Aaron Rodgers spent about four minutes Tuesday on a regularly scheduled appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show ripping into speculation that he has conjured a fake marriage and a fake wife after he recently dropped the bombshell claim that he had secretly wed a woman whose identity remains a mystery.
‘It’s a sick society, isn’t it? I lived in the public eye for 20 years, I had public relationships,” the veteran 41-year-old NFL quarterback began his tirade, according to the Daily Mail. He was no doubt referring to his past high-profile romances with actors Olivia Munn and Shailene Woodley and NASCAR star Danica Patrick.
“Now I’m with someone who’s private who doesn’t want to be in the public eye, didn’t sign up to be in the public eye, doesn’t want to be a celebrity,” continued Rodgers, the former Green Bay Packers star who recently signed with the Pittsburgh Steelers. “And because I do things in private, because I want my personal life to be private, I’m now weird and have the paparazzi stalking me.”
Here, Rodgers may be referring to reporters at publications like the Daily Mail who may have been following him around, while digging into public records in multiple jurisdictions in search of his marriage certificate. In a story published last week, the Daily Mail said that proof of Rodgers’ nuptials is “noticeably absent,” outside of a black band on the third finger of his left hand.
Rodgers’ marriage announcement came earlier this month after his first practice session with the Steelers. The Chico-reared, four-time MVP told reporters that he had secretly gotten married “a few months ago” after he had been spotted with the ring on his finger.
But Rodgers said little else about the wedding or his mystery bride. Followers speculated that his bride could be the new girlfriend — “Brittani with an ‘i,” — whom he casually mentioned on “The Pat McAfee Show” in December. Back then, he also said little else about her other than that he had ordered a Christmas gift for her online and was concerned that it wouldn’t arrive in time.
The Daily Mail said its reporters searched records in the county in Pennsylvania where Rodgers reportedly now lives for evidence of a marriage certificate. But a clerk at the county’s courthouse said no such record exists. County officials in Las Vegas, a common venue for quick celebrity weddings, also told the Daily Mail there was no record of Rodgers getting married there this year.
Given that there are some 3,100 counties in the United States, it would seem that the Daily Mail’s search wasn’t terribly exhaustive. But the UK tabloid also said it had heard from multiple sources who question whether the wedding occurred. These sources include family and friends who were “caught off guard” by the marriage news.
One insider told the Daily Mail that Rodgers’ brother, Jordan Rodgers, and his wife, JoJo Fletcher, did not go to any wedding and “don’t even know anything really about Brittani.”
“What they’ve heard is secondhand from his parents,” the insider told the Daily Mail. Some family members suspect that the marriage isn’t real but that Rodgers and his mystery bride staged a symbolic commitment ceremony instead of a legal wedding.
Of course, the Daily Mail had to acknowledge that it wouldn’t be “surprising” that Jordan Rodgers and other family members, including their parents, were not invited to a wedding. It also wouldn’t be that surprising if they didn’t even know much about the new mystery woman in Rodgers’ life. After all, Rodgers has been notoriously estranged from his family for about a decade.
The former Super Bowl winner said as much to McAfee, as he insisted his family don’t wouldn’t know anything about his private life or his new bride because he doesn’t talk to them.
“What happened to common decency about security and a personal life?” Rodgers said to McAfee, fuming at the suggestion that he made up getting married to get attention.
“Now we have to dive into details of where you live, what you’re doing and who you’re with, who your wife is and if you even have a wife, and if you’re doing so (as a) sort of attention-grabbing thing,” Rodgers said. “My wife is a private person, doesn’t have social media. “
Rodgers also explained that he didn’t want to follow the trend of other NFL players who like to share news about their engagements or weddings on social media. These players’ more high-profile wives, such as influencer Olivia Culpo, the wife of San Francisco 49ers player Christian McAffrey, have also enjoyed having their weddings featured in the pages of Vogue and other magazines.
“My private life is my private life and it’s going to stay that way, and I’m with somebody who wants to be private, and if and when she wants to be out and there’s a picture, she’ll choose that,” Rodgers said.
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