Danica Patrick and Aaron Rodgers kept in touch long before they ever got together, but it wasn’t over the phone.
“We met at the ESPYs back in 2012. … We remember meeting each other, it was quick,” this year’s ESPYs emcee, the first woman to host in the show’s history, recalled Tuesday on Sirius XM’s “Jenny McCarthy Show.”
“I got his email address, and I remember thinking to myself, ‘Oh, not a phone number? Just an email address?'”
Though the pair would communicate on and off throughout the years, it took a long time for them to finally exchange digits.
“It wasn’t until, obviously, recently that we actually had phone numbers,” said Patrick, 36. “We referred to each other as Chicago and Green Bay. It was very cute.”
Rodgers, 34, split from actress Olivia Munn last spring after three years of dating, while Patrick, a lifelong Bears fan, parted ways from longtime boyfriend and fellow driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. late last year. The couple, who were first linked over the holiday season, confirmed their romance in January.
As Rodgers readies for the NFL season ahead, Patrick is figuring out how to deal with her newfound dilemma.
“I can’t wait to go to Lambeau,” Patrick, who is racing in the Indy 500 on Sunday afternoon in her final race, told USA Today over the weekend. “I was a Bears fan [but] I’ve known Aaron for quite a while and I’ve always told him I would cheer for him. As I’ve said before, I cheer for him, I just don’t want his team to win. Now, of course, I cheer for the whole team.”
Patrick’s father, TJ, however, remains loyal to Chicago.
“I’m always going to be a Bears fan. I can’t be a Packers fan. Danica is still a Bears fan, but that doesn’t mean she can’t be an Aaron Rodgers fan,” Patrick’s father told Autoweek.