What you need to know
Jessie J is setting records with the inspiration behind her new diss song “Threw It Away.”
The 37-year-old British singer raised eyebrows last week with the soulful song, with fans wondering if the song (which calls her ex-boyfriend a “beast”) was about Channing Tatum, whom she dated from 2018 to 2020.
However, in an expired Instagram Story post shared on Thursday, November 27, Jesse revealed that Tatum, 45, was not the subject of the song.
“Throwing it away is not about @channingtatum,” she wrote. “I never said I was.”
Tatum, who released his new album Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time on Nov. 28, said he felt compelled to speak out in Tatum’s defense because he knows that “if the shoe was on the other foot, Tatum would revise the narrative.”
“He’s a great father and I don’t ever want his beautiful daughter to read this book and have people think I said that about her father. It’s not fair,” he said, referring to Everly, his 12-year-old daughter with ex-wife Jenna Dewan. “Channing and I ended our relationship on good terms. I have nothing but respect for him. He was never a beast to me.”
Jessie (real name Jessica Cornish) also said she wasn’t happy with the headlines that were bad about Tatum because of the song and wanted everyone to “move on now.”
In a new interview with the Guardian, Jesse details the inspiration for “Threw It Away,” and after being directly asked if it was about actors, he said the song came about from dating multiple people while living in Los Angeles.
“That’s interesting. Yeah, I think there’s probably a little bit of that there. But it wasn’t just about him,” she said. “When I was in L.A., I dated a lot of guys, and a lot of them were like, ‘Yeah, I’ll ride my bike and show you around,’ and just drop me off. That’s the downside of L.A..”
Karwai Tang/WireImage; Amy Sussman/Getty
She also revealed that she sent Tatum a track that referenced Tatum on the album, and that Tatum happily accepted.
Star praised the Roofman actor, calling him a “very kind person.”
“We are very good friends and we had a lot of fun together,” she said. “[But]it was frustrating. I felt like everything I read about me was about him.”
At a preview of her new album in London, Jesse spread rumors that “Threw It Away” was about Tatum. After performing the song, she told attendees: “This next song was written with Ryan Tedder in 2020, so you know who I’m dating,” she told the audience after performing the song, according to The Sun.
The “Domino” singer and Tatum dated for over a year before breaking up in December 2019. The two reconciled a month later, but called it quits again in April 2020, with a source telling PEOPLE at the time that the breakup was “completely amicable.”
Jesse is currently dating Chanan Coleman and the couple welcomed their son, Sky Safir, in May 2023. Meanwhile, Tatum ended his engagement to Zoe Kravitz in October 2024 and has since moved on with girlfriend Yinka Williams.
