Former ‘Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’ star discusses alleged relationship with trainer while battling stage 4 cancer

Kyle Richards calls Teddi Mellencamp ‘incredibly strong’ during cancer battle

“Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star Kyle Richards praised friend and co-star Teddi Mellencamp as she battles cancer at An Unforgettable Evening Benefiting the Women’s Cancer Research Fund.

Teddi Mellencamp is reflecting on her past mistakes.

During an appearance on Tuesday’s episode of “The Jamie Kern Lima Show” podcast, Mellencamp — who was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer earlier this year — opened up about the alleged affair she had with her horse trainer while married to her husband Edwin Arroyave.

“I’ve never talked about it at all, just because of the kids, and I’ve never wanted anybody to have a guarantee whether it happened or didn’t happen, but what I can say is, did I do things that hurt other people? Yes,” Mellencamp said, referring to her alleged affair with Simon Schroeder.

Teddi Mellencamp opened up about her alleged affair with horse trainer, Simon Schroeder.  (Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)

“To this day, does it still hurt my heart and I wonder if that’s why I got cancer? Yes, like it was my payback,” she said. “Nothing goes without payment.”

“However long it was … it was all over the press, it was everywhere. You’re trying to minimize everybody’s pain. You end up maximizing it,” she continued. “Because now not only do you have yourself, you have your significant other, your kids, the other person’s significant other, their kids.”

Mellencamp admitted “so many people” were hurt “in the wreckage.”

“But I can say this from knowing — the wreckage doesn’t happen on its own,” she said, adding that “it never had happened to me.”

Mellencamp broke down as she reflected on her past mistakes.  (Jamie Kern Lima Podcast)

“I think I was so broken as a human being during that part of my life that I did things out of my better judgment,” she said, explaining that she was “so sick.”

“Remember how I told you there was like months of headaches and stuff like that? I was looking for comfort anywhere I [could] get it,” she continued.

“I felt so much pain. I felt so sick. I didn’t go to the doctors. I just felt some certain kind of way. And the pain was so much that I had gotten to the point of like, almost hating waking up in the morning, which I had never been that kind of person,” she added.

A representative for Mellencamp did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Rumors of an affair between Mellencamp and Schroeder began to unravel in November 2024, shortly after Mellencamp filed for divorce from Arroyave.

The estranged couple put a pause to their separation as Mellencamp continues her cancer treatment.

Teddi Mellencamp and her estranged husband, Edwin Arroyave, put their divorce on hold as the reality star battles stage 4 cancer.  (Photo by TM/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)

“I always knew he’d do the right thing by me,” Mellencamp said during the podcast. “If he wanted to, he could still be filing and finishing this divorce off right now. But, my dad [musician John Mellencamp] and family just said like, ‘I don’t think this is the right thing for her to be able to try to navigate right now or figure out.’ It was like, ‘Yeah, of course. No, we’ll wait. We’ll wait until she’s better, and then we’ll figure it out.’”

“To this day, I don’t hate Edwin,” she said. “I just want him to be happy, and I want our kids to be happy, and I want us to be able to have a good friendship and relationship, and I don’t want to do anything to hurt him. I kind of know how our marriage works.”

Mellencamp was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer earlier this year after her melanoma metastasized in her brain and lungs. She underwent surgery to remove several masses and has been receiving immunotherapy and radiation.

Mellencamp announced her cancer diagnosis earlier this year.  (Olivia Wong/WireImage)

The “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” alum has been vocal about her diagnosis and multiple subsequent treatments, using her platform to raise awareness about the deadly skin cancer.

Last month, the 44-year-old opened up about how doctors missed a crucial step in her melanoma monitoring process, despite her regular visits.

“When you go to a doctor, you just assume that’s it. I’m doing what I’m supposed to do,” Mellencamp told Glamour. “At first, I didn’t even really do the research on melanoma because I didn’t want to know all of the bad things.”

Teddi is the daughter of rock star John Mellencamp. (Charles Sykes)

“There’s a difference between self-diagnosing yourself and being an advocate for your own health,” she told the outlet. “I never really thought about it because I was like, I go to a doctor every three months. Why wouldn’t they get me checked?”

According to Mellencamp, her highest-stage melanoma was a stage one lesion in her shoulder.

Since her previous diagnoses hadn’t exceeded stage one, doctors allegedly made the call to forgo full-body scans—something Mellencamp now believes was a major misstep as they didn’t catch her melanoma spreading.

“When I finally followed up on it, they were like, ‘We didn’t do the scans, because you didn’t have anything above a stage one on your body,’” she recalled. “But look what happened.”

Fox News Digital’s Stephanie Giang-Paunon contributed to this report.