Olivia Munn is getting candid about her ex-boyfriend, Aaron Rodgers', much publicized rocky relationship with his family.
Olivia Munn is getting candid about her ex-boyfriend, Aaron Rodgers', much publicized rocky relationship with his family.
The 37-year-old actress appeared on Andy Cohen's Sirius XM show, Radio Andy, on Wednesday, where she broke her silence on the drama surrounding Rodgers' family. Munn addressed tabloid reports that she was the cause of the rift between the 34-year-old Green Bay Packers quarterback and his immediate family, which Rodgers' younger brother, Jordan, talked openly about during his time on The Bachelorette.
Munn clarifies that the notoriously private Rodgers did not mind that she talked about him in interviews while they were dating. The two split last April after nearly three years of dating.
"I have avoided speaking about him for a long time," Munn says. "Before you go on a talk show it would be like, 'Yeah, you can say something about me if you want.' I didn’t normally talk about relationships in those things and so, he actually didn’t mind it, he kind of liked it."
As for Rodgers' family, Munn says she was in fact friendly with Jordan, and did meet his parents, Edward and Darla, multiple times. She also says Rodgers was already estranged from his family before the two started dating, and that she actually encouraged him to mend the relationship.
"Before he and I started dating he hadn’t spoken to the parents and one brother for, like, eight months before we started dating," she says. "And actually I remember my last day on The Newsroom ... I spent the day in my trailer just encouraging him to have an honest conversation with your parents, and we just kind of did bullet points. And then they had a really nice conversation, and they started coming out my first year when I was in Green Bay in 2014, and then it just… [went south]."
Munn is clearly sympathetic to Rodgers, and suggests that the root of his family issues is that his family -- including his older brother, Luke -- is invested in his career more than is healthy.
"I do believe that family and fame and success can be really complicated if their dreams are connected to your success," Munn says. "My family, my younger brother is getting his PhD in physics, my sister graduated magna cum laude from law school, my stepfather is a doctor, my brother has a custom motorcycle business. Nobody wants to be famous. My mom is a little old Asian lady -- couldn’t be more little or more old or Asian if you tried. There is no connection with the dreams that they want to do in business to my career."
"I mean, [Rodgers'] father played football and he’s a sports chiropractor, and his brother -- they’re all into sports," she continues. "They’re all in sports. And Aaron is one of the best -- if not the best -- quarterback to ever play the game, so their work has a direct connection to what he does and that’s ... at the end of the day there is a lot of complications. I don’t think either side of the road is clean, but I do think it’s not OK when you try to stand on someone’s shoulders and then throw dirt in their face, which is what I think they did with him."
Last August, Rodgers addressed his split from Munn in an interview with ESPN, and acknowledged the unfair reports that their relationship affected his playing on the field.
"When you are living out a relationship in the public eye, it's definitely ... it's difficult," he said of his relationship with Munn. "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."
He did, however, remain private about his relationship with his family.
"A lot of people have family issues," he said. "I'm not the only one that does. It needs to be handled the right way."
Rodgers' relationship with his family made headlines during Jordan's time competing on The Bachelorette in 2016. During a date with his now-fiancee, JoJo Fletcher, Jordan acknowledged, "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 with my family and my parents and my brother."
"It's not ideal," he added. "I love him and I can't imagine what it's like to be in his shoes and to have the demands from people that he [has]. I don’t have hard feelings against him, it's just how things go right now."
Meanwhile, Rodgers' father, Ed, spoke about the family rift to The New York Times last January. “It’s good to have it all come out," he said, though noted that he doesn’t “think it’s appropriate to talk about family stuff publicly,” but "fame can change things.”
Rodgers is now dating racing driver Danica Patrick and the two haven't been shy about their relationship. The couple showed PDA at the Daytona 500 before she hit the track in February.
“He’s funny, he’s very kind, he’s thoughtful, he’s super smart," Patrick said of Rodgers during her appearance on the Rachael Ray show last month. "And he’s really good at football. And he’s tall and he’s big and I like that.”
For more on their relationship, watch the video below:
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