Aaron Rodgers and Olivia Munn broke up earlier this year, and just when rumors were circulating that the two might become engaged after dating for three years.
The two have been reluctant, at best, to talk about the reason behind the split.
But Aaron Rodgers gave an interview and he talked about relationship struggles. And yes, he even talked about why he and Olivia Munn split.
Aaron Rodgers is a sportsball player — a football quarterback, specifically.
He became part of the Green Bay Packers about a decade ago and led his team to victory at the 2011 Superbowl.
Normally, we’d refer to the Superbowl as “that big football game before and after [whichever celebrity]’s concert,” but the Black Eyed Peas played at Halftime that year.
So it wasn’t a Left Shark situation where the Superbowl was super memorable. No wardrobe malfunctions and no Beyonce.
Anyway, Olivia Munn actually drew criticism during her relationship with Aaron for “distracting” him and this impeding his performance on the field.
That’s absurd, obviously.
Those rumors died down when Aaron Rodgers’ performance improved on the field and people could no longer blame Olivia Munn for, like, leeching his strength through sorcery or whatever it is that they thought was happening.
Olivia Munn is an actress, perhaps best known for portraying fan-favorite mutant Psylocke in X-Men: Apocalypse last summer (the film was entertaining and beautiful but not … not good, but we’d say that Olivia Munn did a more than decent job in the role).
She was also a correspondent on The Daily Show for a while, back during the Jon Stewart days.
The two broke up in April and basically said nothing except that the split was amicable.
With no solid answers or official statements to explain what happened to the couple that had seemed on the cusp of marrying, what were people to do but speculate?
Some wondered if Aaron Rodgers may have cheated on Olivia Munn.
Honestly, a lot of relationships end because of cheating.
Aaron Rodgers’ estrangement from his family became well-publicized after his brother, Jordan Rodgers, appeared on and then won JoJo Fletcher’s season of The Bachelorette.
Though fans of that couple worried that they’d split after JoJo and Jordan briefly unfollowed each other on social media, they are still together.
Just this week, JoJo surprised Jordan for his birthday.
Some of Aaron Rodgers’ family believed that Aaron was distant from them because of Olivia Munn — because, again, people want to see her as some sort of sorceress responsible for everything about Aaron that they don’t like.
The truth is more complicated and involves “family issues,” according to Aaron, who has always seemed reluctant to go into detail. That could mean all sorts of things, but … a lot of families are screwed up.
So one point of speculation about his split was that perhaps Aaron Rodgers dropped Olivia Munn to reunite with his family. That doesn’t appear to have been the case.
Now, at least, Aaron is willing to talk about it.
In an interview with ESPN The Magazine, Aaron Rodgers discussed the problems with dating while famous.
And yes, Olivia Munn came up.
First, though, they eased him onto the topic by asking about the challenges that come with dating while famous.
“Decreased privacy. And increased strain or pressure or stress associated with relationships. Friendships and dating relationships.”
That sounds about right.
It’s good that he mentions that it’s a burden on friendships as well as romantic relationships.
“When you are living out a relationship in the public eye, it’s definitely … it’s difficult.”
Yep.
Then they asked Aaron, point-blank, if all of that was in play with his breakup with Olivia Munn.
And he answered.
“It has some extra constraints, because you have other opinions about your relationship, how it affects your work and, you know, just some inappropriate connections.”
It sounds like part of that, at least, is a jab at his fans — who seemed to blame Olivia for all that ails the world.
Part of that might also be a jab at his family, because whatever the extent of Aaron’s issues with the Rodgers family, Olivia Munn was a sore point for some of them involved.
We’ll probably never know the whole story. Aaron kept that vague and very general on purpose.
Maybe one day, when they’re both feeling less raw about it, they’ll tell their story.
For now, it sounds like a factor behind their split was just the constant chatter about them.
