Brandon Blackstock‘s death really hit home for Teddi Mellencamp.
Several days after Kelly Clarkson‘s ex-husband passed away following a private, yearslong battle with melanoma, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum detailed how his death made her feel amid her own cancer battle.
“The Brandon Blackstock story really hit me hard this week,” Teddi shared during the Aug. 13 episode of her and Tamra Judge‘s Two Ts in a Pod podcast. “I wish I would have missed that little detail in the World Wide Web because then I started doing research and they were so quiet about what…I mean, we know he passed from melanoma. They announced that.”
And, given that Teddi was diagnosed with melanoma in 2022—which then spread to tumors in her brain and lungs—the 44-year-old couldn’t help relate to Brandon’s health battle.
“I was wondering, one, ‘Did it metastasize?'” the daughter of music legend John Mellencamp continued. “Two—like this is just where my head goes from being in the situation—’Did he decline treatment?’ Three, ‘There’s so many different ways that this could have happened.'”
And while Teddi has been very open with fans about her 50/50 chance at survival after multiple surgeries to remove her tumors and ongoing immunotherapy treatments to shrink her cancer, the Bravolebrity noted, “I have one million [percent] respect their choice to keep it private.”
Tamra reacted by suggesting, “Maybe you can reach out to Kelly Clarkson,” before quickly warning, “Maybe just not.”
“You have to understand everybody’s different,” The Real Housewives of Orange County star reminded Teddi. “Maybe he did treatment, maybe he didn’t do treatment.”
Teddi replied, “Maybe he did immunotherapy? Maybe he did chemotherapy? We don’t know.”
Regardless, Teddi—who shares kids Slate, 12, Cruz, 10, and Dove, 5, with estranged husband Edwin Arroyave—couldn’t help but sympathize with Brandon’s tragic journey.
“But those kind of stories hit you hard,” she noted, “when it directly sounds similar to something that you’re going through.”
On Aug. 7, a rep for Brandon—who shared daughter River Rose, 11, and son Remington “Remy” Alexander, 9, with Kelly in addition to kids Savannah Blackstock and Seth Blackstock with his ex-wife Melissa Ashworth—confirmed his untimely death after a lengthy battle with cancer.
“It is with great sadness that we share the news that Brandon Blackstock has passed away,” his rep shared in a statement. “Brandon bravely battled cancer for more than three years. He passed away peacefully and was surrounded by family.”
Keep reading to look back at Brandon’s life in photos.
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