Shailene Woodley was going through the worst time in her life amid her tumultuous breakup with Aaron Rodgers last year.
“It was hard to film because I was going through the darkest, hardest time in my life,” Woodley, who was filming her show “Three Women” at the time of their split, told Net-A-Porter in an interview published Monday.
She added, “It was winter in New York, and my personal life was s–tty, so it felt like a big pain bubble for eight months.”
But the actress, 31, said she was able to channel her heartbreak into her role in the Showtime adaptation of Lisa Taddeo’s 2019 book, which follows a writer who travels around the country reporting on the lives of three women’s sex lives.
“I was so grateful that at least I could go to work and cry and process my emotions through my character,” she said.
Woodley added that she changed the way she handles her mental health for the better, especially after learning the importance of living in the moment while traveling in Europe last summer.
“The way that I take care of myself now looks very different to the way I used to,” she said.
Woodley and Rodgers, 39, revealed that they got engaged in 2021 after they started dating in 2020.
But rumors started swirling last February that they had called off their engagement after nearly two years together when she was spotted without her engagement ring.
Despite the breakup chatter, they seemed to be giving things another try and were spotted on several outings together including a grocery store run and going as each other’s dates at a wedding last March.
Ultimately, the “Big Little Lies” star and the athlete couldn’t work out their differences and Woodley decided she was “done.”
“Shailene tried to give it another shot and was spending time with Aaron,” an insider told E! News in April 2022. “But she quickly saw that everything was on his terms and nothing was going to change.”
That month, Woodley alluded to mourning their relationship when she posted a quote about grief.
Meanwhile, the Green Bay Packers star seemed to be working through their breakup by getting his first-ever tattoo on his arm last July. His ink involved astrological symbols, a pair of lions, an ocean view, and an eye.
Rodgers and Woodley may have initially bonded over their love of astrology and even shared the same astrologer.
Sadly, it seems the stars didn’t align for the exes, and they’re both seemingly trying to move forward.
While Woodley has managed to keep her past relationships out of the spotlight, Rodgers previously dated several famous women including Jessica Szohr, Olivia Munn, Kelly Rohrbach and Danica Patrick.