For nearly a decade, Jenna Dewan Tatum and Channing Tatum seemed to share Hollywood's
coolest marriage.
So it was a shock to fans when the pair announced their split in April 2018.
Still, this is just the latest unexpected twist in the life and career of Jenna Dewan
Tatum, who has emerged from her superstar ex's shadow to become a star in her own right.
So if you only know her as Mrs. Channing Tatum, get ready to be surprised by the untold truth
of Jenna Dewan Tatum.
Mom knows best
It's safe to say the apple hasn't fallen far from the tree when it comes to Jenna and her
mother, Nancy Smith.
After Jenna's father abruptly left the family, Smith raised Jenna alone, sacrificing everything
to ensure that her children were cared and provided for.
Jenna told Health magazine she admires her mother's courage, saying,
"She had a real sense of survival, and she passed that down to me."
Sounds like Jenna Dewan Tatum is going to be just fine.
It-girl
Long before hitting the big time, and meeting her future husband in the 2006 hit film Step
Up, Jenna made a name for herself as a professional dancer.
After graduating high school, where she was prom queen and a member of the cheerleading
team, she went to USC.
But at the age of 20, she got her big break as a backup dancer in Janet Jackson's "Doesn't
Really Matter" music video.
That in turn led to a gig on Jackson's 2001 All for You Tour, which opened a lot of doors
- including some unexpected ones.
She told Chelsea Handler,
"I used to dance with Janet Jackson.
I don't know what it is, but her whole thing after the show is, ‘Let's go to a strip
club!'
[...] I was 19 and I was on tour and I was completely naïve, hadn't seen the world…
We went to gay strip clubs.
It was kind of crazy."
"Leave Britney alone!"
The world came to a screeching halt in 2002 when one of pop culture's most iconic couples,
Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake, broke up after three highly-publicized years of
romance.
So where does Jenna Dewan Tatum factor in?
Well, after the breakup, Us Weekly reported that Spears ran into Timberlake at a club
while he was out on a date with "girlfriend Jenna Dewan."
According to urban legend, Spears and Timberlake then engaged in an epic dance-off, which was
immortalized in the Lifetime movie Britney Ever After.
Though Jenna has acknowledged that she and Timberlake briefly dated, she claims the legendary
danceoff never actually happened.
"OK, so this dance-off situation is… it never happened!"
"They never had a dance-off?"
"No!"
"I was not a rebound, we're still good friends."
"Right.
Good."
"It's not as salacious as everyone thinks."
Her most embarrassing moment
Being around your crush is nerve-wracking enough without having to bust a move.
But even a professional dancer like Jenna still had nerves when she had to audition
with her crush for the role of a lifetime.
"You guys should all see my most embarrassing moment too.
And please watch how many times I giggle and I laugh."
The chemistry between the two is palpable, so it's no wonder they went on to get married
in a classic storybook romance.
Ah, young love.
"Hi, I'm Jenna Dewan."
"Channing Tatum."
"Hi!"
Bad shows, bad movies
Not everything Jenna has starred in has been quite as good - or quite as popular - as Step
Up.
And that's fine with her, as the actress told Buzzfeed that her biggest guilty pleasures
are "Bad movies in general.
bad shows, bad movies."
The star even admitted to The New York Post that one of her own shows, Lifetime's Witches
of East End, would likely end up on her guilty pleasure list.
Chock full of sultry witches and spells, Witches of East End was cancelled after just two seasons,
putting it right up there with some of her other cheesy projects, such as the 2008 Lifetime
original drama Fab Five: The Texas Cheerleader Scandal, and the straight-to-DVD "comedy"
flick, American Virgin.
Sounds like a guilty pleasure movie marathon is in order!
Cool mom
In May 2013, Jenna Dewan Tatum welcomed her first child with Channing Tatum — a baby
girl named Everly.
The new parents were super protective of their newborn, preventing the dreaded paparazzi
from getting their hands on precious baby photos by releasing little Everly's first
picture themselves in a now-deleted Facebook post.
Since then, Dewan Tatum has shown off her cool mom credentials several times on Instagram.
A March 2018 post on Jenna's feed features four-year-old Everly at The Wizarding World
of Harry Potter in Hollywood.
"Practicing her magic," Dewan Tatum aptly captioned the photo.
And who could forget the time Everly got to tag along to her mom's Janet Jackson rehearsal?
What a lucky kid!
She's a total J-Lo fangirl
Before Jenna Dewan Tatum there was Jennifer Lopez, who similarly used the world of professional
dance as a springboard to Hollywood stardom.
So when Jenna had the opportunity to work alongside J-Lo in 2017 on NBC's World of Dance,
she jumped on the chance.
Jenna told AOL,
"I really admire her as a dancer and as someone who knows what she wants to create.
I wanted to really emulate and be around her and learn from her."
The love definitely appears to be mutual.
In October 2017, Jenna posted a super sexy mirror selfie featuring knee high, lace-up
boots gifted to her by Lopez.
"Only JLo can make a girl drop everything, put her favorite bodysuit on and take a spontaneous
random photo in her closet."
"I mean, as a dancer, she's like an icon."
"Yeah."
"You know, you grew up and she's like, she's a dancer, she turned into an actress, she
created an empire for herself!"
Radical authenticity
In a 2017 piece for Cosmopolitan, Channing Tatum wrote about his wife,
"That radical authenticity of hers was what made me fall head over heels in love."
So the world was stunned when Jenna Dewan Tatum and Channing Tatum announced their separation
on April 2nd, 2018 after nine years of what seemed to be a rock-solid relationship.
In a joint statement released on their respective Instagram accounts, the couple wrote, "We
have lovingly chosen to separate as a couple," while noting, "love is a beautiful adventure
that is taking us on different paths for now."
It remains to be seen how the split affects the family they've built together, or the
production company they co-founded.
But here's hoping Jenna Dewan Tatum will find peace as she moves on, continuing to keep
that authenticity at the heart of everything she does.
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