Credit: Janet Mayer/Mark C Austin/Startraksphoto
Teddi Mellencamp went three years without speaking to her father, John Mellencamp, and during a recent episode of her podcast, she opened up about why.
After a fan wrote into her and Tamra Judge‘s show, wanting to know why the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills cast member had previously claimed she had no money, despite her wealthy dad, Teddi explained that she wasn’t always on good terms with the famed musician, especially after he split from her mom, Vicki Granucci.
“When my parents got a divorce, I was in the third grade,” Teddi recalled on the November 14 episode of Two Ts in a Pod. “My mom got a significant amount of money. But she was a young girl. She married my dad when she was 18. So we moved to a completely different state, new place, whatever. She got a lump sum, and then she would get child support.”
Although Vicky had a lot of money coming in at that time, Teddi said she “didn’t know how to manage her money.” And, by the time Teddi was in high school, the family was broke.
“We didn’t have any money, and then my rule with my dad was that if I wanted to move to California and not go to college, I had to support myself,” Teddi revealed. “I have no trust fund. There was no trust fund. [And] financially, I never had his backing.”
“Everyone thinks we grew up with a silver spoon in our mouths, but we grew up with our mom,” she added.
In fact, when Teddi was 15-years-old, she and John got into an argument that led to a three-year estrangement.
“We didn’t talk for three years over money,” she shared, not revealing details.
But while John hasn’t been one to recklessly fund Teddi’s lifestyle, the former RHOBH cast member admitted that he’s always gracious when it comes to spending time with family on the holidays.
“If he wants us to come home, he will fly everyone but Edwin [and] the significant others,” she explained. “He doesn’t fly the significant others. The husbands need to figure it out.”
Teddi then addressed the topic of John’s new girlfriend, who he’s been dating for about six months, saying that woman, who she did not name, “used to be one of [her] best friends” and is just “a couple of years older” than she is.
“She’s very private, so I’m not going to say her name, but I’m sure you could go through my Instagram and figure it out,” she noted. “And it’s not that she’s not my best friend anymore.”
According to Teddi, she actually met the woman through her husband, Edwin Arroyave, and John met her through the two of them.
“They met 10 years ago through me at a concert. She came as mine and Edwin’s guest,” Teddi revealed.
