Real Housewives star Teddi Mellencamp, who has been diagnosed with several brain tumours, is the daughter of a famous rockstar who has sold over 60 million records worldwide
Teddi Mellencamp has a very famous father who has sold millions of albums around the world.
Last week, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star announced she was having emergency surgery to remove two brain tumours. This op was successful, her estranged husband Edwin Arroyave has confirmed, but she’s been left in “so much pain”.
Teddi, who starred on the drama-filled Bravo series, had been suffering “severe and debilitating headaches” for weeks. She was diagnosed with “multiple” tumours on her brain by doctors after she went to hospital in “unbearable” pain – they believe the tumours have been growing for at at least six months.
It seems she’s in good hands, though, as Teddi has a large family around her, including Edwin and their three children Slate, 12, Cruz, 10, and Dove, four. Teddi is also a stepmum to Edwin’s daughter Bella, 15, from a previous relationship.
She’s also got four siblings, including sisters Justice and Michelle and brothers Hud and Speck. Justice recently said of Teddi’s surgery: “Watching a loved one suffer is horrific,” adding: “I’ve tried to get back to everyone who has reached out & I know Teddi will share her journey when she is ready. She is by far the strongest person I know.”
It turns out Teddi isn’t the only member of her family in the spotlight, either, because she is the daughter of singer John Mellencamp. The heartland rocker shot to stardom in the eighties and has bagged fourteen Top 20 hits in the US, including Jack & Diane, Hurts So Good and Small Town.
He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008, bagged 12 Grammy nominations and has sold over 60 million records worldwide. Teddi has opened up about her relationship with her dad, which hasn’t always been easy.
“I think he always tried his best,” said Teddi during a chat on the Sibling Revelry podcast with Kate and Olivia Hudson. “Do I think that we’re in a way better place now than when I was a kid? Yes, but also because I mean, I didn’t really understand the importance of a good relationship with my parents when I was a kid.”
She added: “I mean, there was one point — we joke about this conversation because it’s probably so traumatizing — but I got mad at him for something. And he said, ‘You know what? Eff you, Teddi. I have other kids,’ and we didn’t talk for a couple of years.”
Teddi’s mum was John’s es-wife Victoria Granucci, who gave birth to her in 1981, the same year she married the singer. Teddi has revealed that she has also had a strained relationship with Victoria, who in 2022 suffered a brain bleed and was in the ICU for four days after a horror fall.
However, John has had a rather rocky love life, including an on-and-off romance with Sleepless in Seattle actress Meg Ryan. He admits he was a bad boyfriend to her during their turbulent relationship, which finally ended in 2019.
“I love Meg Ryan. I went with her for 10 years. She doesn’t love me so much,” he told Esquire in 2023. “he’s a great girl. I’m just a s****y boyfriend,”
They initially dated for three years before breaking up in 2014, with reports “distance” played a part in their split. They rekindled their romance, but Mellencamp ended up moving on with former supermodel Christie Brinkley for a year before they split in 2016.
Just before they rekindled, Mellencamp told Howard Stern: “Oh, women hate me. I loved Meg Ryan. She hates me to death.”
Asked why Ryan would “hate” him, the singer admitted: “I think it’s because I’m a child. I throw fits, I gripe, I complain. I’m moody. Every bad thing that a fella can be, that’s me.”
In 2017, Mellencamp and Ryan gave it another shot, and even became engaged the following year. However, in 2019 they split for good and called off the engagement.
Like Teddi, John has had serious health issues and suffered a minor heart attack in 1994, which forced him to cancel a tour. He said at the time: “I was up to 80 cigarettes a day. We’d finish a show and I’d go out and have steak and french fries and eggs at 4 in the morning and then go to sleep with all that in my gut. It was just a terrible lifestyle.”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
