“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?”
Before he became the famed stripper we know in Magic Mike, Channing Tatum was a troubled kid tasked with cleaning the floors of the prestigious dance school he trashed in Step Up. The flick that later came to spawn a number of spin-offs and sequels was one that not only breathed new life into the dance movie, but also saw audiences fall in love with Tatum and his co-star, Jenna Dewan. With their undeniable chemistry that seemed to transcend the screen, few were shocked when it was announced the pair fell in love on set. And as though they were two faces we’d grown up with, many found themselves invested in the couple’s relationship.
It came as shocking news then, that after almost a decade together, the pair would be getting a divorce. Though he’s always favoured privacy as an actor, Tatum has now opened up about that time in his life and the struggles that come with divorce. In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, Tatum explained, “In the beginning, [the split] was super scary and terrifying. 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?”
The divorce between Dewan and Tatum was finalised in 2019, with the couple saying that they had simply grown apart during that time. “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,” said Tatum.
Tatum explained that the couple “fought for [their marriage] for a really long time, even though we both sort of knew that we had sort of grown apart.” He added, “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.”
In the time he spent away from film sets, Tatum instead turned his attention to his family, namely his daughter, Everly. He even wrote a children’s book inspired by her and reflected on his divorce, ultimately leading to a place where he can say 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.”
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Speaking about his time with Everly, Tatum expressed: “I just dropped everything…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.”
Tatum will next star in the long-anticipated final instalment of the Magic Mike franchise, in the film Magic Mike’s Last Dance. For the role, the star got in the “best shape of my entire life” as he told Vanity Fair, and if the recent trailer is anything to go by, it certainly looks to be a stunning performance for the star that will be sure to send hearts racing across cinemas.
