Aaron Rodgers Mitchell Leff/Getty Images
Aaron Rodgers and his parents, Ed and Darla Rodgers, have been estranged for years, but the athlete is holding out hope for a future reconciliation.
“It’s definitely possible,” the New York Jets quarterback, 40, told author Ian O’Connor in an interview for O’Connor’s new biography, Out of the Darkness: The Mystery of Aaron Rodgers. “It’s just timing, just timing. Every time I think it’s getting closer, some weird things happen. But I would like a relationship with my dad for sure.”
In separate interviews for O’Connor’s book, Ed and Darla said that they’d be willing to resume their relationship with Aaron in any capacity.
“We’re all about forgiving and forgetting,” Darla said. “We would be so happy to move on. … Maybe we don’t see him all the time. We’re OK with however it’s framed. The new relationship needs to start and it just feels weird that we can’t communicate even big-life things with him.”
Ed, for his part, added: “And we have unconditional love for him. No matter what happened, we would just like the relationship.”
Aaron’s parents also pushed back on speculation that their religious beliefs had caused a divide between them and their middle son. (The couple also share sons Luke and Jordan, the latter of whom is married to The Bachelorette season 12 lead JoJo Fletcher.)
“We’re not rigid. We’re not hard-line, or whatever people have said in the news,” Ed told O’Connor. “We’re just people trying to follow God. We’re not divisive. The stuff that’s out there that I’ve read, it’s just not true. Our view on all that, on God, religion, was not part of the divisiveness that happened. It was not a part at all, and people think it was. It’s not.”
Since Aaron Rodgers made his NFL debut in 2005, his exploits off the field have made nearly as many headlines as his athletic achievements. Consider, for example, the “darkness retreat” he went on in 2023 while considering whether he wanted to retire from football entirely or simply leave the Green Bay Packers. “I’m still in […]
While Ed and Darla aren’t on great terms with Aaron, they’ve continued to support their son publicly — and even attended his first disastrous game with the New York Jets in September 2023. According to O’Connor, the couple “bought their tickets through the Jets,” and Aaron knew they planned to attend the game (which for him ended with a torn Achilles tendon after just four snaps).
Shortly before Aaron’s ill-fated Jets debut, he and his dad secretly reunited at the American Century Championship celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe in July 2023. Ed purchased tickets to the event without his son’s knowledge, and the duo had a short meeting during one of Aaron’s breaks.
“I could do a lot of things,” Aaron recalled in the book. “But I just thought, ‘What’s best in this moment, and what kind of gift could I give him?’ Because I do love him. I don’t have animosity toward him, even with all the stuff that’s been said and done.”
Patrick McDermott/Getty Images; Kevin Mazur/Getty Images In the spring of 2005, the chill in the Green Bay air stuck around a little bit longer than usual. With the 24th pick in that year’s NFL Draft, the Green Bay Packers selected quarterback Aaron Rodgers from the University of California, Berkeley. The pick was notable not so […]
The pair exchanged an embrace and “I love yous” before parting ways again. According to O’Connor, it was the first time they’d spoken to one another in nearly nine years.
“It was amazing,” Ed said of the meeting, while Aaron recalled, “It was a special moment.”
Out of the Darkness: The Mystery of Aaron Rodgers is out now.
