Zoë Kravitz and Channing Tatum: The unlikely romance between the enigmatic rich girl and the working-class hero

After three years of shying away from the cameras, Zoë Kravitz and Channing Tatum have made their red carpet debut. The celebrity couple appeared together to celebrate the premiere of Blink Twice, which is directed by Kravitz and stars Tatum. In the psychological thriller, Tatum plays a tech magnate who invites a waitress (Naomi Ackie) to join him and his friends on a holiday on his private island, in an experience that become less picture-perfect than first thought. Critics have called Kravitz’s directorial debut “phenomenal,” “incisive” and a “surprising success” — praise that further confirms how one of Hollywood’s most unlikely couples is thriving.

“It’s really very cool to get to make a movie, but when you get to do it with the love of your life, it’s even cooler.” That’s how Kravitz thanked Tatum at the August 9 premiere of Blink Twice. This declaration of love came as a surprise from the typically reserved actress, shocked even Tatum. “We are not those kinds of people, so to speak. We don’t declare it to the world, we just are,” she told EL PAÍS in 2023.

That however did not stop Tatum from sharing an affectionate photo of the two on Instagram. “Thank you for finding me and seeing me. I got you forever. Me and you back to back against it all. I’ll never blink. Let’s go,” he posted with a photo of Kravitz asleep in his lap.

Kravitz and Tatum’s romance began during the pre-production of the movie. A mutual friend, actress Riley Keough, sent Tatum the script, and before filming even began, the two were in a relationship. The pair got engaged in the fall of 2023, and say they will get married next year. Both of them been married before. Zoë Kravitz said “I do” to actor Karl Glusman in 2019, but their marriage broke up 18 months later. Tatum married actress Jenna Dewan, with whom he has an 11-year-old daughter named Emily. In 2018, after nearly 10 years together, Dewan filed for divorce, and six years later the legal battle over the division of the marital assets is still going on.

At the start of their romance, few believed that the couple had a future, given their different backgrounds. Kravitz, 35, is one of the stars who have made best use of the nepotism in Hollywood, making a name for herself as one of the coolest and most enigmatic Hollywood stars. As the daughter of singer Lenny Kravitz and actress Lisa Bonet — one of the biggest celebrity couples of the 1980s — she grew up surrounded by opulence and privilege, attending the most exclusive schools in Miami and Manhattan. However, Kravitz says her time at school was very hard.

“I didn’t like my new school. I didn’t feel like I fit in anywhere, and I was surrounded by an enormous amount of beauty and posturing,” she told Elle magazine. “I was a chunky, perfectly normal-looking 15-year-old, but I had this remarkably beautiful skinny mother and a father who was dating a supermodel [Adriana Lima], and I felt short and ungainly.” Kravitz confessed she had anorexia and bulimia from the ages of 13 to 24.

In the past decade, the actress has shot to even greater fame. On top of the blockbuster movies (Batman and Fantastic Beasts), hit TV shows Big Little Lies and leading the bad Lolawolf, she is also brand ambassador for Saint Laurent, Balenciaga, Calvin Klein and Tiffany & Co.

Channing Tatum has a radically different story. Far from the cosmopolitan glamour of his partner’s upbringing, he grew up in Pascagoula, a small Navy town in the state of Mississippi that is home to just over 20,000 people. He comes from very humble origins — his father worked in construction — and Tatum himself has said as a teenager he was afraid of making plans with friends or girlfriends because he could not afford to go to eat out with them at a restaurant. As a child, he was diagnosed with dyslexia and ADHD, and was sidelined at school.

“I have never considered myself a very smart person, for a lot of reasons,” he told The New York Times. “You get lumped in classes with kids with autism and Down Syndrome, and you look around and say, ‘Okay, so this is where I’m at.’ Or you get put in the typical classes and you say, ‘All right, I’m obviously not like these kids either.’ So you’re kind of nowhere. You’re just different.”

Before becoming one of the highest-paid actors in Hollywood ― according to Forbes he made $60 million between 2012 and 2013 ―, Tatum worked as a stripper in a Florida nightclub (an experience that inspired the successful Magic Mike franchise), and as a model for brands such as Abercrombie & Fitch and Emporio Armani. While Kravitz was embraced by fashion magazines as an icon of refined, mysterious and aspirational style, Tatum made his way by playing the new “great hero of white, working-class America” in action films such as G.I. Joe and White House Down.

His relationship with Kravitz had an immediate impact on his standing in Hollywood. Tatum, hand in hand with Kravitz, was invited for the first time to the exclusive Met Gala in 2021. And after stepping away from the limelight for a few years, he has returned in style: in addition to the release of Blink Twice, he also stars in Fly Me to the Moon alongside Scarlett Johansson, and has a celebrated cameo in Deadpool & Wolverine.

Beyond proving that opposites attract, Tatum claims that working together on Blink Twice has not only not damaged their relationship, but has strengthened it. “One thing I will say is if you think you’re in love with somebody and you’re thinking about, ‘Do I want to stay with them forever or be with them or have a child with them or get married?’ Go find the hardest possible project that you can physically find. Go build a house, paint a room, do something!” he told E! News.

Back in 2022, Kravitz expressed a similar sentiment. “Whether it was making me tea or pouring me a drink or going to whip someone into shape or whatever — he really was my protector and it was really wonderful and sweet. I think if you can do something like that together, it’s a good test. And we came out even stronger,” she told Vanity Fair.

Another fan of Tatum is Lenny Kravitz, who says his future son-in-law is a “great guy.” “We get on really well. We have our own relationship as well. We hang out. We talk. He’s a very soulful human being. He was raised well. He has manners and class,” he said during an appearance on Sherri Shepherd’s talk show.

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