los Angeles and resides in Green Bay, the couple spent their time traveling between the two cities and moved in together just a few months after they met, she said.

“We were really able to get to know each other the way we wanted to get to know each other and not have any noise or chaos around us,” the “Big Little Lies” star said of the weather they did. spent together during the pandemic.

In early February, the tabloids had understood their romance. E! News confirmed Rodgers and Woodley were in a long-distance relationship, citing a source who said they were keeping things “private and low-key.” Outlets like People and Us Weekly were quick to follow.

The story continues

Days later, Rodgers regained control of the narrative by casually dropping his engagement at the NFL Honors Awards, where he accepted the Associated Press’s Most Valuable Player award for the third time.

“2020 has definitely been a crazy year, filled with a lot of changes, growth, amazing memorable moments, 180 straight days of scratching my nose hairs, playing for very little fans,” he said in his acceptance speech, adding: engaged and I have played one of the best football of my career. “

Rodgers did not name Woodley at the time but made a point of thanking his “fiancée”.

Weeks later, on an episode of “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon”, Woodley confirmed that she, as many suspected in the wake of tabloid reports, was the mysterious “bride” to whom the star of the NFL referred to in his speech.

“We are engaged, but for us it is not news,” she told the host, explaining that they had been engaged “for a while”.

Woodley, who admittedly has never watched a football game before, then joked: “I never thought I would be engaged to someone who threw balls for a living.”

Read the original article on Insider