Jenna Dewan Speaks About Life After Divorce From Channing Tatum: 'I Was Just Gutted'

Jenna Dewan is opening up about life after her divorce from Channing Tatum.

“It was a hard journey of growth and change,” the 38-year-old actress and dancer told People. “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 continued. “People grow and they change and sometimes they don’t grow and change together. So it wasn’t a overnight thing that happened. There was no one event. I think it was just a slow realization that we wanted different things.”

“I was just gutted. It was so difficult for me,” Jenna continued. “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.”

“You would never expect your life to take a turn the way it does,” she added. “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.”

Jenna said, “We’re all aware that it’s a new normal, we’re all getting used to it. 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.”

“It wasn’t easy necessarily, to get here, which nothing is easy in life, right?” Jenna concluded. “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.”

Jenna‘s new book, “Gracefully You: How to Live Your Best Life Every Day,” will be released on October 22.

Jenna and Channing officially filed for divorce about a year ago. Jenna is now expecting a baby with her boyfriend, Steve Kazee.