Tamra Judge is one of Teddi Mellencamp’s biggest supporters amid her cancer journey, so Mellencamp’s wins are also Judge’s victories.
“For those of you who have not heard, Teddi announced on her Instagram that her treatment is working, thank you Jesus,” Judge, 57, said during the Thursday, April 25, episode of her and Mellencamp’s iHeartRadio “Two T’s in a Pod” podcast. “The tumors are shrinking.”
Judge noted, “This is a win,” adding that Mellencamp’s health update is “what is important” above all else on this week’s podcast episode. (Mellencamp, 43, wasn’t present for the Thursday taping.)
An optimistic Judge continued, “Yes, full recovery coming up, coming up.” The Real Housewives of Orange County star gushed over Mellencamp’s positive attitude amid the news saying, “Oh gosh, she’s just [great], her smile and her demeanor.”
Judge let out a big sigh, adding, “I mean, to finally know that it is working is like, ‘Oh God.’ It’s just such a relief.”
Judge’s enthusiastic update came one day after Mellencamp revealed that her cancer battle had taken a better turn.
“Honestly, the crying is already done, but I just finished with all of my scans and my tumors have significantly shrunk, which doctors believe means that this all will work and that I will be back to myself and feeling good,” Mellencamp said via Instagram on Wednesday, April 23.
The former Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star explained that she still has two more sessions of immunotherapy and then she’ll “hopefully” be done and cancer-free.
“I’m going to keep a positive outlook because that’s the way my doctor just spoke to me. He’s like, ‘You did this, you got this,’” Mellencamp said, before imitating her physician’s pep talk: “‘You got that Mellencamp blood, so you’re good.’”
Mellencamp detailed more about her medical change via the Instagram caption, writing, “All tumors stage 4 (metastasized melanoma in my brain and lungs) shrunk or disappeared so I have 6ish more weeks of immunotherapy and doctors believe I will be healed if everything stays on course.”
The former reality star has kept fans abreast throughout her recent health battle after being diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma cancer earlier this year. (She has been dealing with melanoma on and off since 2022.)
In February, she shared that doctors found multiple tumors on her brain, two of which were surgically removed that month. She said the others were going to be handled using radiation. Mellencamp’s medical team discovered four additional tumors on her brain the following month.
“I had six brain tumors and two lung tumors; they all came from melanoma that metastasized into these tumors inside of my body,” Mellencamp exclusively told Luxury Handbag Shopping in her March cover story, which was released before her additional tumors were found.
Despite the long road ahead, Mellencamp said she is staying positive by “planning things I look forward to,” including adventures with her and estranged husband Edwin Arroyave’s kids.
“A lot of people — not doctors, strangers on the internet — said [I] shouldn’t be [horseback] riding, but it’s one of the things I love doing with my daughter,” she told Us. “And I’m really lucky that Edwin, who I was in the middle of a divorce from, we put everything on hold. [It] wasn’t really the time to be fighting over emails. He’s been extremely kind and helping with the kids. That’s made things a lot easier.”
Mellencamp and Arroyave, 48, separated in November 2024 after 13 years of marriage. However, they have since put the divorce on the backburner as they coparent daughters Slate, 12, and Dove, 5, and son Cruz, 10, amid Mellencamp’s cancer journey. (Arroyave is also the father of daughter Isabella, 16, from a previous relationship.)
