Things You Might Not Know About Jenna Dewan

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9. High School Star

While she was young, Jenna had to move around quite a bit, presumably because of one of her parents’ occupations, and she once said that she had lived in seven cities before the seventh grade. Although she moved around a lot and was often the”new kid” it didn’t stop her from being very popular. She attended Notre Dame Preparatory School in Maryland where she was a varsity cheerleader and then moved to Texas where she attended Grapevine High School and was once again a varsity cheerleader and was even voted as prom queen during her senior year in 1999.

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8. Early Life

Jenna Lee Dewan was born on December 3, 1980, in Hartford, Connecticut, to Nancy Smith and Darryll Dewan. Her father is of Syrian Lebanese and Polish descent while her mother is German and English. When Jenna was still young her parents got divorced and her mother remarried, and she has one sister, Missy, and three brothers, Nathan, Shane, and Daniel. After attending Notre Dame Preparatory School, she transferred to Grapevine High School where she graduated from in 1999 and went on to attend the University of Southern California where she was a member of the Pi Beta Phi sorority, but she never graduated before leaving school to focus on her dance career.

#tbt!

A photo posted by Jenna Dewan Tatum (@jennaldewan) on Apr 29, 2016 at 8:29am PDT

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7. Getting Started

When she was only 16 years old, Jenna had already spent most of her life working towards a career in dance, and at the time a dance agent discovered her and asked her to move to Los Angeles after her high school graduation. Although she moved with the condition she attend University, she put a lot of effort into auditioning for music videos and it didn’t take long for her career to take off. In 2001 she was selected as a backup dancer for Janet Jackson’s music video “All For You,” and was immediately asked to join Jackson’s tour as a dancer. Some of her other music video credits include: “So Real” by Mandy Moore, “He Wasn’t Man Enough” by Toni Braxton, “Gossip Folks” by Missy Elliot and “Juaramento” by Ricky Martin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J551f-TyqjY

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6. Music Video Secrets

Jenna Dewan has credited her success to Janet Jackson casting her in two of her music videos and asking her to go on tour as a dancer, but she has also opened up that filming music videos isn’t as fun as it may seem. “Music videos are notoriously long, not fun, gruelling. You are known there as a dancer and it’s kind of sad because dancers, in a lot of ways, are under-appreciated and kind of under-respected when it comes to that so they don’t necessarily treat you in a nice way when you do a music video,” she once stated.

Photo by Lionel Hahn/AbacaUsa.com

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5. Vegan Lifestyle

Jenna Dewan Tatum has one of the most enviable bodies in Hollywood and she credits it to her healthy lifestyle which includes working out and a vegan diet. Jenna started off as a vegetarian but, as an avid animal rights supporter went vegan. “After going vegan, I felt so much better. My skin cleared up, I had a ton more energy and I just felt clearer in the head.” She added that Channing only lasted a few months on the vegan diet and couldn’t do it, but they did decide on raising their daughter as vegetarian until she is old enough to decide for herself if she wants to continue as a vegetarian.

Photo by John Salangsang/BFA/REX/Shutterstock

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4. Personal Life

Jenna Dewan was famously married to Hollywood hunk Channing Tatum, but he isn’t her only famous relationship. In the early 2000s, Jenna dated none other than Justin Timberlake when she worked as a backup dancer for NSYNC, and also dated A Walk to Remember actor Shane West. Her whole life changed, however, when she was cast as Nora alongside Channing Tatum in Step Up in 2005. The pair dated for three years before becoming engaged and were then married in July 2009. They welcomed their only child, a daughter Everly Elizabeth Maiselle Tatum on May 31, 2013. On April 2, 2018, the pair shocked the world when they announced they were separating after nine years of marriage and six months later Dewan officially filed for divorce. By October 2018, Dewan had begun dating actor Steve Kazee and in September 2019 the actress confirmed she was expecting her second child, and first with Kazee.

Photo by Matt Baron/BEI/Shutterstock

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3. Justin Timberlake Drama

Back in the early 2000s the hottest couple of the time was, of course, Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears until their split in 2002. After the breakup, Jenna Dewan found herself in the middle of some drama as she and Timberlake reportedly started dating not long after. Apparently one night Spears went into a nightclub only to find Timberlake and Dewan dancing together, and Spears began a confrontation with the pair which reportedly resulted in a “dance-off.”

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2. Famous Friends

Through her time in the entertainment industry in both acting and dance, and through her husband, Jenna Dewan has made quite a few famous friends and is closest to Emmanuelle Chriqui and Haylie Duff. Chriqui served as Jenna’s maid of honor at her 2009 wedding to Channing while Duff served as a bridesmaid.

A photo posted by Jenna Dewan Tatum (@jennaldewan) on Dec 3, 2015 at 9:52am PST

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1. Justin Bieber Crush

Even though she was married to one of Hollywood’s hottest men, Jenna revealed in an interview with Ellen DeGeneres that she and her friends can’t help but crush out on pop singer Justin Bieber. Jenna told Ellen that she and some of her girlfriends went out to dinner in L.A. and were pretty much the only people in the place when someone started playing the piano, and when they realized it was Justin Bieber, all of the women went crazy. “My one girlfriend brought out her lipstick, my one girl is doing her hair. We all completely fan-girled out, and we’re all, mind you, married with, like, 1.5 kids, so we turned immediately 16.”

Telisa Carter

Telisa enjoys learning and writing about all things entertainment in the world of Hollywood. When she isn't catching up on her favorite TV shows, she likes to read, and obsess over all things football.