Seriously stepping up! Channing Tatum has been candid about the challenges of raising daughter Everly both before and after his split from Jenna Dewan.
The former couple met while filming 2006’s Step Up and tied the knot in July 2009. Three years later, the costars revealed Dewan was pregnant with their first child — but their busy schedules didn’t slow down.
“We’re going to actually have the baby in London while I’m shooting, and then there will be no downtime whatsoever after that,” Tatum told Ryan Seacrest in an interview about filming Jupiter Ascending in the U.K. shortly before Dewan gave birth.
Us Weekly broke the news in June 2013 that the pair’s daughter had arrived one month prior. “Channing is going to be the most adorable hands-on daddy ever and do whatever is necessary to make sure Jenna can balance it all,” a source exclusively revealed at the time.
Tatum quickly went back to work promoting his movie White House Down after Everly’s arrival — but it wasn’t easy. “I’m working in London and you’re away from your daughter for 12 hours a day, 15 hours a day, and you come back and you feel like her face has changed from the time you left in the morning until you came back at night, so that’s pretty hard,” he told Us and other reporters at a premiere in June 2013, adding that “nothing is more important” than being with family.
When it comes to Everly’s Hollywood future, the 21 Jump Street actor was hesitant. “You know, she’s going to grow up and do whatever she’s going to do,” he said. “I don’t really have any sway. … I want her to have a grounded, beautiful life. But she’s going to do what she’s going to do.”
Five years later, the Lego Movie star and the Flirty Dancing host announced they called it quits after nearly a decade of marriage. Dewan filed for divorce in October 2018, and Us confirmed in February 2020 that a judge signed off on the proceedings. (Dewan went on to welcome son Callum with fiancé Steve Kazee in March 2020.)
Raising his little girl solo was an adjustment, but Tatum jumped in headfirst. “I want dads not to be afraid to go into their daughter’s world and discover who they are,” he told Parents magazine in April 2021. “When I became a single father, I had a lot of fear about connecting to Everly in every way that a little girl might want. … I didn’t wear nail polish or know how to braid hair. But now I do both.”
The Bullet Train star said Everly was the inspiration for his children’s book The One and Only Sparkella, adding, “Just like Sparkella, Evie loves to play tricks, wear crazy outfits, and be different from everyone. She’s bold, beautiful, and magical in every way.”
Scroll down for more of Tatum’s best quotes about fatherhood: