Shailene Woodley gets no mention in Aaron Rodgers MVP speech as they have new reason to be apart

When Aaron Rodgers won his third NFL Most Valuable Player award in 2021, he made the surprise announcement that he was engaged to actress Shailene Woodley and giddily thanked “my fiancée” in his acceptance speech.

Within weeks, America’s new celebrity super couple delighted their fans by embarking on a series of fun, glamorous and highly publicized trips to locations all over North America.

On Thursday night, there was no mention of Woodley or anyone else by name outside of football when the Green Bay Packers quarterback accepted his fourth MVP award, an omission that is likely to spark new questions about the status of their relationship. Instead, Rodgers thanked his “inner circle — you know who you are” for their “love and support this season,” as well as his “Friday crew.” He said, “I love you guys.”

This was a perfect MVP acceptance speech from @AaronRodgers12. Congrats x4!! #GoPackGo pic.twitter.com/KR4gDr8Hjq

— ???????????? ???????????????? (@BigMack_4) February 11, 2022

For this reason and others, fans may want to temper their expectations of a repeat of “Travels With Aaron and Shailene” this spring. For one thing, Woodley will soon be working in Italy. It was announced this week that she accepted a role in “Ferrari,” a new big-budget biopic about racing mogul Enzo Ferrari, Deadline reported. In the film, directed by esteemed director Michael Mann, Woodley will play Ferrari’s mistress opposite Adam Driver in the title role. Penélope Cruz is cast as Ferrari’s wife. The project presents a major opportunity for Woodley, an Emmy and Oscar nominee.

NEW PROJECT

Adam Driver, Penélope Cruz and Shailene Woodley have been cast in Michael Mann’s project #Ferrari.

Production begins on May 2022. https://t.co/Am6BhQSDEx

— Shailene Woodley Updates (@PlanetShailene) February 9, 2022

Back in September, before the start of the NFL season, Rodgers, 38, spoke supportively of Woodley’s career, particularly after her TV and film projects were put on hold during the pandemic. He spoke in an interview about how it would “be a good thing” for him and the “Big Little Lies” star to spend time time apart, while he focused on the season and she focused on work.

Perhaps, Rodgers and Woodley can fit in a romantic vacation before she heads off to Italy. Or, in his off-season, he can fly over to see her and they can indulge in the celebrity tradition of cruising on a mega-yacht off the Amalfi Coast. Last month, Rodgers said he was going to “take some time away” to think about his future, following his team’s stunning loss to the 49ers in the NFC divisional playoff game.

However, it wasn’t known if that “time away” would include Woodley, prompting some gossip sites and a Woodley fan Twitter account to repeat rumors that they had called it quits. It’s been noted that the two haven’t been seen in public together since last spring, and they stopped talking about each other in interviews at the end of the summer.

Shailene sweetie now is the time to announce you dumped him months ago

— Shailene Woodley Updates (@PlanetShailene) January 23, 2022

Meanwhile, there are other reasons that the couple no longer generates the level of excitement and good will they enjoyed last year, when they came across as an attractive and fun-loving couple in an Instagram video they shared about Rodgers guest-hosting “Jeopardy!” and in photos of them traveling to Mexico, Disney World, the Kentucky Derby and Maui.

Check out this episode of Walt Disney World Minute to hear @shailenewoodley and @AaronRodgers12 chat about their love of Star Wars, favorite Disney songs and movies, and more during a recent visit to Walt Disney World Resort: https://t.co/6Jg6uHxdJS

Reply pic.twitter.com/igTQaCIexd

— Walt Disney World (@WaltDisneyWorld) April 18, 2021

Even before it became clear that Rodgers and the Packers would once again miss playing in the Super Bowl, the Chico-reared quarterback had experienced a stunning fall from grace over his incendiary anti-COVID-19 vaccination comments. It remains to be seen whether his second-straight MVP win Thursday will reverse that trend.

Rodgers was accused of disseminating misinformation about a global pandemic and being an arrogant, narcissistic crackpot with a persecution complex who rails about the “woke mob” and being “canceled.” The one-time Cal Golden Bears star became the butt of jokes, and much worse, as he suffered significant damage to his once-golden reputation as a likable American sports hero, and the glow around him and Woodley as a couple began to dim.

Woodley herself became caught up in Rodgers’ controversy because she has long been an advocate for alternative medicines and natural, herbal remedies. Woodley also faced criticism for coming to Rodgers’ defense in a way that was seen as tone deaf. She boasted about his physical attributes on Instagram after he tested positive for COVID-19 and delivered the first of his anti-vaccination statements on the “The Pat McAfee” show.

Woodley took to social media to slam a tabloid report that misidentified Rodgers in photos and falsely reported that he broke his 10-day quarantine after testing positive for COVID. Woodley issued an expletive-laced complaint against the “expletive” media by saying, “I know Aaron’s body very well.” She joked that Rodgers has “bigger feet than the man purported to be Rodgers in the tabloid photo,” likely referring to another, more intimate part of his anatomy.

Woodley’s comments were seen as disregarding people’s public health concerns about Rodgers’ anti-vaccination comments and how he misled reporters about his vaccination status and showed disregard for other people’s safety.

By December, questions about Woodley and Rodgers’ relationship were percolating loudly enough that a source close to the couple issued a statement to People, insisting that she and Rodgers are “still together” and were making the relationship work “on their terms.” That means, for example, that she wasn’t going to wish him a happy birthday publicly when he turned 38, the source said.

“They have a different, non-traditional relationship,” the source said. “It’s not odd they don’t post about each other on their birthdays in that sense, and are very private about things.”

Woodley never positioned herself as the kind of girlfriend who would regularly be seen in the luxury box, cheering her man on. When she gave her first interview about their engagement, during a February 2021 interview on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” she revealed that she had never watched a football game before dating Rodgers. Woodley also said she had not seen Rodgers play in person.

Questions about the relationship surged again late last month, following the Packers’ Jan. 23 defeat. Another “source” authorized to speak for Woodley again let it be known to People that she and Rodgers were still together as a couple, but this source also tried to distance Woodley from some of Rodgers’ controversial statements by saying she doesn’t always agree with her fiancé on “politics.”

The source told People that Woodley and Rodgers “are not talking about their politics, and they never really have.” The source added: “They disagreed on a lot of things. Early on, they decided to agree to disagree about things and not debate them.”

This statement was seen by some as Woodley seeking to preserve her reputation by distancing herself from Rodgers’ COVID-19 vaccine denialism. She was employing what could be called an “agree to disagree” defense.

From a career standpoint, this defense, or her public distance from Rodgers, seems to be working for Woodley, given that she was cast in “Ferrari.” Given its A-list cast and director, the film will be highly anticipated in Academy Award conversations.

Over the past few months, while Rodgers was playing football, Woodley was in the Hudson Valley and upstate New York, filming “Three Women,” a Showtime drama series based on Lisa Taddeo’s best-selling nonfiction book by the same name, the Daily Gazette in Schenectady reported. She also wrapped filming in winter 2021 for “Misanthrope,” a film in which she plays a troubled detective hunting a serial killer.  The high school drama, “The Fallout,” in which Woodley plays a supporting role premiered last month on HBO Max.

Exclusive Clip of Shailene Woodley and Jenna Ortega in “The Fallout” https://t.co/qCQd9zNZmt

— Shailene Woodley Updates (@PlanetShailene) January 26, 2022