Teddi Mellencamp will all the time appreciate her dad, John Mellencamp, despite their well-documented ups and downs.
John welcomed daughters Teddi and Justice with ex-wife Victoria Granucci in 1981 and 1985, respectively. The singer also shares daughter Michelle with ex Priscilla Esterline, and sons Hud and Speck with ex-wife Elaine Irwin.
In May 2024, Teddi shared that her relationship together with her dad was strained growing up, but is now in a a lot better place.
“I believe he all the time tried his best,” she said of her father’s parenting on an episode of the “Sibling Revelry with Kate Hudson and Oliver Hudson” podcast. “Do I believe that we’re in a way higher place now than after I was a child? Yes, but additionally because I mean, I didn’t really understand the importance of relationship with my parents after I was a child.”
John has continued to support Teddi throughout her life, including her battle with cancer. Teddi shared in February 2025 that she had stage 4 melanoma that had metastasized to her lungs and brain.
“Dad. Thanks for saying yes you think in me and know I can do it,” Teddi wrote via Instagram Story in March 2025. “Cried with happiness that I even have your support.”
Keep scrolling to see what Teddi and John have shared about their father-daughter relationship over time:
John Mellencamp Tuning into ‘RHOBH’ to Support Teddi Mellencamp
Teddi Mellencamp, John Mellencamp and Justice Mellencamp Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for JM
After Teddi Mellencamp announced she was leaving Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, John Mellencamp said in November 2020 that he was “terribly excited and blissful” that she was exiting the show. John noted that he “tried to be supportive” and watch the show — but doesn’t “watch it anymore.”
“I believe that it’s great and I believe that among the women on the show are implausible,” he told Teddi on an episode of her “Teddi Tea Pod.” “But I don’t like people to know where I’m at, I don’t like people to know what I’m doing, I wish to have privacy. That’s why I stick around my properties and don’t go anywhere.”
He’s ‘Most Proud’ of His Kids
In October 2021, Teddi Mellencamp interviewed her dad for Extra for his seventieth birthday. Throughout the episode, he couldn’t help but gush about how proud he was to have Teddi interview him.
Over time, stars including Jennette McCurdy and Macaulay Culkin have discussed hitting all-time low with their parents. Jennette broke down the abuse she faced due to her mother, Debra McCurdy, in her memoir, I Am Glad My Mom Died. “In fact, there are moments where I fantasize that my mom would’ve apologized or that […]
“The undeniable fact that I’m even sitting here talking to my daughter is an actual success story in itself,” he explained. “I’m most happy with you kids. I’m happy with you kids because you might’ve turned out quite in a different way.”
John Mellencamp Being ‘Proud’ of Teddi Mellencamp for ‘Celebrity Big Brother’
John Mellencamp took to social media to congratulate Teddi Mellencamp on her Celebrity Big Brother appearance.
“A television show that Teddi is on premieres tonight,” he wrote via Instagram in February 2022, alongside a photograph of himself with Teddi and her daughters Slate and Dove, whom she shares with ex Edwin Arroyave. (In addition they share son Cruz.) “I don’t know what she’s doing, but I’m happy with her and hope she achieves her goals.”
Teddi Mellencamp Opens Up About Not Talking With John Mellencamp for ‘a Couple of Years’
In May 2024, Teddi Mellencamp shared on an episode of the “Sibling Revelry with Kate Hudson and Oliver Hudson” that her and John Mellencamp had a strained relationship growing up after her parents’ divorce. As a substitute of “flying to Indiana” to go to her father every other weekend, Teddi would decide to stay home and hang around with friends.
“I probably really hurt his feelings doing that,” she explained. “I mean, there was one point — we joke about this conversation since it’s probably so traumatizing — but I got mad at him for something,” she recalled. “And he said, ‘ what? F you, Teddi. I even have other kids,’ and we didn’t talk for a few years.”
Teddi Mellencamp Crying Over Dad’s ‘Support’ Amid Cancer Battle
Teddi Mellencamp took to her Instagram Story to confess that she was crying “with happiness” that she had her dad’s “support” amid her battle with cancer.
Erika Jayne is suggesting an unlikely legendary setup between John Mellencamp and her newly-single Real Housewives of Beverly Hills costar Dorit Kemsley. “John should get with Dorit. That’s what [should happen],” Erika, 53, told John’s daughter, Teddi Mellencamp, on the Thursday, May 1, episode of iHeartRadio’s “Diamonds within the Rough” podcast. Teddi, who starred on […]
“Thanks for saying yes you think in me and know I can do it,” she added.
John Mellencamp Making Teddi Mellencamp Laugh Throughout Cancer Treatment
In April 2025, Teddi Mellencamp said that her dad tried to call her 11 times in a row and when she finally answered, he had a matter for her.
“Finally, I answer, I’m like, ‘I’m in the tub. Let me live just a little,’” Teddi recalled on her iHeartRadio “Diamonds within the Rough” podcast. “He goes, ‘I just need to be certain that you’re going to be in our group family mausoleum.”
Teddi said she replied that she has kids and didn’t know where they’d go within the mausoleum.
“He’s like, ‘Well, there’s going to be the highest five after which we’re gonna have little areas around it, after which that’s where everyone’s going to get buried,’” she continued. “He goes, ‘You’re doing all your will straight away, so it’s possible you’ll as well put it in there.’”
Teddi Mellencamp and her sister Justice Mellencamp approved of father John Mellencamp’s relationship with Meg Ryan. “Obviously we were ecstatic,’ Justice, 40, revealed on the Sunday, April 20, episode of iHeartRadio’s “Two T’s in a Pod” podcast. “We were like, ‘What? How?’ She was the nicest. I mean, right off the bat. Well, in comparison with […]
Later that month, Teddi clarified that his comments were made to make her laugh.
“My dad knows that I want, like, some comedy to this,” she explained to cohost Erika Jayne on their “Diamonds within the Rough” podcast. “His next quote or his next thing was like, all right, now we actually really do need to get talking serious, like we want to discuss your will and like your living trust and like, do the things we want to do, you recognize. … Sometimes I don’t want just someone to return pummel me.”
John Mellencamp’s Want to Be Closer to Teddi Mellencamp
As Teddi Mellencamp recovered from her stage 4 cancer battle in January 2026, John Mellencamp expressed wishes that his daughter would live closer to him.
“I’ve tried to speak her into moving back home,” he shared on NBC’s Today show. “I said, ‘Move back to Indiana, bring the youngsters and just come back and live in Indiana,’ but she won’t do it.”
Although Teddi’s scans in October 2025 showed “no detectable cancer,” John said he hasn’t stopped checking in together with his daughter.
“You’ll be able to’t say you’re cancer-free with the sort of cancer she’s got for 3 years,” he explained.