What You Should Know About The Real Jeremy Camp

If This Is Us isn’t sad enough for you this season, supplement your need for a good cry by seeing I Still Believe, a new romantic movie that follows Christian musician Jeremy Camp (played by KJ Apa) and his relationship with fiancée-turned-wife Melissa Camp, neé Henning (Britt Robertson) who gets diagnosed with ovarian cancer. I Still Believe, which is out now, might seem too tragic to be real, but it’s actually based on a true story. 

Camp, who’s originally from Indiana, was taught to play the guitar by his pastor father. Camp eventually moved to California, where he studied theology at the Calvary Chapel Bible College. He got his start in Christian music by becoming part of the worship team and toured Southern California, eventually recording music of his own and making a name for himself. He’s come out with a total of eleven albums, which have earned him five GMA Dove Awards, three American Music Award nominations, and one Grammy Award nomination. The Story's Not Over, released in 2019, is his latest album.

In 2003, Camp married Adrienne Liesching (Camp), a Christian rock singer and songwriter from South Africa. They have three children together, two daughters and a son. Camp and Liesching met in 2002 while he was on tour. Liesching went up to Camp and confessed that his story about Melissa had deeply moved her and that she felt like she was one of the people Melissa wanted to reach on her mission of spreading the word of god.

The 2020 movie I Still Believe is based on Camp’s memoir of the same title (published in 2013). The memoir focuses on his first marriage with Henning, childhood, and his faith.

The now 42-year-old Camp actually met Melissa before he was famous; the movie shifts this timeline a bit, making Camp an already famous and successful musician during his relationship with her. According to the website dedicated to Melissa's memory, the two met during Bible study in 1999. While they hit it off right away, Melissa writes that she “ended things so she wouldn’t be distracted from the plans God had for her.”

Camp and Melissa got back together after she learned she had ovarian cancer and that it was spreading — quickly. At the hospital, Camp the two re-connected over their shared faith and Camp proposed to Melissa soon after she was diagnosed with cancer in 2000.

During their engagement, Melissa went through chemo, and seemingly got better. Miraculously, one month before their wedding, Melissa wrote, on her website, that she was “healed of all tumors and was cancer free.” The two got married and had their honeymoon in Oahu, Hawaii. However, when the newlyweds came back, Melissa started to feel ill and sick to her stomach. They went to the doctor and learned that her cancer came back and had spread. A doctor told her she had little time left to live. Camp and Melissa were only married for three-and-a-half months before she passed away. Melissa died when she was only 21 years old, but the website MelissaCamp.com hopes to keep her memory alive.

Two weeks after his wife’s death, Camp wrote the song “I Still Believe,” which is featured on his first major label album, Stay (2003).

Camp was fairly present for the filming of I Still Believe. In an interview with WAY Nation, he says that it wasn’t easy being on set for some of the scenes. “The hospital brings back bad memories of me. At one point, I literally was watching a hospital scene and I broke down. I left,” Camp told the publication.

Camp also told The Christian Post that the film has been difficult for him. “It’s the hardest part of my life, where I actually experienced some very difficult grief and pain...every time I watch it, I do break down because I’m reminded of that pain," he said.

And while Camp was involved, he doesn't sing in the movie — that was all KJ Apa. Camp said he supports the director's choice to have Apa do the singing. “I think because he did it in his style and his way, he put his whole heart into it. So you actually can feel it. I wasn’t disappointed at all, because I felt like it was authentic to him, and it made it feel real," he said.