Actor Channing Tatum, who rose to fame with his role in the dance film Step Up, recently opened up about his divorce from his former wife Jenna Dewan, with whom he shared a daughter, Everly.

The couple announced their separation in 2018 and officially divorced in 2019.

In an interview with Vanity Fair, Tatum shared that the decision to divorce was a difficult one but ultimately necessary for him.

“In the beginning, it was super scary and terrifying,” Tatum said of the initial decision to separate.

“Your life just turns on its axis. This whole plan that you had literally just turns into sand and goes through your fingers, and you’re just like, ‘Oh, sh*t. What now?’”

However, Tatum went on to say that the divorce was ultimately what he needed to grow as a person.

“It was probably exactly what I needed,” he said.

“I don’t think I would’ve ever done the work, I think, on myself in the way that I had to do the work on myself to really try to figure out what next.”

“And really, it just started with my daughter. I just dropped everything and just focused on her. And it was truly the best possible thing that I ever could have done.”

“Because in the alone time that I have with just me and her, we’ve become best friends.”

Tatum also shared that he and Dewan fought hard to save their marriage, despite knowing that they had grown apart.

“We fought for it for a really long time, even though we both sort of knew that we had sort of grown apart,” the actor said.

However, they ultimately realized that they were moving in different directions, which became especially clear when they began parenting.

“I think we told ourselves a story when we were young, and we just kept telling ourselves that story, no matter how blatantly life was telling us that we were so different,” Tatum explained.

“But when you’re actually parents, you really understand differences between the two of you. Because it is screaming at you all day long.”

“How you parent differently, how you look at the world, how you go through the world.”

In the years since their divorce, both Dewan and Tatum have moved on. Dewan is now engaged to Steve Kazee, with whom she has a son, and Tatum is currently dating Zoë Kravitz.

Despite the pain of their separation, Tatum believes that the divorce was ultimately for the best.

“It was probably exactly what I needed,” Tatum said.

“I don’t think I would’ve ever done the work, I think, on myself in the way that I had to do the work on myself to really try to figure out what next.”

“And really, it just started with my daughter. I just dropped everything and just focused on her. And it was truly the best possible thing that I ever could have done.”