For Aaron Rodgers and Shailene Woodley, distance can quite possibly make the heart grow fonder.
In a new interview with Haute Living, the NFL quarterback reflects on his upcoming season with the Green Bay Packers and reveals how he copes with being away from his fiancée for long periods of time.
The 37-year-old has been in the NFL for 16 years and he'll be spending the upcoming four months of football season in Wisconsin and on the road. Woodley, 29, is based in Los Angeles and has her own work to focus on, so the couple won't get a lot of one-on-one time for a while. And that's OK with them.
“It’s a busy work time for her, so (my decision to return to the Green Bay Packers) probably came at a good time for both of us to be able to focus on our work. I think it’s going to be a good thing," he explained.
The couple, who met during the pandemic and announced their engagement in February, is gearing up for a busy fall and they're excited to get back to work, even if that means sacrificing some time together.
"I mean, her work was shut down for an entire year, and she’s booked a number of projects. She enjoys working and her own routine, which I obviously enjoy, too,” he said.
Rodgers wasn't so sure that he was going to return to his team this fall but realized that he had at least one more season in him.
“I just woke up one day and said, ‘I think I’m going to play ball.’ I really thought about what I wanted to do, and there are a lot of growth opportunities and good change to be part of in Green Bay, so I decided to come back," he told Haute Living.
Rodgers and Woodley have certainly been soaking up as much quality time together as possible over the last few months before he had to return to work. In May, the couple vacationed in Hawaii with actor Miles Teller and his wife Keleigh Sperry Teller, and appeared to have a blast.
In June, Woodley opened up about her whirlwind romance to Shape magazine and said she and Rodgers moved in together pretty quickly after they began dating.
"Starting a relationship where you immediately move in with someone — because it's a pandemic and you can't just get on a plane and go back and forth on weekends — taught us a lot about each other very quickly," she told the magazine.
"We jumped in headfirst and got some of the sticky bits out of the way early," she added.
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During her interview, Woodley explained that she believes she and Rodgers were always supposed to meet each other.
"I have the perspective that I would have met Aaron in any context, any space in time, because I feel we were meant to be together," she said.