Teddi Mellencamp breaks down over ‘debilitating’ reality of cancer battle: ‘My kids are young’

Teddi Mellencamp, who has three young children, broke down while discussing the “debilitating” reality of battling stage 4 cancer.

In a recent interview with “Entertainment Tonight,” Mellencamp, 43, was detailing how she and her estranged husband, Edwin Arroyave, navigate life amid her health issues when she began to cry.

“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,'” she said as she got choked up.

“That is extremely frightening. My kids are young.”

Teddi Mellencamp, who has three young children, broke down while discussing the “debilitating” reality of battling stage 4 cancer.ET

In a recent interview, Mellencamp, 43, was detailing how she and her estranged husband, Edwin Arroyave, navigate life amid her health issues when she began to cry.edwinarroyaveofficial/Instagram

Mellencamp, whose melanoma metastasized to her brain and lungs, recalled one particularly heartbreaking day when she was in the hospital following surgery to remove brain tumors.

“I was like, ‘I feel like today might be Dove’s birthday,'” explained the “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” alum, who shares daughter Dove, 5, son Cruz, 10, and daughter Slate, 12, with Arroyave, who is also dad to daughter Isabella, 16.

“And Edwin’s like, ‘It is. It’s her party today that you planned.'”

Mellencamp could barely finish her sentence but wiped away tears and continued, “And I was like, ‘Can they please just let me out for today?'”

“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,'” she said as she got choked up.ET

“That is extremely frightening. My kids are young,” she added.teddimellencamp/Instagram

Arrovaye, 47, had to remind his estranged wife that she had “not only gone through massive brain surgery” but also had a “hole in [her] head,” to which she replied, “I do?”

The former Bravolebrity praised Arroyave for “saying exactly what [she] needed him to say” to her, which was, “We’ll throw another one.”

Still, her “heart broke” at the thought of Dove remembering that her mom “wasn’t there.”

The “Two Ts in a Pod” co-host admitted in an interview last week that she frequently asks her medical team about her odds of beating her cancer using radiation and immunotherapy.

Mellencamp, whose melanoma metastasized to her brain and lungs, recalled one particularly heartbreaking day when she was in the hospital following surgery to remove brain tumors.teddimellencamp/Instagram

“I was like, ‘I feel like today might be Dove’s birthday,'” the “RHOBH” alum explained. “And Edwin’s like, ‘It is. It’s her party today that you planned.'”teddimellencamp/Instagram

“It’s one of my favorite things to ask is, ‘How long I got?’ or ‘What are my chances?’ And they oftentimes say, ’50/50,'” she revealed on “Nightline.”

Mellencamp — the daughter of famed musician John Mellencamp, who is already planning for her burial in their family mausoleum in Indiana — was diagnosed with stage 2 melanoma in October 2022.

She underwent more than a dozen surgeries and got a clean bill of health in January 2024.

Mellencamp praised Arroyave for “saying exactly what [she] needed him to say” to her, which was, “We’ll throw another one.”teddimellencamp/Instagram

Still, her “heart broke” at the thought of Dove remembering that her mom “wasn’t there.”teddimellencamp/Instagram

However, in February 2025, Teddi underwent emergency surgery after “doctors found multiple tumors on [her] brain, which they believe [had] been growing for at least 6 months.”

During the operation, “more tumors were removed than expected.”

She announced in March that her medical team discovered “more tumors in [her] brain” as well as some in her lungs.

Now, she’s “fighting for [her] life.”