Teddi Mellencamp has opened up about his new relationship with an “older” man amid his battle with stage 4 cancer.
“We’ll call him Derek,” the “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” alum revealed on a recent episode of her podcast “Two Ts in a Pod,” but did not provide any other revealing details about the mystery man.
Mellencamp described her new boyfriend’s progress with cancer as “pretty good” and said, “He’s a relatively positive and logical person.”
“The thing I love most about him is that he makes me laugh,” she exclaimed.
The biggest hurdle for the couple, who have been on 10 dates so far, was finding the time and place to get intimate.
“This is the really weird part when you’re dating and you’re each other’s parents. Like, how are you supposed to pass first base?” she asked.
“I have kids in my house. He has kids in his house,” she added. “His kids are older and always live there. My kids are little but they’re always here.”
Mellencamp’s podcast co-host and “Real Housewives of Orange County” star Tamra Judge wondered if Derek’s grown children “don’t think their daddy is bothering people.”
Mellencamp said she hasn’t brought up the topic on dates yet, saying, “I’m taking it slow with him. That’s not usually my path.”
The reality star, who shares daughter Slate, 13, son Cruise, 11, and daughter Dove, six, with her estranged husband Edwin Arroyave, was first diagnosed with stage two melanoma in 2022.
Mellencamp, who underwent several surgeries over the years to treat the disease, revealed in April 2025 that her cancer had spread to her brain and had progressed to stage 4.
After continuing treatment and immunotherapy, she said in October 2025 that doctors found she had “no detectable cancer” but was “not considered to be in remission.”
Mellencamp and Arroyave married in 2011, but announced their divorce in November 2024.
Like her ex-boyfriend, Arroyavu returned to the dating world after their breakup.
Mellencamp told Page Six’s “Virtual Reali-Tea” in February that while she is physically “in a good place,” her mental recovery from her cancer journey has been an uphill battle.
“I’ve been in therapy,” she said. “I’ve been working hard to find peace, to find happiness, to find joy, to find myself again.”
