Channing Tatum is reflecting on the failure of his nine-year marriage, saying the trauma of divorce was enough to make him question whether he should ever tie the knot again.
The “Magic Mike” actor made some rare statements about his personal life during a recent interview with Vanity Fair.
“I don’t know if I’m ever going to get married again,” he said.
“Relationships are hard for me,” Tatum continued. “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 went on to talk about his relationship with Jenna Dewan, whom he married in 2009 after meeting her on the set of the movie “Step Up.” The pair was one of Hollywood’s “it” couples until announcing their divorce in 2018. They share one daughter.
“We fought for it for a really long time, even though we both sort of knew that we had sort of grown apart,” Tatum said of the marriage. “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 “21 Jump Street” actor also asserted that having a child together added stress to their relationship.
“Because it is screaming at you all day long,” he told the publication. “How you parent differently, how you look at the world, how you go through the world.”
The initial separation affected Tatum deeply, he said.
“In the beginning, it was super scary and terrifying. Life just turns on its axis,” he went on. “This whole plan that you had literally just turns into sand and goes through your fingers, and you’re just like, ‘Oh, s***. What now?’”
But then he gained clarity and perspective.
“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. And really, it just started with my daughter. I just dropped everything and just focused on her,” Tatum continued.
“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 former couple previously explained that nothing monumental happened to make them break up, but rather that they grew apart.
“We fell deeply in love so many years ago and have had a magical journey together. Absolutely nothing has changed about how much we love one another, but love is a beautiful adventure that is taking us on different paths for now,” a joint statement announcing their split in 2018 said.
“There are no secrets nor salacious events at the root of our decision — just two best friends realizing it’s time to take some space and help each other live the most joyous, fulfilled lives as possible.”