Country music star pulled her Bible into bed with her to get through 'awful' divorce

Accustomed to performing under the bright lights of concert halls as well as TV studios during her time as a finalist on "The Voice," Karen Waldrup of Nashville never anticipated the darkness and despair that would accompany a divorce.

But she told Fox News Digital this week in an interview how she got through her most "awful" times in the fall of 2025, even while recording new songs, including "Keeping the Faith" and "Just in Case," which is out Friday, Sept. 18.

The songs and the phrases are deeply tied to her Christian faith and her beliefs, she said. 

"'Keeping the Faith' is one of my favorite songs I've ever been a part of," she said.

It's not just about " it's about keeping the hope, keeping the dream, keeping the focus, keeping the optimism. I went through a really challenging time in the fall of 2025. ... It was awful. So many people know the disheartening horror of that experience, and it was terrible."

"But I decided to make a song, Keeping the Faith,'" said the Louisiana-born singer-songwriter. 

"And the day that I tracked that song was a tough day. It was the toughest day that I've ever been in the studio. And I didn't know if it was even going to come out good because I felt so broken. 

 

"But I think in the end, the song came out great because of the brokenness," she said. "I think you can kind of hear it in the vocal, the desperation of keeping the faith and saying, Hey, you know what, no matter what goes on, , you got it. Pick it up. You got to keep the faith. And so I'm proud of that song."

Waldrup was not only a top 5 finalist on Season 25 of "The Voice," shes a BMI songwriter and a member of the Recording Academy (NARAS) and the Country Music Association (CMA). She's won 12 Nashville Industry Music Awards and has and over 50 songs released worldwide. She married Cody Henderson in Sept. 2020. 

"After a lot of time, reflection and prayer, Im ready to share that my marriage has ended in divorce," she wrote to fans in February on her Facebook page. "This has been a deeply personal journey, and Ive taken the time I needed to process it privately. Im grateful for the love, grace and support around me, and I appreciate kindness as I continue to move forward."

She told Fox News Digital, "There's a bridge [in the song Keeping the Faith] that says, 'There's a reason I'm still standing here stronger than I ever knew."

"And I think after you go through something like that, your whole dream of a lifelong marriage goes away and is no longer a part of your life — it's so heartbreaking. But after you come out of it, I truly believe that you are stronger. People are stronger from this experience."

" through that season, the fall of 2025. I was very vulnerable," she said. 

"We were working on the record, and I had to keep going. I look at or Reba [McEntire], and I think about how many times they had somebody pass away, and they had to get back up on stage — or they had their mom in the hospital or something, and they had to go play a show," she added. 

"And when I was going through that, I was actually sleeping with my Bible every single night, in the bed with me at night. I was waking up every morning, opening my scripture and reading it. My faith was definitely the foundation of what got me through that."

She said her friends made a difference as well.

"My friends believed in me. They believed I would get through it. They never doubted me. And one of the things I did, I made a list of the top six people — one being God, so — that I felt like I could really talk to about what I was going through without them making me feel worse."