Teddi Mellencamp Gets Emotional Over ‘Debilitating’ Cancer Battle, Toll It’s Taken on Her Family

In a new interview with Entertainment Tonight, the former Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star, 43, got choked up while describing what it’s like to face such a terrifying diagnosis as a mom of three.

“I’m like, ‘I don’t think you understand the debilitating pain that I feel some days thinking about the fact that, like, my kids–‘” Teddi said through tears. “That is extremely frightening. My kids are young.”

Teddi, who shares three children — Slate, 12, Cruz, 10, and Dove, 5 — with estranged husband Edwin Arroyave, who also has a 16-year-old daughter, Isabella, from a previous relationship, got especially emotional recalling an important family moment she missed after undergoing brain surgery to remove tumors.

While lying in a hospital bed, the Two Ts in a Pod co-host recalled turning to Edwin and saying, “I feel like today might be Dove’s birthday.”

“It is. It’s her party today that you planned,” he responded.

“I was like, Can they please just let me out for today?'” Teddi said through tears. “My heart broke thinking that she’ll remember I wasn’t there.”

Edwin, 47, reminded Teddi of everything she had just endured, i.e., a “massive brain surgery” and even a “hole” in her head. She was so out of it, Teddi told ET she didn’t even realize she had been through all that.

But despite their separation, Teddi says Edwin came through for her in that moment, telling her what she needed to hear: “We’ll throw another one.”

The reality star and daughter of music legend John Mellencamp has been candid about her cancer journey since being diagnosed with stage 2 melanoma in October 2022. After more than a dozen surgeries, she was briefly declared cancer-free in early 2024.

But her world was rocked again in February 2025 when doctors discovered multiple brain tumors — believed to have been growing for at least six months — prompting emergency surgery. And in March, her team found more tumors, both in her brain and lungs, elevating her cancer to stage 4.

Now, Teddi is fighting for her life, with the RHOBH alum revealing in an interview with Nightline that she often asks her doctors the question no one wants to face: “What are my chances?” Their answer? “Fifty-fifty.”

Despite everything, Teddi continues to share her story; the highs, the lows, and the brutally honest moments in between, including the moment she was fitted with a new, blonde wig to wear over her recently shaved head.

In a recent Instagram video documenting her trip to The Wig Fairy, a Beverly Hills-based salon specializing in customized human-hair wigs, Teddi, who had previously sported hair pieces after her brain surgery, admitted she wasn’t a fan of her previous wig purchase. She said she found the styles uncomfortable and “itchy,” so much so that she was “hesitant” to give The Wig Fairy a shot.

While it’s unclear what made Teddi visit the salon, she said she was surprised by their products and top-tier service.

“Let me tell you, The Wig Fairy was beyond,” she captioned the Reel. “From the start, trying on various styles, to the cut and styling to my liking, to seeing the final product which looks like it’s coming out of my actual head … I am so grateful.”