Edwin Arroyave has been by estranged wife Teddi Mellencamp’s side throughout her battle with stage 4 melanoma cancer. As he put it, it comes from a place of love.
“No matter what, I will always love Teddy and she’s been a big part of my life,” explained Arroyave, 47, on the April 3 episode of “The Eds” podcast. “And I just like taking care of people, it’s just what I do. So it wasn’t even like a question, it was reflexive. And the main thing is, again, getting her to a point where she felt confident, she felt like she wasn’t alone.”
Mellencamp, 43, revealed in February that, after dealing with melanoma since 2022 it had metastasized to her lungs and brain; she underwent brain surgery to remove some of the tumors shortly after.
She’s been undergoing treatment ever since and revealed that in late March, doctors found four more tumors on her brain.
“I’m fighting for my life,” she told Us Weekly exclusively in our latest cover story, “But also for my family’s life and all the people I love.”
Isabella Arroyave, Edwin Arroyave, Teddi Mellencamp, Teddi Jo Mellencamp and Slate Arroyave Stewart Cook/Getty Images
Mellencamp and Arroyave, who separated in October 2024 after 13 years of marriage, share kids Slate, 12, Cruz, 10, and Dove, 5. (Arroyave is also father to eldest daughter Isabella, from a previous relationship.)
Arroyave revealed that he’s been upfront with their kids, preferring they hear updates from him rather than read them online.
“They got scared. Obviously, they were concerned, but I tried my best to again not sugarcoat it too much, [to] let them know, ‘hey, there are some risks that come with this,’” he explained. “It’s like, ‘hey, there’s some tumors that your mom has in her brain. And I said, it sounds worse than what it is, but this is what I think is, this is what we think’s going to happen. This is sort of how we’re going to deal with it, and this is why I’m confident that she’s going to make it through.’”
He added that the kids have “been strong.”
“You know, kids are resilient,” he said. “I’ve been very impressed with them. They’ve still been doing great in school, they’ve been doing great in sports. I’ve just tried to keep it consistent with them.”
Mellencamp has been similarly upfront with the kids, telling Us that she has avoided her famous line “Mommy’s always come back,” just in case.
“They all know that I’m fighting the hardest I possibly can,” she said. “But I haven’t said, ‘Mommy’s always come back’ because I don’t wanna lie to them. And I don’t know.”
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