Channing Tatum has been seen for the first time since his Magic Mike 3 co-star Thandiwe Newton exited the film following claims of an ‘on-set bust-up.’
The actor, 41, was seen heading to lunch with girlfriend Zoe Kravitz, 33, at the 34 Restaurant in Mayfair, after Thandiwe was replaced by Salma Hayek in the film.
It was also reported on Sunday that Thandiwe, who denied she was axed due to an on-set row, has separated from her husband Ol Parker after 24 years of marriage.
EXCLUSIVE: Channing Tatum has been seen for the first time since his Magic Mike 3 co-star Thandiwe Newton exited the film following claims of an ‘on-set bust-up’
Quit: The actress, who has reportedly separated from her husband Ol Parker, recently denied claims she was sacked from her leading role over an on-set row (pictured during filming)
Channing, who had been filming Magic Mike 3 in London, stepped out hand-in-hand with girlfriend Zoe to enjoy an Easter lunch with friends.
The actor cut a downcast figure during the unexpected break from production, which came after Thandiwe exited the film last week.
Thandiwe has denied claims she was sacked from her leading role in Magic Mike 3 over a heated argument with Channing.
Sighting: Channing was seen heading to lunch with girlfriend Zoe Kravitz, 33, at the 34 Restaurant in Mayfair
Sad: The actor cut a downcast figure during the unexpected break from production, which came after Thandiwe exited the film last week
Supportive: Channing, who had been filming Magic Mike 3 in London, stepped out hand-in-hand with girlfriend Zoe to enjoy an Easter lunch with friends
According to a new report in Page Six, staffers on the movie became worried about her health during filming in London, with her agent flying in from Los Angeles to try and ‘smooth things over’.
The publication reports that Thandiwe has been suffering with emotional and family problems after separating from her husband Ol, 52, with whom she shares children Ripley, 21, Nico, 17, and Booker, eight.
Ol is a British filmmaker who previously wrote and directed the 2018 musical film Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.
Split? It was reported on Sundat that Thandiwe has allegedly separated from her husband Ol Parker and is likely headed to rehab (pictured with Ol in 2019)
Family: The couple share three children Ripley, 21, Nico, 17, and Booker, eight (pictured with her husband and daughters in 2019)
Together: Zoe (left) joined beau Channing (right) for lunch in the capital after Magic Mike 3’s leading female role was recast 11 days into filming
A source said: ‘Thandiwe had been acting strange on set, she has been very highly strung. Her apparent breakdown caused so much disruption, it became clear she couldn’t play the role.
‘There is a lot going on in her personal life, she and her husband have separated. She seemed so stressed she even brought her two pet rabbits to her hotel for emotional support.’
A Warner Bros. Pictures spokesperson previously said of her departure from the movie: ‘Thandiwe Newton has made the difficult decision to step away from the production of Warner Bros. Pictures’ Magic Mike’s Last Dance to deal with family matters.’
Drama: According to a new report, staffers on the movie became worried about Thandiwe’s health during filming, with her agent flying in from Los Angeles to try and ‘smooth things over’
Gone: A Warner Bros. Pictures spokesperson previously said Thandiwe had departed the film to ‘deal with family matters’
The insider added that Thandiwe fired her UK agent of three decades as her US agent Gaby Morgerman flew in to try to help.
Thandiwe has reportedly fired her UK team at London based agency Independent Talent Group in recent weeks.
The insider said of her next steps: ‘Thandiwe’s team wants her to go to rehab for mental health support.
‘She was supposed to leave immediately for a facility, they tried for a Malibu rehab, but they couldn’t take her. Arrangements are now being made to go to a facility in Arizona, if she agrees to go.’
MailOnline contacted representatives of Thandiwe Newton for comment at the time.
At odds: Last week reports said the alleged argument between Thandiwe and Channing, which was said to be ‘unimaginably vicious’, was over Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars
Clash: The statement comes after insiders told The Sun that Thandiwe is planning on suing studio chiefs at Warner Bros over the incident
Thandiwe exited Magic Mike’s Last Dance after 11 days of filming with Channing due to a ‘family matter’.
Last week The Sun reported the alleged argument between Thandiwe and Channing, which was said to be ‘unimaginably vicious’, was over Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars.
A Warner Bros. Pictures spokesperson said: ‘Thandiwe Newton has made the difficult decision to step away from the production of Warner Bros. Pictures’ Magic Mike’s Last Dance to deal with family matters.’
