"Teddi Mellencamp Opens Up About 'Crushing' Cancer Battle: 'I Felt Hopeless and Overcome by Dark Thoughts' During Brutal COVID Fight"
Teddi Mellencamp, who is battling stage 4 cancer, recently came down with an intense case of COVID-19.
She detailed the “brutal” bout with the virus on Tuesday’s episode of her “Diamonds in the Rough” podcast, which she co-hosts with her former “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” co-star Erika Jayne.
“I got COVID, which, I’m good now, but then I started feeling extreme, extreme depression,” the daughter of musician John Mellencamp told Jayne, confirming she felt “hopeless.”
“I called my psychiatrist. My dad flew in his assistant to be with me. But I haven’t ever felt like that,” she admitted.
Teddi, 44, said her psychiatrist “changed [her] medications around” and reminded her that “nobody really knows what [she’s] going through.”
But still, the former Bravolebrity “cried every single day last week” and told Jayne, 54, she didn’t call her because she “hate[s] asking people for help.”
Furthermore, she “felt paralyzed,” which is why she didn’t “reach out to anybody.” She also experienced “brain fog.”
Jayne, who insisted she would have been by Teddi’s side, then shared a bit about her own mental health struggles.
The singer spiraled into a depression after she filed for divorce from attorney Tom Girardi, who has since been disbarred, in November 2020. He began serving a seven-year prison sentence for fraud in July, leaving Jayne tangled in ongoing lawsuits.
“I laid in bed a lot, and I had really intrusive thoughts,” she said, prompting Teddi to confess that she’s been experiencing them, too.
“I wanted to kill myself for a very long time and thought about it a lot and then didn’t,” Jayne revealed. “The hopelessness is what’s frightening.”
She also reminded her friend that she’s “going through a lot.”
“I think the gravity of what you’ve gone through is hitting you right now,” she stressed. Teddi agreed, noting that she “went from having this chaotic life, nonstop, and then right into the hospital.”
Jayne, who pointed out that the accountability coach has not slowed down all that much, believes “the seriousness and the gravity” of her situation is “hitting [her] months later.”
Teddi explained that her doctors assured her it’s “normal to feel this way,” but that doesn’t make the feelings any less “scary.”
Jayne agreed, saying it was difficult to “feel so low” and not know whether it was ever “gonna stop.”
While the songstress doesn’t know exactly what Teddi is going through, she assured her pal that she does know “what it’s like to feel that way.”
“You just feel so stuck. And, like, I still can’t drive. I felt like I was just stuck inside of this house and then COVID added to it, and I was like, ‘Holy shit, I haven’t felt like this — ever,'” Teddi lamented.
The mother of three said the feelings made her start to wonder whether she had “made a mistake,” but Jayne insisted she did not.
Though Teddi did not elaborate on what she meant, she did file for divorce from Edwin Arroyave — with whom she shares her kids — in November 2024, two months before she learned that her skin cancer had metastasized to her brain. It has since spread to her lungs.
Katie Maloney Clarifies Charlie Kirk Post: ‘I Am Not Celebrating His Death’
On September 10, political activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated while speaking at Utah Valley University. Meanwhile, people across the country have been speaking out, sharing their thoughts about this senseless violence. And that includes Vanderpump Rules alum
Of course, Katie has been vocal recently on several topics, including her feelings about the Pump Rules reboot. “It feels cheap and I don’t like cheap,” she previously stated. Meanwhile, after sharing her thoughts about the death, Katie experienced some backlash. And now she is clarifying her feelings about the incident.
Katie Maloney faced backlash for an earlier post she shared about Charlie Kirk
In her initial social media post, Katie wrote, “We do not celebrate death. But we also do not mourn monsters. Those two things can and do coexist.” She added, “The absence of mourning does not imply the presence of celebration.”
In her latest Instagram Story, Katie wrote, “I want to make it clear that I am not celebrating Charlie Kirk’s death, nor do I believe he deserved to be assassinated. We should settle our differences with discussion, not with violence.”
She continued, “I take no joy in Charlie Kirk’s death. Just as I grieve for the parents who lose children in school shootings, I grieve for Charlie Kirk’s children and wife. No one should lose someone they love to gun violence.” Katie added, “I am sorry if anyone feels hurt by what I said. I acknowledge I could have been more intentional in the timing of my comments, while the loss was immediate.”
In closing, the VPR alum wrote, “Gun violence is an American tragedy. So is our inability to disagree with civility. Going forward, I hope to be part of the solutions to both problems.”
Vanderpump Rules is streaming on Peacock and Hayu in the UK and Ireland.
