Channing Tatum is putting on the family-man persona in his latest Instagram post. In a picture from yesterday, Tatum, 41, took to his feed to share a photo of him and his 8-year-old daughter, Everly, on what looks like a family beach outing.
Everly, who has long been hidden from the public eye, posed with her dad in a classic father-daughter pose alongside a caption that read: “You my littles are everything! You are my world and my heart. 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.” Isn’t that just sweet.
Tatum fathers Evelyn alongside his ex-wife, actress Jenna Dewan, 40, whom he split with in 2018 and officially divorced in 2019. The couple reportedly “just fell out of love,” and are now in a dispute over money regarding profits made from the Magic Mike franchise. It is reported that Dewan, a professional dancer, helped Tatum source the best choreographer for the Magic Mike live shows in Las Vegas. The same report also suggests that the ex-couple are now reportedly disputing spousal support over their daughter.
With all of that being said, it comes as no surprise that Tatum hid his child from the public eye. On top of the already weighty public image of a turbulent divorce, children arguably don’t have a place in celebrity culture. While we can only hope that Tatum’s intentions are the best, you can’t help but wonder if this picture utilizes his daughter to help paint a better picture of himself, especially as he switches gear to more kid-friendly material such as his odd pivot to children’s books, with his debut work “The One and Only Sparkella” released May 4 of 2021.
Tatum has expressed his challenges in fatherhood as a “girl dad” before, saying that he went on YouTube and watched countless videos on how to braid hair for his daughter.
“I was really nervous when I became a single dad,” Tatum said in an interview. “Having to raise a little girl, not being able to have the resource of a woman there to be able to lean into how to relate to her as she grows up.”
All in all, I think we can conclude that Tatum has done all that he possibly can to be a good father, and that this push of a new fatherly image might just be a way for him to reinvent himself after long being associated with the risqué portrayal of Magic Mike. Tatum says that just observing and learning with his daughter helps “to go into her world and connect with her in any way.”
“If it’s wearing a tutu or painting your nails or wearing makeup — who cares? It just worked for me.” Tatum said.
