Channing Tatum said the end of his marriage to Jenna Dewan was “painful” but that the former couple are on better terms now, in a rare public comment about their long-running divorce. The divorce was finalized in 2024, six years after Dewan first filed to end the marriage.
Tatum, speaking in an interview with Variety published this week, said the pair tried to keep the relationship together for about a year and a half before parting ways in 2018. “Jenna and I are good now, but it was a painful break to have that fall apart, especially being so young,” he said. “We tried to keep it together, tried for a year and a half.”
“It’s in the past,” Tatum added in the interview before addressing co-parenting with Dewan. He said it is difficult not to have their daughter half the time and expressed a wish to have more time with her: “But it’s really tough not to have your daughter half the time. I wish I could just have her all the time.”
Tatum and Dewan, who met on the set of the 2006 dance drama Step Up and were married for nearly a decade, separated in 2018 when Dewan filed for divorce. The legal dissolution was completed in 2024. Tatum has previously described the split as something that ultimately spurred personal growth; in a 2023 Vanity Fair interview he said he would not have undertaken the work on himself otherwise.
The actor has not often discussed the breakdown of the marriage in public. In earlier remarks he called the separation “probably exactly what I needed,” framing the experience as part of a longer process of self-discovery. In the new interview he reiterated that the matter is behind them while acknowledging the ongoing challenges of raising a child in separate households.
Tatum’s comments come as both he and Dewan have maintained careers in film and television since their separation. The couple’s relationship, high-profile in the years following Step Up, has been noted for the length of time between Dewan’s filing and the finalization of the divorce. Their situation highlights the complications that can accompany long-term partnerships and shared parenting after separation.
Tatum’s remarks in Variety mark one of his more detailed reflections on the emotional toll of the breakup and the adjustments that followed. He emphasized that, while the split was difficult, both he and Dewan have reached a place where they can co-parent and move forward with their lives.