Channing Tatum Just Got Super Real About His “Super Scary” Divorce from Jenna Dewan

Channing Tatum is opening up about his 2019 divorce from ex-wife Jenna Dewan like never before — including how it’s impacted his outlook on marriage today. When talking to Vanity Fair for its February cover story, the actor, who met Dewan on the set of Step Up in 2006 before marrying in 2009, discussed how their 2018 separation (and later divorce) came to be.

“We fought for it for a really long time, even though we both sort of knew that we had sort of grown apart,” Tatum shared. “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.”

He added that throwing parenting in the mix after the birth of their daughter Everly only made the pair’s incompatibilities more apparent. “But when you’re actually parents, you really understand differences between the two of you. Because it is screaming at you all day long,” the actor explained. “How you parent differently, how you look at the world, how you go through the world.”

Tatum revealed that although the initial stages of the divorce were “super scary and terrifying,” he believes it encouraged him to work on himself. “Your life just turns on its axis. This whole plan that you had literally just turns into sand and goes through your fingers and you’re just like, ‘Oh, shit. What now?’” he said, adding, “It was probably exactly what I needed. 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.”

Although the actor is now happier than ever with his girlfriend of a year and a half, Zoë Kravtiz, whom he met in August 2021, he’s unsure if another marriage is in his future. “I don’t know if I’m ever going to get married again,” Tatum said. “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?” he continued, adding that his goal going forward is to take things slower. “So I can actually experience these moments, instead of just trying to change it or something. Or being afraid that it’s not going to work out how I wanted or something.”