HEALTHTeddi Mellencamp Thought She Was 'on Her Deathbed' After Doctors Found Brain Tumors: 'I Didn't Want to Face Any of It'
Teddi Mellencamp feared the worst when doctors discovered she had multiple brain tumors.
Teddi Mellencamp is opening up about one of the scariest moments of her life.
On a recent episode of “Two Ts in a Pod,” the former Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star and her co-host Tamra Judge got real about Mellencamp’s battle with cancerous brain tumors — and how she feared the worst.
Teddi Mellencamp is back on her podcast with pal Tamra Judge.
“You said to me, ‘You all thought I was mental, but actually I’m on my deathbed,’” Judge recalled from their text exchange after Mellencamp’s tumors were discovered through a CT scan.
The mother-of-three admitted, “I remember feeling like this is it.”
The conversation got emotional as Judge, 57, made it clear she wasn’t ready to lose her friend, saying, “No, you’re not, because if you’re on yours, then I’m on mine because I can’t live without you.”
At the time, Mellencamp was in denial, pushing aside her symptoms while dealing with some “bad stuff” in her personal life — hinting at her split from husband Edwin Arroyave and rumors of infidelity.
Despite suffering from “the worst migraine,” she avoided getting checked out.
“I didn’t want to face any of it,” she said. “And I was like, I just need to keep moving forward. And if I keep moving forward, then everything’s going to be fine.”
She and Arroyave announced their separation in November 2024 after 13 years of marriage. Soon after, she was linked to her horse trainer, Simon Schroeder.
Judge admitted she started noticing changes in Mellencamp’s behavior for months. The reality star shared that she struggled to “remember how to say certain words,” was “shaking really bad” and even got disoriented while horseback riding.
Tamra Judge has told some details about her pal's health battle.
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As her symptoms worsened, Mellencamp reached her breaking point — the pain was so extreme she “could barely walk,” leading Judge to urge her to get medical support.
“I started, like, sobbing to her and I’m like, ‘I need you to take me to the hospital right now. I think I’m dying. I can’t see, I can’t walk, I can’t even get out of bed,’” Mellencamp recounted.
Though they had split, Arroyave ultimately stepped in and took her to the hospital when her friend couldn’t.
Doctors performed a craniotomy and removed four tumors from her brain — something Mellencamp couldn't fully grasp.
Edwin Arroyave took his ex-wife to the hospital.
“The hardest part is that nobody wanted to tell me what was really happening because they were scared, and so I didn’t know what was happening,” Mellencamp explained as she broke out in tears. “I thought I was fine, like, I thought I could go home the next day, and, like, once the tumors are out, I thought I would be done. I can’t even tell you guys, like, I really didn’t understand anything and it was such a bummer.”
“I know that I make everything seem pretty good and peachy, but it was a bad 17 days for everyone in my life. And the fact that my dad helped me and that he’s still helping me, yeah, has really been a game changer,” she added, referring to her father, singer John Mellencamp.
Now, she’s staying focused on her recovery. She told Judge she’s feeling “really positive” as she gets ready to start radiation on March 17, followed by ongoing immunotherapy every three weeks.
Tamra Judge revealed she sensed something was off with Teddi Mellencamp in the six months leading up to her diagnosis.
Looking back, Mellencamp regrets not taking her symptoms more seriously.
“I wish the second that I felt those headaches, I wish the second that I started not feeling like myself, I would have gone to the doctor and gotten checked,” she said. “If I had waited any longer, God knows what would have happened.”
“I can say I’ve had some of my darkest, saddest days since [February] 12th when this happened,” Mellencamp said. “But leading up to it, it’s so wild what kind of transpired to kind of get us here.”
