Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan. Invision/AP/Shutterstock
Getting candid. Channing Tatum shared new details about what led to his split from Jenna Dewan, explaining how the former spouses fought for their marriage.
During his interview with Vanity Fair, which was published on Tuesday, January 17, Tatum, 42, recalled the moment he realized there were issues in their relationship.
“I was working a lot. I had gotten to work with some of my favorite directors. I had checked boxes that I would never have hoped to dream about. But something just wasn’t quite filling me up,” the actor, who shares 9-year-old daughter Everly with Dewan, 42, explained to the outlet. “I was sort of kind of just trying not to be bad in movies, instead of being good. And I was kind of going, ‘What’s …’ And it really had nothing to do with my work. It was really about my life.”
Tatum noted that he and Dewan made attempts to work things out before pulling the plug, adding, “We fought for it for a really long time, even though we both sort of knew that we had sort of grown apart. I think we told ourselves a story when we were young, and we just kept telling ourselves that story, no matter how blatantly life was telling us that we were so different.”
The Lost City star concluded: “But when you’re actually parents you really understand differences between the two of you. Because it is screaming at you all day long. How you parent differently, how you look at the world, how you go through the world.”
According to the Alabama native, it was initially “super scary and terrifying” when he transitioned back to single life. “This whole plan that you had literally just turns into sand and goes through your fingers and you’re just like, ‘Oh, s—t. What now?’” he admitted.
Tatum, however, credited the breakup for being “exactly” what he needed at the time.
“I don’t think I would’ve ever done the work, I think, on myself in the way that I had to do the work on myself to really try to figure out what next,” he shared. “And really, it just started with my daughter. I just dropped everything and just focused on her. And it was truly the best possible thing that I ever could have done. Because in the alone time that I have with just me and her, we’ve become best friends.”
The Magic Mike star, who is currently dating Zoë Kravitz, revealed he has no plans to walk down the aisle again, saying, “Relationships are hard for me. Even though I am a bit of a monogamist. In business, I have no real fear of anything being destroyed. But heart things, when it comes to people I love, I have a really hard time. I end up trying too hard, you know?”
Tatum and Dewan started dating in 2006 after they met on the set of Step Up. The former couple tied the knot in 2009 and later welcomed their daughter. After nearly a decade of marriage, Tatum and Dewan announced in 2018 that they were separating. Six months later, the actress filed for divorce and it was finalized in 2019.
Since their split, Dewan moved on with Steve Kazee. The pair, who got engaged in 2020, welcomed their son, Callum, that same year. Tatum, for his part, was linked to Jessie J before sparking romance rumors with Kravitz, 34.