Shailene Woodley is Very Much NOT Over Aaron Rodgers

John Shearer. Getty Images.

Romantic love - if all the pop songs, wedding toasts, and speeches from Julia Roberts movies are to be believed - is a fickle and complicated thing. It both defines what it is to be human, and yet can cause immense suffering. It truly is the great mystery of our existence. 

Take for instance, the relatively short lived dating relationship between Shailene Woodley and Aaron Rodgers that ended not long ago. Looking at it from a distance, you'd think that this wouldn't be all that tough a rebound for her. Granted, she's no longer seeing the reigning NFL MVP. But she's still moving on with her life as a 30-year-old, very desirable, highly successful, A-list actress with 40 credits on her IMDB page, including four upcoming projects. While Rodgers is still a divisive, polarizing, sort of off-putting figure, who is coming off yet another postseason embarrassment. 

My point being that you'd just assume that in this breakup, she'd be coming out of it with the upper hand. But love is never that simple:

Source - Shailene Woodley shared a quote about “grief” Wednesday after news of her and Aaron Rodgers’ breakup.

“‘Grief expressed out loud for someone we have lost, or a country or home we have lost, is in itself the greatest praise we could ever give them,’ says writer Martí Prechtel,” read the excerpt on Woodley’s Instagram Story.

“‘Grief is praise, because it is the natural way love honors what it misses.'”

The post’s author further analyzes Prechtel’s quote, adding that “seeing grief in this way helps us respect what we are going through, rather than being mired in shame and discouragement on top of the pain we already feel.”

Which is a strange reaction made all the stranger by the fact she apparently broke it off with him:

[I]t appears the relationship could not withstand the ups and downs, with the “Divergent” actress reportedly deciding she was “done.”

“Shailene tried to give it another shot and was spending time with Aaron,” an insider told E! News earlier this week. “But she quickly saw that everything was on his terms and nothing was going to change.”

And this Instastory was by no means the first post she's had along these lines:

What the actual what? Perhaps I've underestimated Aaron Rodger's raw, sexual appeal? That maybe his family and Mike McCarthy had no problems moving on, but when you date him he leaves a Grand Canyon-sized hole in your heart? Because here's one of the most attractive women in Hollywood. One who could be dating any other actor, some billionaire, and most of the NFL, but here she is, carrying on like a brokenhearted high school girl. Googling quotes about breakups and baring her soul on the Gram. Acting like she's an hour or so from posting a crying video on TikTok or writing 65 songs about Rodgers like Lloyd Dobler's platonic friend did after Joe cheated on her. 

I honestly don't know whether to appreciate that Woodley could be so emotionally attached to another human being, or have pity for her. Because this is at the same time admirable and sort of pathetic. So instead, I'll just direct my energy toward respecting Rodgers, whom I've obviously underestimated. Back before I met my own starlet Irish Rose, I had a few breakups. And never got the impression any of them gave me 10 seconds of thought, much less digging up sad quotes months after we split. I'm sure none of them even remember my name. But this guy has a very sexy, accomplished woman shook to her very core. I might be a few quarterbacks I'd rather have under center for me with a playoff game on the line, but damned if I can't salute a guy who can have this profound effect on a beautiful celebrity.