When opening up about her illness in a new interview, the 'Divergent' actress admits that she 'suffered a lot more than [she] had to because [she] didn't take care of [herself].'

• Jul 17, 2021

AceShowbiz - Shailene Woodley revealed that her unnamed illness she's been struggling with privately has affected her ability to work. In a new interview, the "The Divergent Series: Allegiant" actress divulged that she has turned down many projects due to her "debilitating" health condition."

"It was pretty debilitating," the 29-year-old spilled when speaking to The Hollywood Reporter. "I said no to a lot of projects, not because I wanted to but because I physically couldn't participate in them. And I definitely suffered a lot more than I had to because I didn't take care of myself. The self-inflicted pressure of not wanting to be helped or taken care of created more physical unrest throughout those years."

Luckily, Shailene's health is now improving. "I'm on the tail end of it, which is very exciting," she noted. "But it's an interesting thing, going through something so physically dominating while also having so many people pay attention to the choices you make, the things you say, what you do, what you look like."

"It spun me out for a while. You feel so incredibly isolated and alone," she went on sharing. "Unless someone can see that you have a broken arm or a broken leg, it's really difficult for people to relate to the pain that you're experiencing when it's a silent, quiet and invisible pain."

This was not the first time "The Last Letter from Your Lover" star got candid about her health issue. In April 2020, she admitted to The New York Times that she was "very, very sick in [her] early 20s." She added at that time, "While I was doing the 'Divergent' movies and working hard, I also was struggling with a deeply personal, very scary physical situation."

"Because of that, I said no to a lot of opportunities because I needed to get better, and those jobs ended up going to peers of mine who I love," she confided. "They went on to a lot of success, but there was a mix of people saying, 'You shouldn't have let that go!' or 'You shouldn't have been sick!' "

Elsewhere in her new interview, Shailene explained why she and fiance Aaron Rodgers waited to publicly confirm their engagement. "When we announced that we were engaged, we wanted to do that only because we didn't want someone else to do it before we did," she stated.

"And we didn't do it for months and months after we had become engaged," she elaborated further. "But the reaction to it was really a lot, and so we were like, 'Let's just politely decline [to talk about the relationship] for a little while and live in our little bubble.' "