You could say Steve Kazee was a bit shameless when it came to wooing Jenna Dewan.
After all, the Shameless alum had a very bold approach to asking out the Step Up star after her 2018 breakup with ex-husband Channing Tatum, with whom she shares 10-year-old daughter Everly. As Jenna revealed, "He sent me a GIF of Steph Curry shooting a shot and said, 'Hey.'"
"It was Twitter DM," she recounted on the March 12 episode of Dear Media's Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast. "I wrote back and I said, 'I'm sorry, I don't think this is for me.'"
The 43-year-old added with a laugh, "He was shooting his shot and I didn't get it."
Jenna said the DM came years after their first meeting, when she and her mom saw Steve in the Broadway production of Once. Though their exchange was brief at the time, with Jenna telling him how much she enjoyed his performance, it would be a moment that stayed with Steve, 48, for years to come.
"It was truly out of a movie," Jenna shared, noting how the two did "catch eyes" during their backstage run-in. "Years later—of course, it's public that I was separated—and we just reconnected. He apparently never forgot that moment either. It's kinda cute."
The couple announced their engagement in February 2020, five months after sharing news that Jenna was pregnant with their first baby together.
"It all happened quite fast," Jenna recalled of Steve's proposal. "It felt like it was meant-to-be situation."
And now, three years after welcoming son Callum, the couple are expanding their family once again. In January, Jenna shared that she "just entered the second trimester" of her pregnancy.
"I'm really trying to enjoy it all and not try to just get through the days," she told Romper. "I really love being a mom. That's something I knew my whole life, but I really know it now."
For one Jenna's motherhood journey, keep reading.
On What She's Learned From Her Kids
"I let them be who they are and I try to just guide them gently without putting my own agenda on them," she told E! News' Francesca Amiker at the Baby2Baby Mother's Day celebration in Los Angeles in April 2024. "I really just try to watch them and learn from them and guide them."
This has helped strengthen their bond. "If you are conscious about it, you can start to see that they are reflecting back to you all aspects and different aspects and it's like a prism of yourself," the Rookie actress said. "So it's like a very beautiful and incredible learning, growing relationship."
"Apparently, when you become a mother, you're supposed to leave your sexuality at the door, and I never understood that," Jenna Dewan told Women's Health in July 2018. "I think there's nothing sexier than becoming a mother. You give life. It's everything. And you don't change who you are inside just because you have a kid."
The actress also gushed about her daughter Everly finding her own sense of style at a young age. From dressing in her favorite colors to rocking anything with glitter, she is all about letting her daughter try new looks.
"She has got the most unique style. The girl picks out her clothes every single morning. She is so funky. We went an entire year where she only wore purple, but now we're more into anything that has glitter," she revealed to People in Dec. 2017. "But she's tomboy, so she's got the big chunky sneakers with the leggings, with the tutu, anything that has glitter, magical anything. She's very into that right now."
Jenna knows the importance of encouraging Everly and allowing her to build self-confidence from a young age.
"Starting early and starting to build her confidence in her true authenticity and herself is important, because then when the influences come in that will try and tell her, ‘You're not great' and ‘You're not amazing,' she'll have that strong sense of reminding," she shared with People in 2017.
The Soundtrack star revealed that becoming a mother allowed her to feel more empowered.
"I believe that I can do and accomplish anything at any point with any amount of sleep with any amount of stressors in life," she explained to Us Weekly in Oct. 2019. "[When you have a child], you know that you love something and you can commit and dedicate yourself to something so much, that you can do anything. [It] made me feel very empowered."
Is there anything sweeter than this pregnancy announcement? Jenna revealed that she was expecting her first child with Steve Kazee, her boyfriend, in Sept. 2019 on Instagram after welcoming Everly with her ex-husband, Channing Tatum six years earlier.
She wrote, "Becoming a mother is quite simply the absolute best most incredible thing that has ever happened to me. @stevekazee you are a gift from above and i couldn't be more excited to be expanding our family together...! Thank you guys for all the love!!"
The Resident actress shared how her outlook on work and finding balance has evolved since giving birth to Everly.
"My [daughter] Everly changed [everything] for me. Now I think, ‘What can I do to be there for her, and how long will I be away for a project?' I say no to a lot now," she said. "When you are a dancer, you are a hustler by nature…I was scared but the universe was like, ‘We got you.' I'm doing what I love more but I don't have to say yes all the time," she explained at The Wrap's Power Women Summit in Oct. 2019.
In 2019, Dewan released her first book, Gracefully You: Finding Beauty and Balance in the Everyday, and opened up about her fears about finding love again after her split from Tatum the previous year. Her no. 1 concern was her daughter, of course!
"Then there was my daughter. She's very shy and funny and standoffish with men. It takes her a long time to warm up to others. I predicted this child was going to be jealous of whoever else I spent my time with. How would I ever date with her blessing? My fears were going haywire," she wrote.
The former World of Dance host gushed about Everly on Instagram shortly before her 5th birthday.
"And ohhhhh myyy goodnesssss to this little fairy baby right here. Thank you Everly for choosing me as your mother. I will love, cherish and support you till the end of time. You teach me every single day and i am continually in awe of your strength and your wisdom. I can't believe this was almost 5 years ago....!!!! Love you bigger than the sky and all the stars," she posted.
Dewan and her daughter take Halloween seriously. In fact, Everly had two costumes for the spooky holiday in 2019.
"We went through many, many sort of ideas and I finally said this is your deadline. You have to decide by today. She chose angel for the day and peacock at night," Dewan revealed on GMA.
"All of the sudden it was peacock. Peacock? I was like, 'Where did that come from?' but she's very excited," she continued.