The statement comes after insiders told The Sun that Thandiwe is planning on suing studio chiefs at Warner Bros over the incident.
Leaving: The argument reportedly took place on location in Paddington and culminated with Channing driving off set in his car
Shocking: A source said: ‘After the row he just went, ”I am not working with her anymore”. Him being a producer, it’s his movie, so she’s off the movie’
The argument reportedly took place on location in Paddington and culminated with Channing driving off set in his car.
A source said: ‘Channing Tatum is the producer and number one on set. Thandiwe Newton is the number two star. But 11 days into shooting and it’s all over.
‘They fell out over the debacle at The Oscars. I was on set. I watched her and watched him. They were in and out of the house where we were filming having this confrontation.
‘After the row he just went, ”I am not working with her anymore”. Him being a producer, it’s his movie, so she’s off the movie.’
Recast: Thandiwe’s role in the film will now reportedly be played by Salma Hayek (pictured in February)
The source added that all scenes filmed with Thandiwe will now have to be reshot with Salma while the film’s director Steven Soderbergh reportedly didn’t take a side in the argument.
A spokesperson for Thandiwe told MailOnline: ‘This report is completely inaccurate.’
The original Magic Mike movie premiered in 2012 and was loosely based on Channing’s experience working as a stripper in Tampa, Florida. A sequel followed in 2015.
Neutral: The source added that all scenes filmed with Thandiwe will now have to be reshot with Salma while the film’s director Steven Soderbergh reportedly didn’t take a side
Channing confirmed that he would reprise his role for Magic Mike’s Last Dance in November on 2021.
In a recent interview with PEOPLE he spoke about the importance on the movie having a lead female character.
‘I want to have an equal, if not even more centralized female character for Mike to really play off of and almost to… I don’t want to say, [to have her] take the baton, but really let the movie be about a female’s experience and not Mike’s experience, because it has been so much about Mike and the guys’ experiences.
‘These movies are very, very female-forward. At least that is our intention.’
From a Cornwall upbringing to a Hollywood star: Thandiwe’s 30-year career and 24-year marriage
Born in London, Newton grew up in Penzance, Cornwall, where her parents – her dad is white British, her mother black, from Zimbabwe – sent her to a Catholic school.
She said of her school years: ‘I was aware that I didn’t fit. I was the black, atheist kid in the all-white, Catholic school run by nuns’.
She went on to study at Cambridge University, where she read anthropology.
Her screen career began as a teenager with the 1991 film Flirting marking her debut.
At just 22 she appeared in major movie Interview With A Vampire, opposite To Cruise and Brad Pitt. She later reunited with Cruise in the 2000 movie Mission Impossible 2.
Newton’s early acting years were marked with sexual abuse. When she was 16 she was groomed by director John Duigan, who was 39 years old at the time.
The violations by Duigan lasted five years, two of those years were termed a ‘relationship’ after he sought Newton’s parents’ blessing for her to be his girlfriend when she was 18.
Two years after meeting Duigan, at the age of 18, another director told the actress to intimately touch herself during an audition. Newton obliged, as there was also a female casting director present.
But years later, she discovered the unnamed man had kept her tape and was playing it at poker games for other Hollywood elite.
Following the violating discovery, Thandiwe began to fight the abuse and call it out – an act that cost the actress many jobs.
Alongside her movie career she’s had long-running roles in the likes of ER and her lead part in Westworld.
She met husband Ol in 1997 and said it was love at first sight.
At the time Ol was a screenwriter and had penned In Your Dreams, which featured the actress.
‘It’s very unusual to have writers around on set because directors don’t want them there. But they love having Ol around. He was on set every day and I fell madly in love with him,’ she told InStyle Magazine.
‘I’d never experienced that before. Up until then, my relationships had always been more based on people wanting to be with me. When I met Ol, I was dating a really sweet, lovely man and I had to leave him straight away, even though I wasn’t even going out with Ol’.
‘But as soon as I met Ol, it kind of cut off any other blood vessels to anywhere else. We got married about two years later.’
She went on to marry Ol in 1998. The couple share three children: Ripley, 21, Nico, 17, and Booker, eight.
The actress was previously credited as Thandie Newton before she reverted to the original spelling of her name three decades after it was misspelled in her first film.
She revealed that Thandie was a careless misspelling in the credits of her first movie – the 1991 Australian film Flirting, co-starring Nicole Kidman and Noah Taylor – and it has stuck ever since.
‘That’s my name. It’s always been my name. I’m taking back what’s mine,’ she told British Vogue in April 2021.