20 Things About Jenna Dewan Tatum and Her Hubs Channing That Are Too Cute
20 Things About Jenna Dewan Tatum and Her Hubs Channing That Are Too Cute
After an exhaustive investigation, we found that the couple is perfection.
Social media envy is a legit phenomenon. Researchers study it, and we’d all be lying if we said we’ve never felt a twinge of it, especially when scrolling through the feed of Supergirl star Jenna Dewan Tatum. There she is with her rom-com of a husband, Channing Tatum—and dang, he’s giving her a pedi.
But Jenna, 35, is quick with the reality check: “Instagram is a highlight reel.” (Stars—they post just like us!) “If one more person tells me I’m perfect…” she vents. “Ten percent of the time, Chan and I have a lot of fun. Ninety percent, we’re really boring.” Well, Ms. D to the T—we’ll let our readers make the call.
Here are 20 things you don’t know about Jenna.
Love & Happiness
1. She’s totally Zen about women everywhere lusting after her husband. “I think he’s the sexiest thing in the world, so of course I get why other people think it. It’s always fun and we laugh about it.”
2. That goes double for Emilia Clarke, the British stunner who plays Daenerys Targaryen on Game of Thrones, who once jokingly suggested a threesome. “I was oblivious because I was so into meeting her. When that bit of info came out later, I was like, ‘Well, shit, wish I had known!’”
3. She and Channing, 36, have been together for 11 years, which she jokes is “like 55 years in Hollywood.”
4. Channing almost bought her engagement ring online. While filming G.I. Joe: The Rise of the Cobra, his costar Sienna Miller caught him wading through the Interwebs for a ring and immediately put the kibosh on his e-shopping. “‘No, no, no! Call Neil Lane!’ she told him. So I almost had a ring he bought online, but I love him so much for that.”
5. Their Southern upbringings (Texas for her, Alabama for him) play a huge role in keeping their relationship grounded. “It’s a sense of wanting the person you’re with to feel good about themselves. We connect on that level. It’s not an arrogant all-about-me show.”
6. They’re in sync when it comes to enjoying Tinseltown life—and accepting that fame and fortune can be fleeting. “We both want each other to follow our dreams, but we’d also be 1,000 percent okay if it all went away tomorrow. A lot of actors I meet wouldn’t be.”
7. One area where they don’t mesh as well? Their eating habits. She’s a vegan, and he’s, well… “He really did try to be vegan for six months. The guy doesn’t like vegetables, which makes it tough. It was hard in the beginning because you want someone to be on the same page, but you’ve gotta let people be themselves.”
8. Jenna and Channing rarely hit up the party scene. (But yes, they’ve gone to shindigs at Adam Levine’s house.) They’re way more likely to be found at their farm in Ojai or home in L.A. binge-watching a show like Girls or Flesh and Bone.
Motherhood
9. Jenna found out she was pregnant just after finishing the pilot for the TV show Witches of East End, and she started filming the remaining episodes when her daughter, Everly, was just 6 weeks old. “I was running back and forth from breast-feeding her to filming a scene, overextending myself on every level. I realized I have to make priorities, and my family is number one no matter what.”
10. Becoming a mom put a halt to the perfectionist thinking that had been ingrained in her from childhood dance training. “I realized that if you try to be the perfect mom, perfect wife, perfect actress, you start to feel overwhelmed. You shut down. I got that really fast.”
11. Jenna notices aspects of both her and Channing’s personalities in their daughter (see “Tatum vs Tatum,” page 108), but it’s the 3-year-old’s discerning nature she’s most struck by. “You know how some kids are so wide-eyed, so innocent, and talk to anyone? She straight up will put her hand up and go, ‘No, no, no.’ Like, I haven’t decided if I want to be your friend yet.”
Career
12. Gigs as a backup dancer for headliners like Missy Elliott and Pink instilled a “make it work” mindset—long before it became a catchphrase on Project Runway. “Dancers just have that mentality. I’ve done music videos where I was standing on a small table drenched with rain in a sheet metal dress for Toni Braxton. You’re like, I’ll figure it out, I’ll make it work.”
13. Speaking of hustle… In the two years leading up to her breakout in the 2006 dance flick Step Up, Jenna worked on seven different projects. “I used to be like, I’ve gotta go, go, go! I need to go on 20 auditions and read scripts!”
14. Her dream gig? Headlining an action hero flick. “I want to do stunts and play a badass. Like Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman. Physicality, fun, evilness.”
15. She recently started a production company (Purple Cup, as named by Everly) and is developing a dance reality competition series on NBC where she’ll serve as producer (along with Channing), as well as judge and mentor. “It’ll be performances, but a more fresh take with some things out of the studio,” she says.
Self-Care
16. She admits she struggles with carving out more time for it. “You have to be fulfilled in order for everyone else to be fulfilled. I’m a way happier, more pleasant person to be around when I take time for myself.” As for how she does it…
17. She’s all about low-key getaways. “I love Two Bunch Palms. They had a full-moon meditation in the yurt. I thought, I’m so L.A., but I’m okay with it right now. I’m such a weirdo. I totally go for that sit-in-a-sound-bath-with-crystals-on-my-head or whatever.”
18. Vedic meditation is her more regular form of R&R. “[Meditation coach] Emily Fletcher taught me. I met her in an acting class, and I was struck by her general energy. She taught it to Chan as well, so we had a family learning experience.”
19. Yes, she has amazing abs, but she had help getting that deeply defined set you saw on Lip Sync Battle. “They were painted on! For Magic Mike, they had this spray-tanner who was giving all the guys extra abs. I was like, ‘Um hi—can you come?’ I wanted it to be exaggerated, but now everyone thinks I have Janet Jackson abs.”
20. Jenna believes “having it all” is possible, but only if your decisions line up with your values. “For me, if my family is happy, we are good. It comes down to not beating yourself up. We’re all working hard. Let’s be gracious to ourselves and everyone around us.”