Amy Grant, Gary Chapman Splitsville

01/04/1999 4:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Lisa Zhito

(1/4/99, 1 p.m. PST) - Nashville uber-couple Amy Grant and Gary Chapman announced they were separating after 16 years of marriage and three children. The couple announced their separation in a brief joint statement issued by their management company on Dec. 30.

The news followed literally years of rumors that the marriage of the Christian pop princess and her singer-songwriter/ TV host husband had crumbled into little more than a business relationship. Amid those rumors was word linking Grant romantically with country singer Vince Gill. Gill divorced his wife Janice, half of the duo Sweethearts Of The Rodeo, earlier this year.

While the separation has surprised no one in Nashville's inner circles, the couple has not yet filed for divorce. In the statement they asked for everyone's "prayers during this sad time, and hope that you will respect their privacy."

To read a feature on Vince Gill, in which he candidly discusses his painful divorce from the woman he was married to for 17 years, click here.

-- Lisa Zhito, Nashville