Teddi Mellencamp reached out to her closest friends, including two Real Housewives stars, with a desperate request amid her battle with melanoma.
During a January episode of her shared podcast with Tamra Judge, 56, the former Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star, 42, admitted to having an emotional discussion with her pals before her December 2023 surgery, during which she asked them to help husband Edwin Arroyave, 46, find a new wife if anything were to happen to her.
After Tamra asked Teddi if she “ever at one point [thought] about death” or if she worried that her cancer would spread, Teddi teared up and admitted to fearing the worst.
“I had this moment where I was like, ‘I’m not going to be there for my family.’ And I like, texted [Kyle Richards] and two of our other best friends and I texted [Tamra], and I just said, ‘You guys I need you to really be on point with who Edwin marries. And who’s going to raise my kids.’ Because I don’t trust that he can make those decisions on his own. And I really wasn’t freaking kidding,” Teddi shared on a January episode of Two Ts In A Pod, via Heavy.
According to Teddi, she had just one requirement for her husband’s potential new wife: That she would love their children.
“I said ‘They don’t need to be this, they don’t need to be that. But they need to love the [expletive] out of my kids. And I need you guys to make sure that that happens.’ And I said it to Edwin too and he said, ‘It’s not going to happen. You can’t talk like that.’ But we have to talk like that,” Teddi explained.
At the end of December, as she recovered from the melanoma surgery, Teddi confirmed the “surgery went well” in a post to her fans and followers on Instagram.
“I specifically went through a ‘wide excision melanoma, soft tissue defect reconstruction with adjacent tissue rearrangement.’ Basically they cut out the area of my shoulder and replaced it with a flap of skin from below on my back (swipe to see the area before surgery),” she wrote, adding that she appreciated the “outpouring of love and prayers in the comments and DMs.”
Teddi also encouraged her online audience to “get your skin checked,” telling them, “I promise you do not want to go through this.”
She then shared an additional update on Two Ts In A Pod after receiving “good news” from her oncologist during a post-op appointment.
“My oncologist sent me a text this morning and he said, ‘Final report is all good. Some atypical areas. But no melanoma. We’ll have to keep a close watch on you but all good now. I’ll want to see you in three months. Sooner if we have any concerns,’” she revealed.
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills season 13 airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on Bravo.