Channing Tatum & Jenna Dewan's Divorce Was More Tragic Than We Realized

Once a solid example of longstanding love in Hollywood, Jenna Dewan and Channing Tatum announced their separation to People in April 2018 and began divorce proceedings that took nearly six years to finalize. Their complicated legal battle involved a financial dispute about profits related to the "Magic Mike" franchise, which Tatum first starred in during their marriage. Yet, despite the drawn out process, Tatum has come out the other side with a new perspective.

Dewan and Tatum also fought over custody of their daughter, Everly, though the pair came to a custody agreement in 2020, per Us Weekly. Now that their legal matters are settled, Tatum is opening up about why being a dad added an extra level of pain to the proceedings. In a September 2025 interview with Variety, Tatum revealed that losing time with his daughter made his divorce even more devastating than headlines implied.  

"I know for a fact I'm able to understand it. Jenna and I are good now, but it was a painful break to have that fall apart, especially being so young," Tatum replied when asked if he related to his "Roofman" character, a man who misses his daughter. "We tried to keep it together, tried for a year and a half, but we knew it was..." He reportedly trailed off before adding, "Not to go into all that. It's in the past. But it's really tough not to have your daughter half the time. I wish I could just have her all the time."

Jenna Dewan also alluded to landing in a better place amid their strained relationship in a January 2025 essay for InStyle. "In 2024, especially, I learned a lot about myself, my resilience, and my voice. I learned to let go of over-accommodating in my relationships and to sit with uncomfortability," she wrote. Although breaking up their family caused them the most emotional pain, the exes nearly forced each other to testify in court to settle a dispute related to the intellectual property of "Magic Mike" and its profits. 

According to court documents obtained by People, while divorcing Channing Tatum, Dewan sought to establish she was part-owner of the "Magic Mike" intellectual property due to her financial and creative contributions to the franchise. In the documents, Dewan alleged that Tatum refused "to accept an equal division of the 'Magic Mike' intellectual property." She also alleged that he kept earnings related to the films in an "irrevocable trust" and failed to inform her that he transferred the licensing rights related to the films to a third party. The exes agreed on a settlement in September 2024, per the Associated Press, although details of the decision that finally resolved their years-long financial dispute remained confidential.