Teddi Mellencamp is a fighter after being diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma cancer earlier this year — and her children are part of her driving force for survival.
“I sound like a narcissist,” she joked in her exclusive Us Weekly cover story before confessing, “I can’t imagine any of them living without me.” (Us interviewed Mellencamp on March 24. Two days later, on March 26, she found out she had four additional tumors on her brain.)
Mellencamp shares three children, daughters Slate, 12, and Dove, 5, and son Cruz, 10, with estranged husband Edwin Arroyave. She is also the stepmother of Arroyave’s eldest daughter, Isabella, 16. While Mellencamp filed for divorce from Arroyave, 47, in November 2024, her latest cancer battle has the pair “pumping the brakes for now” on their legal separation.
As her health battle has become harder, Mellencamp tells Us her kids are coping in their own ways. But she is “paying for therapy” for all of them, admitting, “I’m not equipped to fully handle this.”
“It’s actually helping because then they come and ask me questions that I probably wouldn’t have thought to give them. So that’s a big thing,” she says.
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum notes that all her kids have “very different personality types” which has become evident in how they are handling her health issues.
“Slate wants to know every chrome of every detail. She’s like my identical human,” Mellencamp says of her eldest child. “We look the same, we talk the same, we have all the same issues. So she wants every detail.”
Her son, Cruz, is her “worrywart.” Mellencamp explains that he was concerned about sharing water with her because he thought she was contagious.
“I’m like, ‘I’m not contagious. There’s nothing contagious about me. You can have the water,’” she recalls. “And he is like, ‘I’m not trusting it. I’m not trusting it.’”
Despite his worries, Mellencamp recalls Cruz’s “entire class” writing her a letter when she was in the hospital. “I go, ‘How did everybody know?’ He goes, ‘Mom, you’re all over the internet,’” she says with a laugh.
Mellencamp dubs her youngest child, Dove, her “sarcastic” mini-me, who doesn’t fully understand the scope of the situation. “Last night, I was really tired. I’m like, ‘Dad’s going to put you to bed.’ She’s like, ‘Alright, peace out, Mom. Love you,’” she says.
When it comes to her stepdaughter, Isabella, Mellencamp tells Us, she’s been “super strong but also shares so much love.” The former reality star adds, “We’re trying to focus on her sports and school and not overly focus on me.”
Mellencamp’s kids are dealing with her diagnosis in their own ways, but that doesn’t mean she wants to get anyone’s hopes up about her recovery. In fact, after becoming known on RHOBH for telling her little ones, “Mommy’s always come back,” Mellencamp admits she’s trying to taper expectations.
“I have not said that line to them since I’ve been back,” she tells Us. “But I think they got so much love while I was in the hospital. Between my dad and all my siblings and my mom and Edwin.”
Mellencamp reveals, “They all know that I’m fighting the hardest I possibly can. But I haven’t said, ‘Mommy’s always come back’ because I don’t wanna lie to them. And I don’t know.”
She notes even without saying her signature catchphrase, her kids know she’s doing everything she can to come out the other side.
Luckily for Mellencamp, raising her kids is a joint effort with her estranged husband, whom she tells Us has been a great “support” throughout her health ups and downs.
“We’re just trying to be each other’s friend right now and be the best parents we can be [for] our kids,” Mellencamp says, confessing, “I don’t think that either of us are going to rekindle our marriage.”
Mellencamp confirms her and Arroyave’s divorce is legally on “hold” as they both prioritize her recovery and their children.
“He’s been extremely kind and helping with the kids. That’s made things a lot easier,” she says of her estranged spouse, whom she was married to for 13 years before their split.
For now, Mellencamp says they are even living under the same roof. “I’m in the primary, and he’s in one of the guest rooms,” she explains. “It’s fun. It’s all the things that I loved about our marriage but without all the problems.”
Mellencamp recalls her marriage being “bad for a while” before their breakup, but since she got sick, she says Arroyave “completely changed.” She calls it a “silver lining” to her diagnosis, noting that the former couple are not back to a good place.
“He’s been there for me a hundred percent, he’s been there for the kids, and we’re back to laughing,” she gushes. “We call it the ‘Divorce Chronicles.’ And I want to talk [to him] about the kind of girls [he’s] going to marry … because if these people are going to take care of my kids, this is what I want, and this is the definition of what I don’t want.”
Mellencamp admits it is “hilarious” having such a close relationship with her future ex-husband. She jokes that she’ll even let Arroyave “pick the next partner” she has, but teases, “I’m not going to listen” to him.
Watch the exclusive video above for more on Mellencamp’s home life amid her cancer battle — and pick up the latest issue of Us Weekly, on newsstands now.
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