Teddi Mellencamp is choosing to be optimistic as her years-long cancer battle continues.
While unpacking the emotional toll of her stage 4 cancer diagnosis with podcast host Jamie Kern Lima, Mellencamp got candid about finding the balance between fear and positivity.
“It ebbs and flows,” the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum said on The Jamie Kern Lima Show. “When I first came out of this journey, I felt better than I do now because I thought it was gonna go right away. You thought what? I thought it was gonna go right away.”
She admitted, “I thought that after I had my surgeries from my brain tumors that then I was gonna go in for that first scan and they were gonna say, ‘The rest of the tumors are gone. You’re healed.’ And then they didn’t.”
Although she didn’t hear the news she hoped for, Mellencamp said that she now understands that “nobody knows” with certainty how long it will take her to heal, so she chooses to move forward with a positive attitude.
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Teddi Mellencamp Arroyave attends “An Unforgettable Evening” Benefiting the Women’s Cancer Research Fund in Beverly Hills
Mellencamp was diagnosed with stage 2 melanoma in 2022, which kicked off three years of testing and treatment as the disease spread through her system. Then, in February, she got the news that she had stage 4 melanoma, as the cancer had metastasized to her brain and lungs. Even so, Mellancamp says that more of her energy goes to “belief” than to “fear.”
“Mainly because of the amount of people that have reached out and said, ‘I got checked’ or ‘My mom had this,'” Mellencamp explained. “Even my friends, they’ve given me that belief that no matter how many maybe not so great things that I’ve done, this is one of the great ones.”
Mellencamp, who previously shared that doctors gave her 50/50 odds of surviving cancer, noted that while her chances are still the same, she is determined to keep fighting.
“I truly believe this when I say this — and it’s gonna make me emotional — I truly believe that I’m gonna live,” she said. “I need to believe it. ‘Cause if not, it’s just too sad.”
Explaining her approach, the TV star and daughter of musician John Mellencamp added, “I can’t live my life so afraid that I’m gonna die, that I don’t live at all.”
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John Mellencamp and daughter, Teddi Mellencamp
Mellencamp also shared that support from her family — including her three children and ex Edwin Arroyave — has helped make this perseverance possible. As for her father, Mellencamp added that he has helped with things she “wouldn’t be capable of doing” herself.
“He has been beyond,” she said of the “Pink Houses” singer. “With all of these medical treatments and everything. He has stepped in, he’s helped me have a nurse… he calls me every single day. He makes sure that I’m okay.”
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In a previous update, Mellencamp told listeners of her Two Ts in a Pod podcast that she would be pausing immunotherapy to allow her body time to recover. She explained that while the treatments have been successful in beating back the growth of her tumors, she’s been feeling sicker in other ways and over the last month, has struggled to keep her eyes open and her words straight.
“We are going to take a little break on the immunotherapy to get my body back feeling stronger,” she shared.
Teddi was a cast member on Bravo’s The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills from seasons 8-10 between 2017 and 2020, and later returned as a guest on seasons 11, 12, and 13.
Watch Mellencamp discuss her cancer journey in the full conversation with Lima above.
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