Article By Tammy Tate // EEW Magazine // Marriage

GRAMMY® Award-winning gospel singer Erica Campbell admits she almost walked out the door when her husband Warryn Campbell confessed to cheating on her. So what stopped the scorned wife from leaving?

During a Tuesday, Oct. 1 appearance on The Tamron Hall Show, the 47-year-old author and radio personality, decked out in orange—the perfect color for fall— said it was a combination of a godly commitment and a question that helped her make the decision to stay.

“He told me that he had been unfaithful, and he told me that it had been years back,” explained the First Lady of California Worship Center in North Hollywood where her spouse of 18 years serves as pastor.

The “Praying and Believing” songstress, known as one-half of the multi Grammy® Award-winning sister duo Mary Mary, said Warryn, 44, told her, “He thought that if he just stopped and just kept moving forward it would be fine. And he said he didn’t have peace, and he couldn’t rest, and so we talked about it and strangely enough, I kind of knew it.”

Despite admittedly suspecting that the successful music producer and CEO of My Block Records was stepping out on their union, Erica said she remained in denial, reasoning, “Well, I don’t see any evidence, and I don’t feel that.”

But once the musician, who has written and produced songs for Kanye West, Yolanda Adams, Missy Elliott, Mary Mary, and more, fessed up, forcing her to face reality, Erica said, “It got dark,” and she got “angry.”

Before making the painstaking choice to stay and work things out, the host of Get Up! Mornings with Erica Campbell, said her attitude was, “I’m good. I’m out. I’ve got my own money. I can do this by myself. You know, you live your life. I’m good. Look at me. This’ll be fine.”

But then a shift in her way of thinking resulted from a real moment of introspection. “I began to think about my commitment and what I said to God and how I said ‘for better or for worse,’” she said. “And I really began to think about him, and I asked myself is he a mistake or did he make a mistake? And I believe he was a good man that made a mistake, and there’s a difference.’”

After Warryn’s infidelity split Erica’s heart in two, the stars of TV One’s reality show,We’re the Campbell’s, went to therapy, got counseling from their bishop, and grew strong with the help of a supportive network of other married couples.

While going through therapy, the mother of the pair’s three children—Krista, Warryn III, and Zaya— said she realized all the blame could not be placed on just one party. “Yes, he was irresponsible and selfish,” Erica said, while also confessing, “I was consumed with my career. He literally asked me, he was like, ‘I need you to be home. I need some more time with you, and my ego said, Excuse me, I’m on the road traveling. I’ve got Grammys. I’m selling records. And I stayed gone with my daughter.”

Back then, Erica said she and Warryn “were both in work mode,” pursuing ministry, career, and success, but remaining unavailable to each other. But with lots of hard work, honest conversations, and Christian counseling, the now happy wife said they found healing, and those rocky days are history.

“We’re in an amazing place now,” Erica said.

Good for them.

Watch the interview below.