NFL star quarterback Aaron Rodgers and former racecar driver Danica Patrick first met at the ESPY's in 2012, but didn't start dating until 2018.
The couple kept their relationship alive for just two years before eventually calling it quits in 2020. Five years layer, Patrick made a troubling claim against the free agent quarterback.
In a conversation with former ESPN star Sage Steele, Patrick was asked to shared "the most amount of pain" she's experienced in her life, to which she replied, "The breakup with Aaron in 2020." In explaining her answer, Patrick revealed that the relationship was "emotionally abusive."
"Because it was sudden, it felt like. It was my life. So like when you live with somebody, it's your whole life," she continued. "And because the nature of the relationship was emotionally abusive, so that wore me down to nothing."
Patrick went on to say that Rodgers "leaves a trail of blood," while appearing to hint at his exits from various NFL teams like the Green Bay Packers and New York Jets.
"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," Patrick added, via People. "Yeah, he leaves a trail of blood. I don't think I'm saying too much earth-shattering stuff after we - there's been enough out there."
Steele then asked Patrick if she had known "at the time" that the relationship was "emotionally abusive," or whether she realized it "in hindsight" after she "recovered and [had] gotten to know" herself again.
"Hindsight, I ignored it, but in real life, it was just like I just feel like - I would say all the time, ‘I'm built for hard things. I can handle hard things.' And so I just saw it as a hard thing," she admitted.
"And my nature is to try harder and do more. And I was like, ‘What if I don't do it for the right person?' Like what if I just get a stick up my a-- about this and get too proud and go like, ‘You know what, I'm just done.' Instead of going, ‘Man just try a little harder because what if you look back and wish you would have tried?' Like I would never want that in my life."
Despite the abusive nature of the relationship, Patrick claimed it was a "gift."
"But it gave me the greatest gift, the greatest gift, which is myself. It gave me the greatest gift of how much I needed to show up for myself and take care of myself," she said.
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This story was originally published May 24, 2025 at 7:05 PM.