Teddi Mellencamp reveals '50-50' prognosis amid cancer treatment: 'I'm going to live'

USA Today

6 days ago

Amid the "highs and lows" of her cancer battle, Teddi Mellencamp is seeing a bright future.
Asked about her prognosis on the July 29 episode of "The Jamie Kern Lima Show," the 44-year-old daughter of Heartland rock star John Mellencamp, said, "I would say probably 50-50."
"But I truly believe this when I say this, and it's going to make me emotional, I truly believe that I'm going to live," said Teddi Mellencamp, who starred on the "Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" from 2017 to 2020. "I think that I'm going to have some rough years. Truthfully, I think I'm going to have some lonely years because not many people know how to talk to somebody who has stage 4 cancer."
She has been diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma, a type of skin cancer, that metastasized to her lungs and brain.
Mellencamp, who starred on the "Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" from 2017 to 2020, has a support system that includes her husband Edwin Arroyave, her three children and her father.
In "The Jamie Kern Lima Show" episode, Mellencamp revealed that she and Arroyave often live in the same house. She said their divorce proceedings are on pause because of her cancer treatment. "This week, I told him I'm really sick, and he's staying downstairs in the bedroom at our house right now. We can live in the same house. We don't argue," she said.
"Edwin will always be my friend," Mellencamp added.
A week before the episode's release, she'd revealed that she had discontinued immunotherapy due to debilitating side effects. Mellencamp has been diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma, a type of skin cancer she has long struggled with, which had metastasized to her lungs and brain.
Teddi Mellencamp opens up about dad John Mellencamp's support
When Kern Lima asked whether she feels closer to her father "than ever," Mellencamp replied, "I do."
"He has been beyond" helpful, she said of her Grammy-winning rocker dad.
"The things that I wouldn't be capable of doing without my dad, not only for financial reasons, I used to take such pride in saying I've done all of this on my own," she said. "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 OK."
The help is welcome during a time when the podcaster and entrepreneur "most certainly can't" manage her life as well as she'd like. Even managing her medications can be a struggle, she shared.
Her strategy during her treatments, which are taxing, is to be optimistic about her health outcome.
"I know that I go in two weeks from now and I get my next scan, and I fully believe, as I'm telling you right now, they're gonna tell me I'm cleared," Mellencamp said. "If I'm not, there'll be a come down from that. But it's what I need to do to get me through these next two and a half weeks.
"I need to believe it. Because if not, it's just too sad."