A Definitive Timeline of Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan's Relationship
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan announced their separation on April 2nd, 2018 after nearly nine years of marriage. In a statement shared to their respective social media accounts, the couple wrote, “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. 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.” Channing and Jenna added that they “will always be loving dedicated parents to Everly,” who was born in 2013. Here’s a look back at their love story:
September 2005: Channing and Jenna first meet in Baltimore on the set of Step Up. The two, who shared their first real kiss on screen playing Tyler Gage and Nora Clark, would end up dating shortly after. As Channing told ELLE in 2013, he had just gotten out of a long relationship and was not prepared for another one. “I was trying to run from what I knew Jenna was – not someone I was just going to date. But one of my buddies was like, ‘What are you doing, man? She’s dope.’ That night I showed up at her hotel room with a sombrero on, and that was it.”
January 2006: Channing and Jenna arrive together at the Sundance Film Festival as dating rumors surface.
June 2006: Channing and Jenna look all couple-y and loved up while attending an event in Los Angeles together.
August 2006: Channing and Jenna hit the red carpet together for the premiere of Step Up. The film would gross $114 million worldwide and spawn four sequels with other actors, though Channing did make a cameo at the beginning of Step Up 2: The Streets.
December 2006: At a press conference for Step Up in Italy, Channing and Jenna gush about working with each other and hint at the fact that they’re more than co-stars and friends. Jenna says, “Channing is a very sweet, loving, funny, giving, caring, compassionate – he’s loving this right now. No, he’s a hard worker. He’s very goal-oriented.” In response, Channing says, “Jenna’s very, she’s obviously very beautiful, but she really, really is as beautiful inside as she is out. She’s really real, too.”
February 2007: Channing and Jenna are each other’s dates at Giorgio Armani’s Oscar party.
July 2007: Channing and Jenna spend part of their summer at the grand opening of Cain at Cove Atlantis in the Bahamas.
February 2008: Step Up 2 premieres in LA and mom and dad – sorry, the OG Nora and Tyler – are there for the festivities.
August 2008: Channing and Jenna attend the 2008 Teen Choice Awards and make the red carpet their living room, basically. These PDA-heavy photos are everything.
September 2008: Channing proposes to Jenna with a Neil Lane ring while vacationing in Maui with friends, according to PEOPLE. In a 2017 interview with BBC Radio One’s “Breakfast Show,” Channing revealed what led to his surprise proposal. “When I proposed to my wife, I did something pretty cruel because I thought she was on to me. I basically told her I never wanted to get married to try to throw her off… I told her, ‘I don’t believe in the institution of marriage and I don’t think I ever want to get married.’ She basically broke down crying. I thought, ‘This is not going well at all,’ so I had to propose to her sooner rather than later.”
July 2009: Channing and Jenna are married at a private estate in Malibu, with the groom wearing Giorgio Armani and the bride in Reem Acra. At the time, PEOPLE reported that 220 guests were invited to the wedding, including Marlon Wayans, Emmanuelle Chriqui (who was Jenna’s maid of honor), and Haylie Duff (who was Jenna’s bridesmaid). For their first dance as a married couple, Channing and Jenna chose Israel “Iz” Ka’ano’i Kamakawiwo’ole’s version of “Somewhere over the Rainbow.”
Weeks later, Channing and Jenna make their first public appearance as a married couple at the premiere of G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra in Tokyo. Note Jenna’s giant Neil Lane engagement and wedding rings.
At the G.I. Joe premiere in LA the following month, Mr. and Mrs. Tatum grace the red carpet with their newlywed glow.
February 2010: Channing and Jenna make it date night at the LA premiere of his new movie, Dear John. The couple would launch their production company, 33andOut Productions, later that year, with the release of the documentary Earth Made of Glass, which premiered at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival.
April 2010: Channing turns 30 and celebrates with a party at Macao Trading Company in New York City. Guests included Haylee Duff, Shiri Appleby, Nick Zano, and of course, Jenna, who gave Channing this birthday kiss.
March 2012: Channing and Jenna are a sight for sore eyes at the premiere of 21 Jump Street.
May 2012: Channing and Jenna are winners at the 71st Annual Peabody Awards in New York City. The couple were honored for executive producing their documentary, Earth Made of Glass.
June 2012: Channing and Jenna look more in love than ever at the screening of Magic Mike during the 2012 Los Angeles Film Festival.
