Former race car driver Danica Patrick is speaking candidly about her split from NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers, describing it as “the most amount of pain” she’s ever experienced. During her appearance on The Sage Steele Show, Patrick opened up about her relationship with the former New York Jets QB, whom she dated between 2018 and 2020.
When Steele asked Patrick to describe “the most amount of pain” she’s ever felt, the 43-year-old champion of the 2008 Indy Japan 300 responded, “The breakup with Aaron in 2020.”
The racing icon shared some eye-opening details about why the breakup hit her so hard. “Because it was sudden, it felt like,” she said. “It was my life. So, like, when you live with somebody, it’s your whole life. And because the nature of the relationship was emotionally abusive, that wore me down to nothing.”
Patrick reflected on how her strong public image contrasts with someone experiencing what she termed an emotionally abusive relationship. “People could never imagine that I would lack… any confidence or belief in the simple things about who I am. Everything was torn to bits. Yeah, he leaves a trail of blood. I don’t think I’m saying too much earth-shattering stuff after we—there’s been enough out there.”
She confessed to “ignoring” the toxic aspects of their relationship, viewing it as another “hard thing” to push through.
Looking back, Patrick expressed gratitude for the lessons learned from the difficult breakup, noting, “It gave me the greatest gift of how much I needed to show up for myself and take care of myself.”
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