How Danica Patrick’s Time With Aaron Rodgers Changed Understanding of Love

When it comes to dating, Danica Patrick has seemingly learned from her past — even when that past was allegedly painful.

“You never know how much you could be loved unless you give someone the opportunity to dislike you for something you’re scared about being disliked for,” Patrick, 43, said on a recent episode of the Sage Steele Show podcast. “Basically, you’ll never know how much you could be loved until you give somebody something to not love you for — and they still love you. It shifts your orientation. You learn to accept it in yourself and everything levels up, like, the love deepens and the confidence rises.”

Patrick also made sure her friend Steele, 52, followed similar lessons when she introduced her then-new boyfriend.

“Well, there was so much optimism a couple months in. I’m like, ‘We all have that, darling,’” Patrick quipped. “Everyone [thinks they are] going to marry someone after three months, 100 percent, but I was only cautioning you for your heart, and so you wouldn’t get it broken or test it at least. If you’re going to go fast, throw it in the deep end [with a joint vacation].”

As for Patrick, she seemingly learned that realization when she broke up with NFL star Aaron Rodgers in 2020, which she told Steele was her most painful experience.

“It was sudden [and] it felt like it was my life,” she recalled. “You know, when you live with somebody and it’s, like, your whole life. It’s your dentist appointment, it’s your hairdo, it’s your clothes, it’s your mailing address. It’s, like, everything.”

The retired NASCAR driver further alleged that the “nature of the relationship was emotionally abusive” and “wore [her] down to nothing.”

“Someone that people could never imagine that I would lack any confidence or belief in the simple things about who I am. Yeah, everything was down to bits,” Patrick alleged. “He leaves a trail of blood. I don’t think I’m saying too much earth-shattering stuff after there’s been enough out there. [The breakup] gave me the greatest gift, which was myself. I was, like, ‘Wow.’ It gave me the greatest gift of how much I needed to show up for myself and take care of myself.”

Rodgers, 41, has not publicly addressed Patrick’s accusations. Us Weekly has reached out for comment.

After her two-year romance with the quarterback ended, Patrick dated Carter Comstock from 2021 to 2022.

“I’m like, ‘Is my judgment the best?’ I don’t know,” Patrick exclusively joked to Us in May 2022 of the breakup. “I think that you just have to follow your heart and trust your intuition.”

She added, “I think that’s something that increasingly over time, I’m doing a better job of. So just trust that intuition, look for … like right, if there are red flags at the beginning, like trust that [and] don’t just brush it off. I think those are the things that I’m beginning to realize are really critical. … I have no doubt that it’ll come along and [at the] perfect timing.”

As for Rodgers, he revealed on the Pat McAfee Show last month that he is in a “serious relationship” with a currently unidentified woman.