Teddi Mellencamp is facing her cancer journey with humor and heart.
The 43-year-old, who has been diagnosed with stage four cancer, revealed on her podcast that her famous father, musician John Cougar Mellencamp, has requested that she be buried in the family's mausoleum, but she joked that the headstone will read: "Hot girls never die."
"Yesterday my dad called 11 times in a row. Finally, I answer. I'm like, 'I'm in the bath. Let me live a little!' He goes: 'I just want to make sure you’re going to be in our group family mausoleum,'" the Real Housewives star recalled on her podcast Two T’s In A Pod.
© Charles Sykes/Bravo via Getty ImIn response Teddi asked if there would also be room for her three children – Slate, 12, Cruz, ten, and five-year-old Dove, whom she shares with her estranged husband Edwin Arroyave – and her father told her that there would be space for the "top five" and then "little areas around it, and then that's where everyone's going to get buried".
"You're doing your will right now, so you may as well put it in there," he also told her.
© Corbis via Getty ImagesTeddi hosts the podcast with Tamra Judge, and she told her former Real Housewife star that she would have to travel to Indiana, where the mausoleum is, to visit her grave.
In early March, Teddi revealed that five more tumors had been discovered in her body, weeks after she underwent brain cancer surgery.
© Teddi Mellencamp"Update: I have multiple tumors in my brain that weren’t able to be removed via surgery. I also have 2 tumors in my lung. These are all metastases of my melanoma," she shared on Instagram on Thursday March 6.
"The doctors are hopeful that immunotherapy will effectively treat them," she continued, sharing that she is "feeling positive" and that she "will win this battle".
She received plenty of support from friends and former Bravo stars including Kyle Richards, and Dorit Kimsley.
The Bravo alum has been battling skin cancer since 2022. She was diagnosed with brain tumors in mid-February 2025, after she complained of debilitating headaches.
"For the last several weeks I've been dealing with severe and debilitating headaches," Teddi said at the time.
"Yesterday the pain was unbearable and required hospitalization. After a CT scan and MRI, doctors found multiple tumors on my brain, which they believe have been growing for at least six months."
"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," she continued.
In early April, Teddi shared in a video that "stage 4 cancer can be scary".
© Getty Images"Some days I feel really, really strong and some days I feel really, really sad and alone. And I think that’s a normal part of what any of us are going through, and that’s okay," Teddi shared.
She is undergoing immunotherapy and radiation.
