Shailene Woodley Says She and Aaron Rodgers Kept Engagement Secret ‘For Months and Months’

Shailene Woodley is opening up about her relationship with fiancé Aaron Rodgers. She told The Hollywood Reporter that the pair decided to keep it under wraps: “When we announced that we were engaged, we wanted to do that only because we didn't want someone else to do it before we did. And we didn't do it for months and months after we had become engaged.”

The pair were first linked in February, and days later, the 37-year-old football player announced their engagement after being named the league's MVP during the NFL Honors broadcast on Feb. 6.

“But the reaction to it was really a lot, and so we were like, 'Let's just politely decline to talk about the relationship for a little while and live in our little bubble,'” the Big Little Lies star added.

The 29-year-old admitted that fame was never her focus: “I didn’t want fame. I didn’t have in my head, ‘I want to be at the Oscars one day.’ In school, I never told people I was an actor. Kids would be like, ‘I saw you on My Name Is Earl last night,’ and it was like a taunting, a way of making me feel insecure at the time.”

Woodley also opened up about turning down work for a health condition that she hasn’t opened up about: “It was pretty debilitating. I said no to a lot of projects, not because I wanted to but because I physically couldn’t participate in them. And I definitely suffered a lot more than I had to because I didn’t take care of myself. The self-inflicted pressure of not wanting to be helped or taken care of created more physical unrest throughout those years.” Woodley said her health is improving but that the experience left a lasting mark on her. “I’m on the tail end of it, which is very exciting, but it’s an interesting thing, going through something so physically dominating while also having so many people pay attention to the choices you make, the things you say, what you do, what you look like,” she says. “It spun me out for a while. You feel so incredibly isolated and alone. Unless someone can see that you have a broken arm or a broken leg, it’s really difficult for people to relate to the pain that you’re experiencing when it’s a silent, quiet and invisible pain.”