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Jenna Dewan and Channing Tatum have handled their divorce with so much grace and kindness, it’s been nice to see. As a divorced person who did it relatively amicably, when I see celebrities handling things so well I feel like I know how hard it must have been behind the scenes. People don’t typically get divorced without trying so many times to make it work. It’s not happy, easy or pleasant and you don’t walk away from that without a lot of sadness and hurt. Jenna has so far been very positive about her divorce, as has Channing. Even in their official court documents you could tell they were striving to get along. Jenna did an interview with People where she hinted at how hard it was. She’s promoting her new wellness book, Gracefully You: How to Live Your Best Life Every Day, which comes out next week. You can tell she walks the walk.

“It was a hard journey of growth and change,” Dewan tells PEOPLE in the latest issue. “Ultimately now I can honestly say that I’m living in a very joyful new place in my life, and I’m happy about it.”

“I always say no one gets married to hopefully get divorced,” she says of deciding to end her nearly nine-year marriage to Channing Tatum. They share daughter 6-year-old Everly together.

“People grow and they change and sometimes they don’t grow and change together. So it wasn’t a overnight thing that happened,” she says. “There was no one event. I think it was just a slow realization that we wanted different things.”

Their initial separation was hard for everyone involved.

“I was just gutted. It was so difficult for me,” she says. “It was the loss of an idealistic future for myself and my life. What does that now look like for me? Where do I begin? I met him when I was 24, I didn’t know life without Chan.”

Dewan says she leaned on her closest friends and family for support, but ultimately had to put in the work herself.

“You would never expect your life to take a turn the way it does,” she says. “But embracing it and starting fresh and figuring out what you want in life and what means a lot to you and what’s meaningful, what is going to make you happy,” she says. “I’m grateful that I now am at a place where I understand myself and what I want and I’m happy about this new chapter. I’m in a place of joy.”

“We’re all aware that it’s a new normal, we’re all getting used to it,” she says. “You can still have a relationship and just because the forms change as to who you are to each other, it doesn’t take away from the love that we had or that we shared all those years.”

Dewan hopes that sharing her journey might help others in similar situations.

“It wasn’t easy necessarily, to get here, which nothing is easy in life, right?” she says. “I had to put in the work. This doesn’t just happen overnight. But just to know that it’s possible, and your perspective on life can change. It can change for the better, and you’ll be fine.”

[From People]

That’s one of the nicest statements about a divorce that I’ve ever read! I’m really looking forward to reading her book. Both Jenna and Channing are coupled up with other people now, Channing is with Jesse J and Jenna is expecting her second child with Steve Kazee. I like how she told her story, by focusing on herself, on what she went through and how she’s moving forward. You can also hear the gratitude she has for Channing. She didn’t blame, get into specifics or even subtly shade him. That’s how both of them moved on so well. They were healed, focused on the future and ready for another relationship, not angry and trying to rub it in each other’s faces. (See Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth.)

Finally here! In the flesh!! Personal stories, meditations, poetry, crystals, recipes and more..I talk about my life as a dancer, love and finding strength through great change, and all my hippie self goodness! ?????? out 10/22, link to pre order in bio! #gracefullyyou

A post shared by Jenna Dewan (@jennadewan) on Oct 11, 2019 at 1:23pm PDT

I caught a fairy! ?? ?????

A post shared by Steve Kazee (@stevekazee) on Oct 10, 2019 at 12:26pm PDT

Steve gushes about Jenna in this post it’s adorable!

Well…the news is out. I can’t even begin to describe the feelings that I have had since we first learned that Jenna was pregnant! I have waited my entire life for this moment and couldn’t have found a better person to build a family with. The past year and a half has brought so many things into my life that have filled me with the deepest of gratitude. A partner who radiates love, warmth, and kindness. A partner who has faced some of the hardest moments life can deal you with grace, humility, and a desire to learn from the ups and downs. A partner who is continuously growing from those lessons and who supports my growth as a person with love, unwavering support, and understanding. Jenna also brought with her one of the greatest gifts one could ever imagine…her beautiful daughter. Evie burst into my life like a supernova and has continued to burn so brightly in it. I have learned so much about parenting already from watching how amazing Jenna is with her and Evie has taught me so much about what it means to love and communicate with a child and I can’t wait to give her a sibling and make our little family a little bit bigger.

A post shared by Steve Kazee (@stevekazee) on Sep 24, 2019 at 4:54pm PDT

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