Teddi Mellencamp shared that her dad, John Mellencamp, already has a plan to lay her to rest. Amidst her battle with stage 4 cancer, which includes numerous tumors in her brain and lungs, she is drawing up a will. Her famous father has been anxious to cement her burial plans with her.
The RHOBH alum had to have a heavy conversation — and she knows that it’s about more than her and her father. Teddi Mellencamp Arroyave poses here for a Bravo promotional photo. She has been let go by the network.
John Mellencamp wants his daughter to make plans for the worst. During the Tuesday, April 8 episode of her Two Ts in a Pod podcast, Teddi Mellencamp spoke to co-host Tamra Judge about a serious, important topic. She revealed that her father, famed musician John Mellencamp, has been calling her repeatedly. He has been wanting to have an important, albeit morbid in every sense, conversation with her.
“Finally, I answer, I’m like, ‘I’m in the bath. Let me live a little,’” Teddi described. “He goes, ‘I just want to make sure you’re going to be in our group family mausoleum.’” After John Mellencamp broached the topic, Teddi revealed that she wondered about the future. Would the family mausoleum also have space for her children? Slate is 12, Cruz is 10, and Dove is 5.
At some point, in the very distant future, she’d like for their remains to reside near hers. During a 2020 episode of ‘The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,’ Teddi Mellencamp dazzled viewers despite being on her way out of the franchise. Are these burial plans feasible? “He’s like, ‘Well, there’s going to be the top five and then we’re gonna have little areas around it, and then that’s where everyone’s going to get buried,’” Teddi recalled.
Continuing to describe the talk with her father, she added: “He goes, ‘You’re doing your will right now, so you may as well put it in there.’” Teddi shared that she agreed with her father’s wishes. Additionally, she shared plans to travel to Indiana to visit the site in person.
In a moment of levity, Teddi joked that she would like to have the quote, “Hot girls never die,” engraved upon her tombstone. (That quote became the title of that podcast episode) Teddi presumably does not intend for her ex to be part of the mausoleum. Though she shares her three children with Edwin Arroyave, the two split just six months ago, in October 2024 — following 14 years of marriage.
It looks like Teddi Mellencamp wasn’t sure what to make of what she and the other RHOBH ladies were hearing. This has been a short, hard journey for Teddi Mellencamp. Teddi received her skin cancer diagnosis in 2022. However, in February, doctors found tumors growing in her brain.
Though brain surgery was able to remove four tumors, they “had been growing for at least six months.” There were others in her brain and lungs. As we previously reported, Teddi shared that these growths “are all a direct result of my melanoma.” Now, she is fighting for her life — and having difficult conversations with loved ones as she prepares for the worst.
