We can all agree that the most important thing in a relationship is trust. And when Channing Tatum was wooing his now-wife, the World of Dance judge and perfect hair haver, Jenna Dewan Tatum, he was upfront about his history as a male stripper — and he doesn't mean his role in Magic Mike. Tatum worked as a stripper when he was young man living in Florida.
"I think it was one of the very first, like, dinners we ever had together. I don't know. I'm not shy about it. She was just like, ‘What?’ She needed to know just like everybody," he told Entertainment Tonight.
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT
He followed up with a very pointed observation on the dynamics of female and male sex workers: "Weirdly enough, girls ask less questions than guys do. Guys want to know everything about it, like, 'What? How much? When? Were you naked?"
Tatum later used that job experience for the Magic Mike series. The films are even set in his hometown, Tampa.
Unlike the common trope of strippers rolling in cash, Tatum says he didn't earn enough for the job to be lucrative as his modelling and acting career. When asked how much he made, Tatum replied "Sadly not enough. Like, for what I was doing for the dollar, not enough of the dollars."
His dad was also apparently was the last person on the planet to find out about his resumé. Which makes sense, it would seem awkward to tell your parents, "hey, by the way, I'm a stripper!"
Tatum guest hosted Jimmy Kimmel Live! last week and relived his lap dance story with Ellen DeGeneres when he appeared on her show in 2010. "That was my very first time on your show, and I gotta let you know that that was the very first time that my dad actually found out that I was a stripper for a short time," he said. Tatum's dad apparently did not handle the news very well: "Really, really not well," said Tatum.
Read These Stories Next: