How Teddi Mellencamp's Dad John Mellencamp Stepped Up Amid Her Cancer Battle
John Mellencamp keeps showing up for daughter Teddi Mellencamp amid her cancer battle.
“He has been beyond,” Teddi, 44, said of her father during the Tuesday, July 29, appearance on “The Jamie Kern Lima Show” podcast. “The things that I wouldn’t be capable of doing without my dad — not only for financial reasons.”
Teddi explained that she “used to take such pride” when it came to doing things without her famous father’s help, but that all changed when she got sick.
“With all of these medical treatments and everything, he has stepped in. He’s helped me have a nurse,” she continued. “He calls me every single day. He makes sure that I’m OK.”
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The 73-year-old singer “knew” Teddi needed at-home assistance after she made a comment in the hospital about her illness.
“There was something that, when I was in the hospital, that I said that concerned everybody on one of my last days. They kept telling me I was going to be able to leave,” Teddi recalled, noting that she had to stay in the hospital another day because her “salt wouldn’t get high enough.”
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Teddi made it clear that he is “not a medical professional” and just doing her best with the terms. (Teddi was diagnosed with melanoma in 2022. This past February, she underwent surgery to remove several tumors after the cancer had metastasized to her brain and lungs. She is currently undergoing immunotherapy treatments.)
“I looked at my dad and all my friends and I’m like, ‘I cannot stay in here another day. I can’t live like this anymore. I am so miserable. I feel like everybody would be better without me,’” Teddi recalled. “I was so scared to go home and not be the me that I was when I left home. It was frightening.”
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At that point, John stepped in and got Teddi an at-home nurse. The former Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star said she “didn’t expect this at all” from her father.
“He’s giving me advice that, like, I need to hear sometimes,” she continued. “Even the fact that he calls me every single night and it’s not relenting. I may not call him back a couple nights, but he’ll still call every night at the same time.”
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Teddi explained that the behavior is a change from her childhood, noting that John was “always 100 percent there” as a dad, but she had to ask first.
“Now, he’s there whether I ask or I don’t ask,” she added.
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