No longer. On Dec. 30 the couple announced their separation after a 16-year marriage that produced three children: Matthew, 11, Millie, 9, and Sarah, 6. "This is easily the saddest thing I've encountered in my life," the somber Chapman told PEOPLE. "I'm an old-fashioned guy who believes marriage should last until one of you quits breathing."
At first the match seemed heavenly indeed. Grant had already recorded Chapman's song "Father's Eyes" when they met at a party in 1979. They wed in 1982, just as Grant's breakthrough Christian album Age to Age was scaling the charts. In years to come, Chapman often opened for his wife on tour.
"We knew they were having a hard time," says a friend, producer Keith Thomas, "but we hoped they'd work it out."
But in the last few years fans heard rumors of strains in the marriage. "We knew they were having a hard time," says a friend, producer Keith Thomas, "but we hoped they'd work it out." Even Grant, a five-time Grammy winner, has said that her husband often found himself in her shadow. In 1996, Chapman became host of the Nashville Network's Prime Time Country show, but that couldn't save the union. "I'm kind of a late bloomer," he says. "My career is, in many ways, just starting."
For now the Christian music community, which shunned singer Michael English when he admitted to an extramarital affair in 1994 (his records were taken off store shelves), is withholding judgment. "Most people say they're praying for the couple," says Lindy Warren, editor of The CCM Update, an industry magazine. "But in this market, personal trials don't boost sales."
Ashley Judd in Hot New Romance with Amy Grant's Ex Stunning Ashley Judd is helping to heal the broken heart of Gary Chapman -- Amy Grant's estranged husband.Chapman, 41, and Judd, 31, have been spotted snuggling up recently at several restaurants in the Nashville area, a source tells STAR.
"Gary's ego took quite a beating over Amy leaving him -- especially because everyone's been saying that she's secretly in love with Vince Gill and will end up with him," says the source.
"But a relationship with Ashley is enough to put any man's ego back on the high road!"
Gospel superstar Grant announced in January that she was calling it quits with Chapman, the popular host of the Nashville Network's nightly Prime Time Country variety show. Since then, his longtime pal Ashley has been comforting him about the breakup.
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