She added that she found the public “scrutiny” of their relationship to be “violating.”
Shailene Woodley revealed that shooting her new Showtime series Three Women helped her get through one of the toughest times in her life by offering her a moral compass when she felt like her own was out of whack.
The actress opened up about the role and her romantic life in a new interview with Net-a-Porter. “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 shit, so it felt like a big pain bubble for eight months,” she said. “I was so grateful that at least I could go to work and cry and process my emotions through my character.”
The show, based on Lisa Taddeo's 2019 book by the same name in which the journalist spent years profiling three American women about their sexual and emotional lives, was filmed from October 2021 to May 2022. In February 2022, TMZ first reported that Woodley and her then-fiancé Aaron Rodgers had called off their engagement, a little over a year after the football player popped the question. In the months that followed, Woodley and Rodgers were spotted enjoying each other's company multiple times, including attending a wedding together and visiting a vineyard after a night out at a casino. But by April 2022, People confirmed that the pair had decided to go their separate ways for good.
Woodley went on the explain to the outlet, “Three Women feels like it matters a lot—mostly, I think, because it mattered so much to me. I feel honored to be a part of it, because it genuinely gave me a North Star in a time in my life when my compass…calibration did not exist. And I think it has the potential to provide a North Star for other people out there too.”
She added that the public attention their relationship received also aided in souring the connection between her and the NFL quarterback. “It honestly never really hit me that millions of people around the world were actually watching these things and paid attention to them,” the actor said. “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 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.” Woodley concluded, “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.”
