Aaron Rodgers said in a 2013 radio interview that he was forced to respond to rumors about his sexuality and, looking back, he wishes he had handled the situation better.
The New York Jets quarterback made the following remarks while speaking with ESPN host Jason Wilde on his Milwaukee radio show: Tuesdays with AaronWhen asked if he was aware of rumors that he was gay, Rodgers flatly denied the allegations at the time, saying he was “really, really” attracted to women.
“Yeah, I'll just say this, I'm not gay. I really, really like women. That's all I can say about that,” Rodgers told Wilde. Although he acknowledged that “there's always going to be some ridiculous stuff in the media,” he agreed that you shouldn't worry too much about it. “Professional is professional and personal is personal. And I'm going to keep it that way,” he added.
In a new biography hitting shelves this week, Out of the Dark: The Secret of Aaron RodgersThe 40-year-old told the book's author Ian O'Connor why he decided to speak out.
“I think I was uncomfortable with that framing because it was meant to shame the idea of being gay, and I have a lot of gay friends in the community,” Rodgers recalls, via a quote. We Weekly“And just before that, [Jason Wilde] and I actually talked about this a couple of times and said, 'I want to go after the people who said this.'”
“It's not about me, because I don't care what they think of me, but they use it to shame, like being gay is a bad thing. Like it's a negative thing,” he continued.
Rodgers hinted that he wanted to be more defensive of the gay community, but gave up after Wilde suggested he “let it go”.
“I wish I had done the first one because that's how I really felt. Say what you want about me, but do you understand that these people are using this to shame the idea of being gay?” he explained. “It's disrespectful to all my friends who don't believe in society as a choice. It's like you're shaming people for being gay, when a lot of them, if you ask me, didn't ask for this life themselves. 'This is who I am.'
“I thought, 'I wish I had handled it that way,' and I don't blame Jason. We talked about it,” she added.
Thankfully, a decade and some change later, we live in an age where speculation about celebrity sexuality is no longer the stuff of mainstream gossip, so instead we can focus on issues like Rodgers’ vaccination status, or lack thereof.