Teddi Mellencamp breaks down in tears asking if cancer diagnosis was 'payback' for her affair

Daily Mail​

2 days ago

Former Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Teddi Mellencamp finally broke her silence regarding the alleged affair with her horse trainer, Simon Schroeder.
While appearing on Tuesday's episode of The Jamie Kern Lima Show podcast, the reality star, 44, opened up about the controversy that made headlines in late 2024.
'I've never talked about it at all, just because of the kids, and I've never wanted anybody to have a guarantee whether it happened or didn't happen,' Mellencamp explained. 'But what I can say is, did I do things that hurt other people? Yes.'
As her eyes welled with tears, the mother-of-three reflected on how deeply the situation continues to affect her, without confirming or denying whether the cheating scandal occurred.
'To this day, does it still hurt my heart and I wonder if that's why I got cancer? Yes, like it was my payback,' she said, referencing her ongoing battle with stage 4 cancer after her melanoma spread to her brain and lungs.
'Nothing goes without payment,' she added. 'However long it was … it was all over the press, it was everywhere. You're trying to minimize everybody's pain. You end up maximizing it. Because now not only do you have yourself, you have your significant other, your kids, the other person's significant other, their kids.'
Court records confirm that Schroeder's ex-wife, Karli Schroeder, filed for divorce on December 30, 2024, just months after rumors of an affair began circulating.
The documents, obtained by People, cited irreconcilable differences and revealed that the couple had remarried on April 14, 2024, after annulling a prior marriage in February.
They officially separated on September 22, 2024.
The allegations involving Simon emerged while Mellencamp was also going through a difficult period in her personal life.
She had filed for divorce from her husband of 13 years, Edwin Arroyave, on November 1, 2024, also citing irreconcilable differences.
Then, in February 2025, Mellencamp publicly revealed her cancer diagnosis, pausing the divorce proceedings.
Despite everything, Mellencamp and Arroyave have remained close and have a amicable co-parenting relationship.
The former couple share three children: Slate, 12, Cruz, 10, and Dove, 5.
'I always knew he'd do the right thing by me,' she said during the podcast. 'If he wanted to, he could still be filing and finishing this divorce off right now. But… it was like, 'Yeah, of course. No, we'll wait. We'll wait until she's better, and then we'll figure it out.'
When asked directly about her role in the scandal, Mellencamp didn't shy away from the wreckage left behind.
'So many people are hurt in the wreckage,' she said. 'But I can say this from knowing — the wreckage doesn't happen on its own. It never had happened to me,' she said.
She acknowledged she was in a dark place mentally and physically during that period. 'I think I was so broken as a human being during that part of my life that I did things out of my better judgment,' she admitted. 'I was so sick.'
Mellencamp revealed she had been experiencing 'severe and debilitating headaches' for months before doctors discovered tumors.
'I was looking for comfort anywhere I can get it. I felt so much pain. I felt so sick. I didn't go to the doctors. I just felt some certain kind of way,' she said. 'The pain was so much that I had gotten to the point of like, almost hating waking up in the morning, which I had never been that kind of person.'
Still, she emphasized that illness doesn't excuse her choices.
'I wasn't myself, but I'm not going to blame my alleged actions on the fact that I was sick,' Mellencamp said. 'But I do think a bunch of things happened in my life all around the same time, and I had zero control of any of them. Like I just was running around like a chicken with my head cut off.'