Teddi Mellencamp is clearing the air about dad John Mellencamp’s recent update on her cancer battle.
“My dad went on [the “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast] and told everybody I was suffering. Now, I’ve been in, like, a doozy of a situation of so many people messaging me,” Teddi, 44, said during the Thursday, January 22, episode of her iHeartRadio “Two Ts in a Pod” podcast with Tamra Judge.
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum clarified that she’s “mentally and physically struggling” amid her cancer battle, but her “cancer is not worse.”
John, 74, appeared on the January 14 episode of Rogan’s podcast, where he shared a rare update on his daughter’s cancer battle.
“It’s not f***ing fun,” the “Jack & Diane” singer said. “She’s got cancer in the brain, and she’s suffering right now.”
John added that Teddi is “really sick” after she was diagnosed with stage 4 brain cancer in 2025 following her battle with melanoma in 2022.
During Thursday’s podcast episode, Judge, 58, pointed out that John was likely speaking as a “concerned dad,” which Teddi agreed with.
“He calls every single day, he’s coming out here next week. He wants to make sure, you know, like, he’s doing the best everybody’s doing,” Teddi added. “But I mean, he’s not wrong. I’ve definitely, I mean, I have been suffering. I have been crying a lot. I’ve been super emotional. I’ve even had, like, a support group.”
“Some days it’s more manageable,” Teddi said of her anxiety. “But it’s not, like, linear. Like, there’s some days that I feel like I can’t even move, and there’s some days that I’m like, ‘Oh, I could go do anything.’”
Teddi previously opened up about her mental health on her and Judge’s podcast last week.
“I’ve been doing a lot of therapy, a lot of rest [and] a lot of hanging with the family,” she said during the January 15 episode, which marked her return to the show for the first time in months. “[It’s been] a lot of trying to get myself together because, apparently, I’m struggling with massive PTSD.”
Teddi also told listeners that “everything’s good as it can be” amid her cancer battle
In addition to discussing Teddi’s cancer on “The Joe Rogan Experience,” John said he encouraged his daughter to move out of Los Angeles during an appearance on Today on January 16.
“I’m going to go out and see her [in Los Angeles],” he said of Teddi, who shares Slate, 12, Cruz, 11, and Dove, 5, with estranged husband Edwin Arroyave. “I’ve tried to talk her into moving back home. I said, ‘Move back to Indiana, bring the kids and just come back and live in Indiana,’ but she won’t do it.”
John continued, “You can’t say you’re cancer-free with the type of cancer she’s got for three years. She has lesions in her brain. It went from her back — just a little, teeny spot on her — and over the last couple years, it grew and it got inside her brain and her lungs.”
Last year, Teddi expressed gratitude for her father’s support.
“He has been beyond,” she said on the “Jamie Kern Lima Show” in July 2025. “The things that I wouldn’t be capable of doing without my dad — not only for financial reasons.”
