Aaron Rodgers reveals more about his seemingly complicated relationship with his family in a new documentary.
“Aaron Rodgers: Enigma,” out Dec. 17, follows Rodgers throughout his two-decade NFL stretch, starting with his early life and collegiate career to his season-ending Achilles tendon injury while playing for the New York Jets in 2023. He also addresses headline-making moments, like his comments during the 2021 NFL season about his vaccination status to his use of ayahuasca.
Part of the documentary focuses on his relationship with his family. For the first time, he addresses their 2016 appearance on “The Bachelorette.”
Here’s what the quarterback has shared about their estrangement.
Aaron Rodgers says feelings of ‘separation’ began in high school
Aaron Rodgers grew up in Chico, California. Born to parents Ed and Darla Rodgers, he’s the middle of three boys, situated between older brother Luke Rodgers and younger brother Jordan Rodgers.
In the new documentary “Aaron Rodgers: Enigma,” Aaron Rodgers said he began questioning his family’s value system and approach to religion in high school.
“I grew up in a very white, dogmatic church and that just really didn’t serve me,” Aaron Rodgers said. “It was very rigid in structure; I’m not a rigid person.”
Aaron Rodgers has made other comments about his experiences with religion in his youth.
“Most people that I knew, church was just … you just had to go,” Aaron Rodgers said on the “Pretty Intense”podcast with then girlfriend Danica Patrick.
He said in the documentary that in high school, he began to steer away from his parents’ beliefs. It was around this time that he began to not feel close with family, except than his younger brother Jordan Rodgers.
“It wasn’t like I was super-duper close with everyone in the family. I was close with my little brother,” said Aaron Rodgers. “But in actuality, it goes back to stuff from high school that kind of me feel distant, stuff from college, stuff from post-college.”
Aaron Rodgers said, amid feelings of “some separation,” he had to nurture himself.
“At times when you have some dysfunction or some separation in your family life, you have to kind of reparent yourself and give yourself what you didn’t get or wanted to hear more of when you were a kid, and I think for me, I just wanted to hear, ‘I’m proud of you,’” he said.
“I had to find a way to be my own parent in those moments and say, ‘Hey, f— being perfect. I’m proud of who you are and what you’ve accomplished on and off the field.’ And forgiveness for all the mistakes, because I was just trying to do the best I could and a lot of times it wasn’t good enough,” he said.
2011: Fame ‘changed’ his relationships, Aaron Rodgers says
After Aaron Rodgers’ Super Bowl XLV win with the Green Bay Packers, he had to adjust to a new level of fame.
He said, in the documentary, the first time he grasped his own fame came on a trip to Hawaii in 2011 when he got paparazzi attention. “Life is different now,” he remembered thinking.
From there, Aaron Rodgers was propelled into the limelight, including brand deals like a 12-year partnership with State Farm and multiple public relationships.
“It can definitely change the people around your circle because it can be intoxicating, the fame and notoriety. So, definitely relationships changed after that, friendships, family,” Aaron Rodgers explained.
Aaron Rodgers said, in the documentary, that members of his family — whom he did not identify by name — critiqued his approach.
“There was a lot of times when I became real famous, where I heard from people, including family members, where it was like, ‘Your life is too big, we need you to be smaller, be smaller, don’t talk about your life,’” he said.
“It always hurt me because I just feel like you don’t see me,” the quarterback continued. “This is not something I ever desired or wanted other than playing on Sundays.”
2014: The family rift begins
In a 2017 interview with the New York Times, Ed Rodgers, the brothers’ father, described a Bleacher Report article saying the family rift began in 2014 as accurate. According to the Bleacher Report, Aaron Rodgers had not spoken to his brothers or parents since 2014.
“Fame can change things,” Ed Rodgers said. Ed Rodgers said it was “hard to tell” if their relationship had “thawed.”
What caused the rift? Aaron Rodgers said, in the 2024 book “Out of the Darkness: The Mystery of Aaron Rodgers” by Ian Connor, the tension had nothing to do with his then girlfriend Olivia Munn, despite reports otherwise. Family members quoted in Connor’s book, including Rodgers’ parents, cited Munn as a source of family tension.
Rodgers said Munn “has nothing to do with all the years before” and said, according to Connor, that the issues were “deep-rooted,” but didn’t specify them. Munn and Rodgers dated from about 2014 through 2017.
TODAY.com has reached out to Munn for comment.
2016: Jordan Rodgers goes on ‘The Bachelorette,’ sparking rumors of family rift
After members of his family had weighed in about Aaron Rodgers’s perception in the public eye, his younger brother Jordan Rodgers was cast on “The Bachelorette,”winning the show and marrying JoJo Fletcher in 2022.
On the show, Jordan Rodgers spoke to his relationships with family members, including his brother Aaron.
“I have a great relationship with my brother Luke,” Jordan said in the episode. “Me and Aaron don’t really have that much of a relationship. It’s just kind of the way he’s chosen to do life, and I chose to stay close to my family and my parents and my brother and, yeah, it’s not ideal. And I love him.”
“I can’t imagine what it’s like to be in his shoes and have the pressure he has and the demands from people that he has. Don’t have hard feelings against him. It’s just how things go right now,” he continued.
Aaron and Jordan’s brother, Luke Rodgers, also commented on their family rift on the show. “It pains both of us like, not to have that relationship (with Aaron) — we miss our brother,” Luke Rodgers said. “I trust that God brings things full circle and that everything would just get back to us being a family.”
Jordan Rodgers commented on the status of his relationship with his older brother while in the spotlight for “The Bachelorette”on the “Garbage Time Podcast” with Katie Nolan.
“We have a relationship,” Jordan Rodgers said. “You know, it’s complicated. I’ll say that.”
At the time, Aaron Rodgers declined to comment. “As far as those kinds of things go, I’ve always found that it’s a little inappropriate to talk publicly about some family matters, so I’m just — I’m not going to speak on those things, but I wish him well in the competition,” he told ABC affiliate WISN-TV.
He questioned, in the 2024 book “Out of the Darkness,” why family members discussed the rift publicly.
“I have questions about why they feel the need to talk about it, because it’s like a game of poker,” Aaron told the author. “When you are holding all the cards, you don’t have to bluff. There’s nothing they can say other than make up stories, but look at the facts.”
2024: Aaron Rodgers finally addresses ‘The Bachelorette’ appearance
Eight years after “The Bachelorette” episode with his family aired, Aaron Rodgers addressed it head-on for the first time in “Enigma: Aaron Rodgers.”
He pointed to the two empty chairs at Rodgers’ family table, which he said alluded to his absence.
“They go on a bull—- show and leave two empty chairs,” Rodgers said in the documentary. “They all agreed this was a good thing to do, to leave two empty chairs on a stupid dating show, that my brother went on just to get famous. His words, not mine.”
Aaron Rodgers said he was not invited to the dinner: “A dinner that was during the season, I was never asked to go to. Not that I would’ve gone.”
TODAY.com has reached out to Jordan Rodgers for comment.
2024: Where does the family stand now?
Aaron Rodgers said he tells people, “Of course,” when asked about the possibility of reconciliation.