December 2012: Reps for the couple confirm to PEOPLE that they are expecting their first child. Channing told the mag the previous month that they were both ready for a baby. “The first number that pops into my head is three, but I just want one to be healthy and then we’ll see where we go after that,” he said.
February 2013: Channing, Jenna, and her baby bump walk the red carpet at the 85th Academy Awards. Does anyone remember what else happened at the Oscars that year? Same.
May 2013: Everly Tatum is born on May 31st in London, according to announcements on the couple’s respective websites. Some two weeks later, Channing celebrates his first Father’s Day by sharing the first photo of Everly.
February 2014: Speaking to Us Weekly, Jenna says while motherhood has “been a great perspective change,” she still makes sure to prioritize the occasional date night with Channing. “You’ve got to get out and be around adults… and not be speaking in a baby voice all day long – just for your own sanity!” Of the couple’s plans to have more kids, Jenna says she’s open “if it’s in the cards for us,” adding that they’re still “trying to get into the groove and enjoy our little baby that we have right now.”
March 2014: Channing and Jenna are the king and queen of the Oscars, once again.
May 2014: Everly turns one.
July 2014: Channing and Jenna mark their five-year wedding anniversary with a selfie with their angel baby Everly.
December 2014: Channing joins Jenna at a pedicure for her 34th birthday. “It’s my birthday and hubby does what I want him to,” she writes in the Instagram caption.
July 2015: In an interview with Vanity Fair, Channing calls Jenna a “warrior” and “super mum.”
My wife, she's a warrior. She did it as natural as you can. [As a man], you're basically a cheerleader. 'Come on, baby. You can do it.' I would've tapped out in the first.
Jenna is a super mum. There's no other way to say it. She is there every single second, every single day. I love being a dad. They're like little mirrors running around. They show you things about yourself you wouldn't pay attention to before. Jenna says it all the time: 'Oh, my God, that is so you right there.' But I don't know if I'm good at it.
August 2015: Channing and Jenna take a family vacation in Cabo San Lucas, where these beautiful shots of Jenna are taken by Channing (and shared two months later).
October 2015: Channing and Jenna dress up as two versions of Dr. Seuss’s Cat in the Hat for Halloween, giving a new meaning to #relationshipgoals.
January 2016: Channing and Jenna deliver his-and-hers performances on Lip Sync Battle. While Channing dressed up as both Beyoncé and Elsa for the show, Jenna’s rendition of Ginuwine’s “Pony,” performed while wearing Channing’s outfit from Magic Mike, was the true highlight.
That same month, this photo happens.
February 2016: Channing and Jenna celebrate Valentine’s Day with rose petals.
"I had a great Valentine’s," Jenna said on The Ellen DeGeneres Show a few days later. "Channing came back early from a press tour and surprised me which was so sweet. So I thought I had, like, two extra days. So I come home and I walk in, I come back from set and I was like, 'What is going on?' There was, like, things in the kitchen that was weird. And then I was like, wait, there’s roses. And he put roses all the way up to the room which was so sweet."
May 2016: Channing shares a photo of Jenna and Everly taken days after her birth, along with a message praising his wife’s “deep strength and other worldly grace.”
July 2016: Channing and Jenna celebrate their seventh wedding anniversary.
August 2016: Channing and Jenna celebrate another milestone – the 10-year anniversary of Step Up – with a recreation of ~the lift~ on Instagram.
December 2016: Jenna opens up to Cosmopolitan about what instantly attracted her to Channing (“Obviously, he’s super hot”), who made the first move (“There was that feeling”), the famous sombrero, and of course, the sex:
That was one of our biggest connections. It’s just always been there. We’re not those people who can just say, screw it, let’s be sexual. We have to be connected in the right way. But I’ve always been a very sexual person. We definitely have a very happy and healthy [sex life]. Something about being a dancer connects you to your physical body. It’s primal, earthy, sexual energy by nature. You feel your body in a certain way. Channing is very much the same way. He’s very in tune with that. It just worked.
Channing wishes Jenna a happy birthday with a photo of the two of them posing in front of a rainbow, perhaps as a tribute to their first dance at their wedding.
He later shows his support for Jenna by “reading” a copy of Cosmopolitan, featuring a familiar cover girl.
January 2017: Channing posts the sexiest photo of Jenna. Ever.
