Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan have announced they have “lovingly chosen to separate as a couple” after nearly nine years of marriage.
In a statement simultaneously posted on their social media profiles, they said “absolutely nothing has changed about how much we love one another, but love is a beautiful adventure that is taking us on different paths for now”.
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Signed “Chan & Jenna”, the statement said: “There are no secrets or salacious events at the root of our decision – just two best friends realising it’s time to take some space and help each other live the most joyous, fulfilled lives as possible.”
Their decision to go public was to avoid the truth behind their separation being “distorted into ‘alternative facts’,” they said.
The pair, who are both 37, stressed they are “still a family” and would always be “loving dedicated parents” to their four-year-old daughter, Everly.
In an interview with Health magazine in February, Jenna had hit out at people labelling their relationship as “perfect”, saying the couple fought just like everyone else.
“I think there are such things as great fits. It is a great fit as long as you are growing together, and I think up until this point we’ve really grown together. Even if one starts to grow, the other catches up and vice versa,” she said.
“But I think a couple needs to be conscious and to want to do the work and be willing to look at the parts of you that need work. Both of us have been pretty aware and willing to do that. We’ve always had the same values.
“But we’re not perfect! Are you kidding? We fight like other couples, we disagree about things, we have days where we don’t really like each other.”
Having met on the set of the 2006 dance film Step Up, the pair married in 2009.
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Channing, who later earned legions of fans for his turn as a stripper in 2012 hit Magic Mike, recently appeared in Kingsman: The Golden Circle.
Jenna last appeared on the big screen in 2012 rom com Slightly Single in LA.
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