Teddi Mellencamp said on the April 8 episode of her Two Ts in a Pod podcast that she is dating an older man, a new romance she discussed while continuing her stage 4 brain cancer journey. The 44-year-old reality personality said, “We’re going to call him Derek,” and added, “He’s older than I am.”
Mellencamp, who shares Slate, 12, Cruz, 11, and Dove, 6, with ex Edwin Arroyave, said the man has college-aged kids who still live at home, which has made dating more complicated. “That’s the thing when you’re dating and you’re both parents,” she said. “Like, how are you ever supposed to get past first base?” She added, “I have kids in my house. He has kids in his house,” and said, “These are the things that I haven’t brought up on these dates.”
She said she is not rushing anything. “I’m taking it slow with him,” Mellencamp said, describing him as “a relatively positive and logical person in general.” What stands out to her most, she said, is simple: “the thing that I like the most about him” “is he makes me laugh.”
The relationship comes after a difficult stretch in which Mellencamp has been dealing with stage 4 brain cancer and was said to be undergoing immunotherapy treatments. In October, she said no detectable cancer was found on her scans after brain surgery and follow-up treatments, after doctors initially gave her 50/50 survival odds. She also said she recently went on date night at Craig’s in West Hollywood and then had drinks at a speakeasy, but pushed herself too far. “I actually have enough energy right now,” she said. “Then I woke up this morning and I felt like hell.”
For now, Mellencamp appears focused on keeping the relationship light while balancing treatment and family life. The next part of the story is not whether she is dating, but whether she can sustain that pace while raising three children and managing a health fight that has already changed nearly everything around her.