April 2017: In an interview with Redbook, Jenna reveals that there are cracks in her marriage, but that the two have grown to become honest with each other. “You change when you're together from 25 to 35… I think maybe in my early 20s, I might have tiptoed around issues or didn't want to make too many waves. Now it's like, 'This is how I'm feeling.' You have to be OK with the other person becoming defensive, to let them be emotional and accept that it won't be OK for a while." She also says that she and Channing haven’t had to schedule sex — yet. "Give us a couple more years. Maybe with child number two. There’s a beauty in being two busy people because we get a lot of time to miss each other. To continue to miss someone after so many years is kind of a blessing in disguise."
May 2017: In a letter published in the June 2017 issue of Cosmopolitan, Channing writes about his highest hope for daughter Everly and the beginning of his relationship with Jenna.
I knew our connection was really powerful, but I wasn’t sure what our relationship was going to be. Then one day, Jenna just blurted out that she knew exactly what she wanted in life and she didn’t have to look for it anymore because it was me. She had no idea what I’d say or how I’d react, but that was her truth. I remember feeling this incredible rush — it was the sexiest thing she’d ever done for me. I felt strength, because in that moment, she had accepted every part of me, the good and the bad. And I knew she wasn’t auditioning me or hoping I’d meet some set of expectations. That radical authenticity of hers was what made me fall head over heels in love. Before I experienced it, I wouldn’t have known how to ask for it. Now I know it’s what I was always craving. And that’s what I want for my daughter — to be expectation-less with her love and not allow preconceived standards to affect her, to ask herself what she wants and feel empowered enough to act on it.
That same month, Jenna reveals to the Huffington Post that Everly accidentally watched Step Up for the first time. “It was so funny, we were like, ‘Everly, Everly, look! It’s mommy and daddy!’ At first she didn’t think it was us… She’s like, ‘That’s not you guys.’ And I’m like, ‘No, it’s us, Evie, it’s me!’ And then she goes, ‘Can we watch something good?’ Just like that, and we were humbled. One day she’ll maybe appreciate it on a different level, but yeah, she’s not so into it.”
December 2017: Channing takes to Instagram to wish Jenna a happy birthday, along with a gorgeous photo of the birthday girl. “This creature is one more year beautiful,” he wrote. “The transformation she invoked this year has been something they only write about in books of fairytale and magic. Your strength and grace ever evolving. By doing so you make everything around you grow- everything. And i am so very grateful for your lessons. Happy life day my love.”
March 2018: Everly gives her parents a makeover and the results are shared on Instagram.
Days later, Everly makes her first public appearance at the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards.
April 2018: In a statement shared to their respective Instagram accounts, Channing and Jenna announce that they are separating. The full message reads,
Hey world! So…We have something we would like to share. First off, it feels odd that we have to share this kind of thing with everyone, but it’s a consequence of the lives we’ve chosen to lead, which we also happen to be deeply grateful for. We’re living in an incredible moment in time, but it’s also a time where truth can easily get distorted into “alternative facts” 😉 So we want to share the truth so you know that if you didn’t read it here then it’s most certainly fiction. We have lovingly chosen to separate as a couple. 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. 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. We are still a family and will always be loving dedicated parents to Everly. We won’t be commenting beyond this, and we thank you all in advance for respecting our family’s privacy. Sending lots of love to everyone, Chan&Jenna.
November 2019: Despite their property assets and child custody agreement remaining unsettled, it is confirmed that the celebs are declared legally single by a Los Angeles judge.
January 2023: During an interview with Vanity Fair (via Glamour), the Magic Mic star opens up about his divorce and reveals, “In the beginning, it was super scary and terrifying. Your life turns on its axis. This whole plan that you had literally turns into sand and goes through your fingers.”
He then goes on to explain that, “When you're parents, you really understand [the] 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.”
January 2024: During an interview with Romper, Jenna discusses co-parenting with Channing: “It’s always a journey. It never ends. You just learn as you go and get better at certain things, and for me, Evie will always be my top priority. I just continually put her first. That’s how I can manage all hard things.”
April 2024: According to reports, both Jenna and Channing reportedly want each other to testify as they try to resolve their divorce in court. However, it is also announced that the She's the Man actor *also* wants Jenna's fiancé Steve Kazee to be present as well. The former couple has a hearing scheduled for Friday, April 12, and according to People, the court documents reveal the “'key issues' for the trial are division of property, reimbursement claims, support, breach of fiduciary duty, and attorneys' fees.”
You Might Also Like
