The Truth Behind Jenna Dewan’s Absentee Husband Comments About Channing Tatum

Jenna Dewan wants fans to know she was not slamming her ex-husband Channing Tatum during a recent interview when she opened up about parenthood. The actress and dancer made headlines this week after saying in a podcast that she was apart from Tatum soon after their daughter Everly’s birth, but she spoke out again on Tuesday to clarify her comments.

“It’s unfortunate that countless media outlets have taken an important conversation on a woman’s experience with postpartum issues and pulled quotes to make it appear that I was slamming my daughter’s father, something I would never do,” she wrote in an Instagram Story post on Tuesday. “As two working parents, we both faced challenges at the time, but I speak only for myself and not about him.”

“Anyone who actually listens to the interview, something I encourage everyone to do, will clearly see that my words have been distorted for clicks and to push false, salacious gossip with no regard for the actual people involved, or the message intended,” she concluded.

Her initial comments came on Dear Media’s Dear Gabby podcast when she said she had a hard time after Everly was born in 2013 when she and Tatum had to spend time apart from one another just weeks after her birth. “With Evie, because I had her in London, and I had to go back to work on an episodic TV show… in Vancouver, I had to travel with her and at the time, Chan wasn’t available to be with us for the most part,” Dewan explained. “So, it was me, my doula, and Evie all by ourselves traveling at six weeks.”

“I thought, ‘OK, I think I can do that. It’ll be two months after and I’ll have her on set,’” she added of her now 8-year-old daughter. “That was really hard because that was long hours. I did have her on set with me constantly. It was just really difficult.” She said the situation left her with “a lot of postpartum anxiety.”

“I just never stopped. You’re up a couple times in the night and then you’re working all day,” she explained. “I was breastfeeding. I was pumping. I was without a partner. I mean, it was just craziness.”

TMZ reports that Dewan and Tatum were living in London while Tatum shot Jupiter Ascending when Dewan gave birth. Six weeks later, Dewan was needed in Vancouver for a project she booked while she was pregnant. Sources close to the former couple told TMZ that Tatum did everything he could to help his wife even if he couldn’t physically be there. He reportedly chartered a private plane for Dewan, Everly and a doula and rented a home in Vancouver for them. After Vancouver Ascending moved from London to Chicago, Tatum traveled to Vancouver whenever he could, sometimes reportedly making less than 24-hour trips to be with his family.

Dewan and Tatum married in 2009 but announced they were separating in April 2018. They officially divorced in 2019. Dewan started dating actor Steve Kazee in 2018; they got engaged in 2020, just months before welcoming their now 1-year-old son Callum.

“This time around, I was so grounded,” Dewan said on the podcast of welcoming Callum and the months that followed. “Even though the world was crazy, I was home and in this love nest and it was different… It was great. It was me, Steve, Callum and Evie just cuddling. It was so lovely.”