Jenna Dewan opens up about her "new normal" and talks about being a role model for her daughter
It has been some time since Jenna Dewan and Channing Tatum went their separate ways, but the news of their break up still stings a lot of fans to this date. In a new photo shoot for Harper's Bazar, the actress opened up about breaking off her marriage with the 'Magic Mike' star, and how she's moving on from the split in her own ways.
In her interview, the host of NBC’s 'World of Dance' opened up about ending her nine-year marriage to Tatum, and finally stepping into the spotlight on her own merits. The actress said that life after Tatum, “[Is] a new normal where there is a lot of love. We’re just getting used to it. We're in a very positive energy together, trying to be the best parents to Everly. We support each other."
The newly single mom also revealed that being a parent has somehow taken away her worries about being an actress in Hollywood.
“Whether you try and hide it or not, most actresses and actors have a certain sense of anxious desperation about what their next job is,” Dewan said. “As soon as I had Everly, it went away. I had this freedom of, ‘Well, I could never work another day in my life, and I have a purpose.’ ”
She added, “The irony is, that deep surrender brought so much opportunity and projects my way.” And even though the dancer is busy with career opportunities that keep piling on her plate, she is more concerned about being a good role model for her 4-year-old daughter Everly, through which she is also learning a bit more about her sense of self.
“She’s like a little mirror for me. She’s so willful that she kind of inspires me to get clear and more willful in my own life,” she said, jokingly adding, “If she’s not running her own business, or ruling the world, I have failed as a mother.”
The 37-year-old also spoke a little about her goddess circle, which is a gathering of women friends where they all announce their intentions and do guided meditation, and how it has helped her cope with the recent changes in her life.
She said, “I'm aware how weird that sounds… It’s the whole L.A. hippie experience … At the end of the day, the whole point is women coming together, and supporting each other, and connecting and bonding. We have these crazy lives … I think as I've gotten older, it sounds cliché, but it’s more important to have a really solid group of girls that are there for me, who get me."
Speaking further about her career and the big moves she is making on the professional end, she revealed, "The moves I'm making are completely not related to my marriage or separation, interestingly enough. I was always very happy being a wife. 'Who are you? What do you want to give to the world? What excites you?' Those feelings started bubbling up for me, naturally … so I really wanted to expand my life and myself."
The actress continued, saying, "And that was my journey, no one else's. [Being on my own,] I feel a sense of joy and freedom and excitement, truly, about a new chapter in my life. And I have no attachments to how that's going to look, or what that's going to be. I feel really open, and I feel hopeful."
Dewan, who shot to fame for her role in 'Step Up', which is also where she met Tatum for the first time, admitted that her career in the film industry took a downfall post the release of the cult classic because she was confused between being a dancer and an actress.
She explained, "Even though I was in a hit dance movie, all of a sudden my agents were telling me to go into auditions as, 'You're not a dancer, you're an actress. That’s all you do.' It was so weird. They were just trying to fit me into this thing, and I really didn't fit into that box … I didn't have the self-awareness to understand. I was really young. I was 26, 27, 28, around there. So I was like, 'I don't know who I am.'"