Jeremy Camp is a popular Christian musician who’s released 11 top-selling albums, won five GMA Dove Awards, and been nominated for three American Music Awards and one Grammy Award. But the successful singer has also experienced his fair share of tragedy—Jeremy Camp’s wife, Melissa, died of cancer just three and a half months after the couple was married. Fortunately, the “Walk By Faith” singer found love a second time when he met singer-songwriter Adrienne Liesching. The pair were married in 2003 and are still together to this day. Here, we take a deep dive into the life of Camp’s second wife, Adrienne Camp.
Who Is Adrienne Camp?
Adrienne Liesching was born on July 12th, 1981, in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. She was the lead singer for a local Christian pop-rock band called The Benjamin Gate, and when she was 19, the band moved to the U.S. to record an album and expand their reach. While on tour in 2002, she met fellow musician Jeremy Camp and the two immediately hit it off. They were married the following year and currently have three children— Isabella, Arianne, and Egan.
While The Benjamin Gate disbanded in 2003, Adrienne—who’s also known as Adie—continued her career as a singer. She released her first solo album, Don’t Wait, in 2006, and her second album, Just You and Me, in 2010. Adrienne also contributes vocals to her husband’s songs and performs with him on tour.
When she does, she brings along the whole family, which she says is one of the reasons why she and Camp decided to homeschool their children.
“Life at home is significantly busier and different from our life on the road,” she told the Liberty University Online Academy. “At home I wake up early and have my quiet time with the Lord before the kids wake up, and when everyone is awake we start school together. Because I have three kids in three different grades, it’s a little bit of a back-and-forth between each of them.”
“On the road, there isn’t as much distraction, so it is much easier to get schoolwork done,” she continued. “And because I don’t have a kitchen, a house, or a laundry room to maintain, the only thing I’m responsible for is school. We usually have a big box that we haul into the venues daily, and we set up little stations in a room to do school. In the evening we gather as a family for dinner, enjoy watching Jeremy’s shows, then we jump back on the bus and go to bed.”
Adrienne Camp Is Jeremy Camp’s Second Wife
Before he met Adie (and before his music career took off), Jeremy Camp was in a relationship with Melissa Lynn Henning. The pair met at a Bible study in 1999 and began dating, however, Melissa broke things off soon after because she was afraid the relationship would distract her from God. But while they were broken up, Melissa was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and Camp came rushing to her hospital bedside to support her. The pair realized they were meant to be and became engaged shortly thereafter.
Melissa underwent treatment for her cancer and miraculously, one month before her wedding to Camp, announced her cancer was in remission. She and Camp got married in October of 2000 and spent their honeymoon in Oahu, Hawaii. But sadly, just days after they returned, Melissa fell ill and learned that her cancer had returned. She died on February 5, 2001, at the tender age of 21.
Heartbroken over the tragic and untimely death of his wife, Camp wrote the song “I Still Believe” just a few weeks after her passing. The song was featured on his first major-label album, Stay, and peaked at number five on the U.S. Hot Christian Songs chart. It also inspired the 2020 movie I Still Believe, which tells the story of how Camp almost lost his faith in God as a result of Melissa’s death, but ultimately emerged a stronger person.
“There is hope at the end of hardship,” Camp told People in 2020. “Instead of turning my back and being an angry, bitter person at God, it made me stronger.”
Adrienne Fell In Love With Jeremy Despite Their Differences
Adrienne says that before she met Camp, she had heard about his tragic love story with Melissa and had been profoundly moved. “I was deeply impacted and changed by both Jeremy and Melissa’s faith,” she told Christian Headlines in 2020. “That really caused me to be protective of this story and in a sense, an advocate for it. Because along the way, I just felt if I was one of those people that was so deeply touched, who am I to stand in the way of that powerful testimony reaching others?”
However, the 39-year-old singer admits that she did not think Camp was the man for her when they first met. “Post-grunge, athletic, American Jeremy did not fit my description of the guy I thought I wanted,” Adrienne said. But despite the fact that he was not her “type” at first glance, the pair were clearly meant to be. In September of 2020, they released their first album together, The Worship Project.
“We’ve led worship together for years and always talked about recording something together, but it never seemed like the right timing,” Camp told The Christian Post. “And then the coronavirus hit…It was obvious that people were hungry for something to uplift them during this time. We thought, maybe we should start putting more songs out. Almost immediately, God started giving us songs. It just kind of happened naturally. Before we knew it, we had an album. God gave us the words to sing when we were feeling down.”
Adrienne Camp Wrote A Book Based On Her Marriage
In 2020, Jeremy and Adriene released a book together called In Unison: The Unfinished Story of Jeremy and Adrienne Camp. In it, they discuss their family, their faith, and the challenges of keeping a 17-year-marriage strong.
“To me, true love is when Jeremy sees me at my worst and still chooses to love me,” Adrienne recently told Moms.com. “For us to see each other at our worst and still love each other and to hold each other, then in those things, I think we bring the best out of each other. You know, you learn how to champion each other better. You have a deep, deep friendship that lasts through storms and through trials. And that to me is the most beautiful kind of love. A love that’s committed.”