Teddi Mellencamp teared up while talking about how her cancer battle has affected her relationship as a mom to her three kids.
The former “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star, 43, was diagnosed in October 2022 with stage 2 melanoma, which has since metastasized to her brain and lungs to become stage 4.
Mellencamp got emotional while speaking to “Entertainment Tonight” about the “debilitating pain” she feels when she thinks about the impact her illness has had on her children: Slate, 12, Cruz, 10, and Dove, 5.
“That is extremely frightening. My kids are young,” said Mellencamp. “I mean, I remember one day in the hospital, I was like, ‘I feel like today might be Dove’s birthday.””
Mellencamp’s previously estranged husband, Edwin Arroyave, who was at the hospital with her, confirmed that it was Dove’s birthday and said the little girl was celebrating at the party Mellencamp had planned for her.
“And I was just like, ‘Can they please just let me out for today?’” Mellencamp said, wiping away tears. “And he’s like, ‘You realize you have not only gone through massive brain surgery, but you have a, like, hole in your head.’ And I’m like, ‘I do?’”
“In that moment, (Edwin) said exactly what I needed him to say. He’s like, ‘We’ll throw another (birthday party).’ But, like, my heart broke because I wondered, like, will she remember that I wasn’t there?”
Earlier this month, Mellencamp told Us Weekly that she had been diagnosed with four additional brain tumors after undergoing surgery in February to remove previously diagnosed brain tumors that were causing her “severe and debilitating headaches.”
“I’m fighting for my life,” she told Us Weekly. “But also for my family’s life and all the people I love.”
Mellencamp also told Us Weekly that although she and Arroyave are separated, they live in the same house, an arrangement she says works well for whole family.
“I’m in the primary (bedroom), and he’s in one of the guest rooms. It’s fun,” she said. “It’s all the things that I loved about our marriage, but without all the problems.”
“He’s been there for the kids, and we’re back to laughing,” she added. “We call it the ‘Divorce Chronicles.’ And I want to talk (to him) about the kind of girls (he’s) going to marry … because if these people are going to take care of my kids, this is what I want, and this is the definition of what I don’t want.”
For his part, Arroyave says he believes in being honest with the children about their mother’s diagnosis.
“I was upfront with them with what was going on. I didn’t sugarcoat it,” Arroyave revealed on the April 3 episode of the podcast he co-hosts with Eddie Judge, “The Eds.”
“They got scared, obviously, they were concerned,” he said.
“But I tried my best to, again, not sugarcoat it too much. (I) let them know, ‘Hey, there are some risks that come with this.’ You know, I called it the way it was. It’s like, ‘Hey, there’s some tumors that your mom has in her brain.’”
“And I said, ‘It sounds worse than what it is. But this is what I think is, this is what we think is going to happen,’” he added. “‘This is sort of how we’re going to deal with it, and this is why I’m confident that she’s going to make it through.’”
