Channing Tatum Was ‘Doubly Afraid’ About Becoming a ‘Single Dad’ After Jenna Dewan Divorce

Channing Tatum is opening up about his approach to fatherhood following his split from Jenna Dewan in 2018.

During a recent interview with his 21 Jump Street costar Jonah Hill for the cover of VMAN, Tatum admitted that he was daunted by how the breakup would affect his relationship with his then five-year-old daughter, Everly Elizabeth Maiselle Tatum. 

“I know that I liked to act and play make-believe and magical things, but I just didn’t know if I was going to be able to meet her on her level, especially now that I’m a single dad,” he told Hill, per The Hollywood Reporter. “I was doubly afraid. Was I going to be able to do any of the stuff that a mother should do? That a mother, as a woman, can relate to her as?”

Ultimately, he found that the answer to his question was relatively simple. “As that journey unfolded, I realized that all I really had to do was just go into her world and do whatever that is that she wanted to do,” he added.

Tatum and Dewan welcomed their daughter in 2013 and divorced five years later. In May 2021, the actor released a children’s book, The One and Only Sparkella, about an exuberant young girl and her dad, as he encourages her journey towards self-acceptance and love. In June 2021, he shared the first image of her face on his Instagram in honor of Father’s Day.

“You, my littles, are everything! You are my world and my heart,” Channing Tatum wrote. “You were looking at the full moon in this pic and telling me the prophecy of the full moon mermaid and then we ran into the water and looked for her and played with glow sticks in the night water calling out to the mermaids. you said you touched a bald-headed mermaid and saw a tail. Haha, one day you will read this and I hope laugh. We have fun 🤩 hehehe.”