Trending:
Since she was diagnosed with cancer in 2022, Teddi Mellencamp has been candid about her treatment and recovery.
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star and daughter of legendary singer John Mellencamp revealed on Instagram in 2022 that she avoided her annual skin cancer screening for years because of anxiety. When she finally went at the insistence of costar Kyle Richards, her doctors removed a “big” spot from her back.
A few months later, she went back in for a check-up and was diagnosed with stage II melanoma.
“I so badly wanted to blow this off,” Mellencamp wrote in an October 2022 Instagram post. “I continue to share this journey because I was a 90s teen, putting baby oil and iodine on my skin to tan it. Never wearing sunscreen or getting my moles checked until I was 40 years old.”
In the years that followed, the reality star and podcast host underwent multiple surgeries and treatments to remove her melanoma. Then, in February 2025, Mellencamp shared that as “a direct result” of her melanoma, doctors had found tumors on her brain.
Here’s everything to know about Teddi Mellencamp’s cancer journey and what she’s said about her ongoing treatment.
She was diagnosed with stage II melanoma in 2022
Months after she had a mole removed from her back in 2022, Mellencamp announced on Instagram that she had been diagnosed with stage II melanoma.
“They said I had another abnormal spot near my last one so they did a biopsy,” she captioned a photo of a scar and bandage on her back. “I got the call this morning: Stage 2 melanoma.”
Though surgical removal had been the initial treatment plan, her doctors discovered two more cancerous moles that same month and told her they thought she was predisposed to melanomas. The RHOBH star shared on Instagram that she would need “wide excision surgery” to remove the moles and see how far the cancer had spread.
“Feeling very grateful and blessed that we caught this when we did,” Mellencamp wrote in another Instagram post, “and that I have so many incredible doctors and surgeons working with me today to hopefully get the best outcome.”
She’s had 17 melanomas removed
Since 2022, Mellencamp has had 17 melanomas removed. After having 11 melanomas removed in December 2022, she developed three new spots within a month and had those, plus two additional moles, surgically removed over the next two years.
She told her Instagram followers in December 2024 that after undergoing 20 different surgeries, she was overjoyed when she finally had a skin check-up that didn’t result in a biopsy.
“The anxiety always takes over; the thought of another biopsy, another surgery, another addition to the scar on my back,” Mellencamp said in a video. “And I always end up crying. But today the tears were those of joy. Because for the first time, there wasn’t anything abnormal, nothing that needed an extra look. And I am grateful.”
Doctors found multiple tumors on her brain in 2025
In February 2025, Mellencamp announced that after weeks of experiencing “severe and debilitating headaches,” CT and MRI scans found multiple tumors on her brain. She said that her doctors believed that they had been “growing for at least six months.”
“Two of the tumors will be surgically removed today,” she wrote in an Instagram post. “The remaining smaller tumors will be dealt with via radiation at a later date. I am blessed to be surrounded by my children, family, friends, doctors, nurses and surgeons who are doing everything possible to get me back into better health.”
After she had four tumors removed, five more were found
After undergoing a craniotomy with a tumor resection, Mellencamp revealed that four tumors were removed instead of two. “This fight is not over,” she wrote on Instagram, “but that round has been won.”
Post-surgery scans revealed three additional tumors on her brain that couldn’t be removed during surgery and two on her lungs. She wrote on her Instagram Stories that despite the news, she was feeling “positive” and that her doctors were hopeful that immunotherapy and radiation would treat them.
Mellencamp also noted that even though she liked her new shaved hair, she did get a blonde wig to rock as well.
She said the tumors were caused by her melanoma
On Instagram, Mellencamp wrote that the brain and lung tumors were “all metastases” of her melanoma. Brain metastases develop in up to 60% of patients with advanced melanoma, according to the National Library of Medicine.
When the cancer cells migrate through the blood-brain barrier, brain tumors can form and their presence “significantly worsens a patient’s prognosis.”
She competed in an equestrian show in mid-March 2025
Before starting radiation therapy to treat her remaining tumors, Mellencamp competed in a Los Angeles equestrian competition on March 17, with her daughter, Slate Mellencamp Arroyave.
“When you’re battling cancer or any sickness, mental health is just as important as physical,” she later wrote on Instagram alongside photos from the event. “To get to ride again, with Slate by my side, is the best supplement to the medical treatments that I am confident will wipe out these tumors.”
She also returned to co-host the Two Ts In a Pod podcast with The Real Housewives of Orange County star Tamra Judge, who joked that Mellencamp was the only person she knew who “had brain surgery and three weeks later is doing hot yoga.”
Read the full article here
