Actress Jodie Turner-Smith experienced significant shifts this year: a divorce and co-parenting. The budding actress opened up about navigating the latter during an interview with Glamour for her Woman of the Year cover story.
The British actress, 38, said she’s had to adjust to this new normal in her family dynamic post-divorce. She was married to Dawson’s Creek alum Joshua Jackson.
“It’s an adjustment period for anyone when they split up with someone because you’re used to being with your child all the time,” Turner-Smith shared with the magazine. “But nobody hands you a manual. Everyone’s trying to figure it out.”
She continued, “Each parent has a different life, and especially if the reason why you’re splitting up is because you have different lives, it’s only further complicated by how you’re going to co-parent.”
The couple welcomed their first and only child together, Juno Rose Diana, in April of 2020 after getting married in 2019. During past interviews, Jackson revealed that Turner-Smith popped the question first, which created controversy online. The actor then clarified that he proposed also and asked for her father and step father’s permission to marry her.
After nearly four years of marriage, the former couple split in October of 2023. The divorce filing cited “irreconcilable differences,” but neither party disclosed explicit reasons for the split at the time.
However, during an interview with The Times in February, the actress shared details about how she arrived at her decision to file for divorce.
“Sometimes things we really want to work just don’t end up working,” Turner-Smith said to Times now. “And that’s OK. The most important thing is that you choose what’s healthiest for you and your family and definitely your children.”
She continued: “There are so many different moments in our life where we look at ourselves and say, ‘Who am I and am I being true to that?’ If the answer is no, then you have to make a move because I believe that there are visible scars from staying in places that are not good for us. And they don’t just affect us, they affect everybody around us. I don’t think it’s a failure. We obviously had such a beautiful moment together. And now it’s time for a new moment for both of us. And how exciting! The bravest thing in the world is to recognize when something’s not working and to make a move, and I always want to set that kind of example for my daughter.”
Since their divorce, Jackson has been pictured holding hands with Marvel actress Lupita Nyong’o, who also experienced an unexpected heartbreak in the fall of 2023.
While the romantic chapter of the former couple’s lives is over, they still have a child to raise together. Turner-Smith told Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush on a recent episode of Today with Hoda & Jenna that raising her daughter Juno is one of her most cherished things.
“Honestly, it’s my favorite thing about myself is that I’m that girl’s mother. I’m just so grateful that she chose me to be her mom; that I got to have that gift in life. It is my favorite thing. I mean, I just, it is an honor,” she said.
The Queen & Slim actress added, “I feel like it was our birthright to mother — whether we bring our children or not, I think it’s is a woman’s birthright. We hold space for those around us. It has shifted everything about me. It has only enriched me. It has shown me, No. 1, how powerful I am. Like, whoa! It’s like, Supreme Being — wow!”
