A new biography of Aaron Rodgers purports to shed light on one of the many perplexing questions about the controversial NFL quarterback: What caused his decade-long estrangement from his Chico-based parents?
According to the new book, “Out of the Darkness: The Mystery of Aaron Rodgers,” the quarterback’s parents, Ed and Darla Rodgers, cut ties with their superstar son because they clashed with his former Hollywood star girlfriend, Olivia Munn, the Daily Mail reported.
Darla Rodgers, a devout Christian, was mortified to learn that Munn and her son, who dated from 2014 to 2017, were having sex before marriage, sports journalist Ian O’Connor explained in his new book, according to the Daily Mail. Darla Rodgers was especially devastated after hearing that “The Predator” and “The Newsroom” star blabbed in an interview about their sex practices, as Munn explained how she and the then-Green Bay Packers quarterback didn’t have sex on game days.
“Given her devout religious views, Aaron’s mother disapproved of premarital sex and was opposed to her middle child sharing a hotel room with his girlfriend even as an NFL player,” wrote O’Connor, an author and New York Post sports columnist.
“Darla did not appreciate how Munn joked about oral sex in an interview or how she publicly talked about her sex life with Aaron just before that loss at Buffalo,” O’Connor also wrote.
The Daily Mail said the interview in question appeared to be Munn talking to Andy Cohen on his “Watch What Happens Live” show in December 2014. Cohen had asked Munn if she and Rodgers had sex on game days.
Munn replied: “No, we don’t. Not on game days. There’s not a rule, but it just doesn’t happen because there are other things to focus on.”
However, Munn said they would sometimes have sex after a Packers game, the Daily Mail reported. “It depends on how late the game is,” she said. “I try to have sex as much as I can.”
A source told O’Connor that Munn was “saying all that (expletive) and it pissed off Darla, really pissed her off.”
Ed and Darla Rodgers also reportedly objected to another interview that Munn did with Cohen, when she claimed that she tried to encourage her boyfriend to repair his relationship with his parents, O’Connor reported. According to O’Connor, Ed Rodgers said: “It’s a lie.”
Tensions also escalated after Munn reportedly told Rodgers that she didn’t want them to see his parents after a game in Tampa, even though his parents would be traveling to Florida to go to Disney World, according to O’Connor’s book.
Upon hearing this, Ed and Darla Rodgers said they had been attending their son’s games since he was a child and didn’t need Munn’s permission to continue to do so, according to the book. Ed Rodgers reportedly told Munn: “You haven’t been on the scene very long. You’re just his girlfriend. We’re his parents.”
The parents were subsequently dismayed that they never received a phone call from their son, apologizing for his girlfriend’s actions, according to the book. They began to believe that Munn was the “chief culprit in the family division.”
But Rodgers rejected his parents’ view of Munn, saying in O’Connor’s book that she had “nothing to do” with the tensions between them. He also questioned his parents’ reasons for talking about the estrangement, asserting, “There’s nothing they can say other than make up stories, but look at the facts.”
Rodgers’ feud with his family became public knowledge in the spring of 2016, courtesy of Aaron’s brother, Jordan Rodgers, when he was a contestant on “The Bachelorette.” While courting JoJo Fletcher, Jordan Rodgers revealed that he’s close to his oldest brother Luke, but that Aaron Rodgers is estranged from the rest of the family.
A lengthy 2022 profile of Rodgers by ESPN echoed certain points made in O’Connor’s book about the family rift. The ESPN story said that Rodgers began to pull away from what he considered “the dogmatic religious views of his family” when he was studying and playing football at Butte Community College, before transferring to UC Berkeley to play for the Golden Bears.
But it’s also been reported that Rodgers started to pull away from his family after he led the Packers to a Super Bowl win in 2011. Some reports said that Jordan Rodgers and the rest of the family were jealous of Aaron’s NFL fame and success.
O’Connor’s book also reported that Rodgers felt that his generosity towards his parents was being “taken for granted,” an idea that Munn bolstered, reportedly telling her boyfriend that he shouldn’t let his family “do any fame and fortune chasing through him.”
According to the book, Rodgers has never patched things up with his parents, even after he and Munn broke up in 2017. She subsequently began a relationship with comedian John Mulaney, with whom she had a son, Malcolm, in 2021. Munn and Mulaney tied the knot last month, after the actor went public with news that she had endured a harrowing year of surgery and treatment for breast cancer.
Rodgers’ personal and professional life also has been tumultuous in recent years. He dated retired race car driver Danica Patrick from 2018 to 2020 but broke things off during the COVID-19 lockdown and became secretly engaged to Shailene Woodley, which the “Divergent” actor revealed in a 2021 interview with Jimmy Fallon.
However, Rodgers and Woodley called off their engagement the following year, even as the quarterback won two back-to-back NFL MVP awards. The quarterback also emerged as a divisive figure American culture, accused of being a “crackpot” and “narcissistic diva” for spouting conspiracy theories and controversial views on COVID-19 vaccines. He also left the Green Pay Packers in 2023 to play for the New York Jets but was sidelined for the entire season after suffering an Achilles tendon rupture in the first game.
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