After Having 12 Melanomas Removed, Teddi Mellencamp Is Cancer-Free: 'I'm So Grateful We Caught It in Time'

Jorge Bautista Photography

Teddi Mellencamp Arroyave was exercising with her Real Housewives of Beverly Hills co-star Kyle Richards in March when her friend cut their run short. "She looked at my back and said, 'Listen, I know that I've talked to you about these spots before, but they look different — one of them has a black dot in the middle.' "

It turned out to be the first of 12 melanomas Mellencamp would need removed over the next eight months as she faced Stage 2 skin cancer. "I'm just so grateful we caught it in time," says the 41-year-old, who lives in Encino, Calif. with her husband Edwin Arroyave, 45, and their kids Dove, 2, Cruz, 8 and Slate, 10. (She is also stepmom to Arroyave's daughter Isabella, 14).

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Skin cancer is the most common cancer in the United States, and one in 5 Americans will develop skin cancer by the age of 70, according to skin cancer.org. "We're all susceptible—we're all out in the sun," says Dr. Janice Mehnert, a melanoma expert from NYU Langone's Perlmutter Cancer Center who did not treat Mellencamp. "Different populations are more risk than others, but we should all be careful and practice sun safety and get screenings."

As for Mellencamp, she'd been aware of the "little patches of white" under her right shoulder for years but had thought nothing of them. But with support from Richards, she finally went to a dermatologist. "'I'm 99% sure this one spot is skin cancer,'" the doctor told Mellencamp right away. "Just cut it out," she replied. "I don't care if it doesn't look pretty — get rid of it."

Teddi Mellencamp Arroyave/Instagram

In October, her dermatologist noticed more abnormal spots. This time there were too many to cut out, and Mellencamp was referred to an oncologist, who did a few biopsies. Two weeks later Mellencamp learned several of the spots came back as Melanoma Stage 2. "Apparently it's very rare to have multiple melanomas in one location," says Mellencamp, who co-hosts the podcast Two T's in a Pod with fellow ex-housewife Tamra Judge.

Habits from when Mellencamp was a kid might have played a part in her diagnosis. Growing up in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, the oldest of two daughters to music legend John Mellencamp and his second wife Vicyoria Granucci, Mellencamp spent a lot of time in the sun. "I was outside all the time, I rode horses," she says. "I very rarely wore sunscreen. If anything, I was putting on baby oil and trying to compete for the best tan after spring break."

She never imagined going through a skin cancer scare years later. Ultimately her ordeal included two surgeries to remove 12 melanomas at various stages and sizes, as well as 3 lymph nodes to see if the cancer had spread — plus a PET scan and genetic testing because breast cancer runs in her family.

For more on Teddi Mellencamp's health, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.

"When I was waiting for the results, I was pretty emotional," Mellencamp says. "I had to look at my family and be like, 'Listen guys, I'm crumbling today. I love you all so much, but mommy's not going to be her best self today.'"

She also tried to keep it light with her kids, when she wasn't "telling them to put sunscreen on 15 times a day." Even though her surgeries meant scarring, she says the marks on her back don't bother her. "My kids were joking: 'Mom, you could tell someone you got a shark bite!'" But when you're not laughing, when you really look at it, you're like, 'Wow, that's a lot that just happened to my body.'"

RELATED: Teddi Mellencamp Says She's Having Surgery to Remove Melanoma

Through it all, her husband Arroyave has been by her side. "He wants to be able to fix the problem. Ultimately, I said to him, 'You can't fix this. I just really need comfort right now. And we both had an emotional moment — and I felt the shift."

She's also found support in sharing her journey with her 1 million followers on Instagram. "The only thing that has ever worked for me — what hasn't led me deeper into anxiety, deeper into depression— is being vulnerable and sharing and reminding everybody we're not alone in whatever it is that we think we're going through. Because when you feel alone, then sometimes that can paralyze us from doing what we need to do to take care of ourselves."

Of course she has been open about good news with her followers, too: Recently she learned the surgeries were successful and she is cancer-free — and not genetically predisposed to other cancers. She knows she's lucky she learned of her cancer when she did — the five-year survival rate is more than 90% if detected early — and she wants to keep speaking up to encourage others to do the same. "During the pandemic, we avoided things that we thought weren't essential. But skin checks are essential," she says. She also wants people to "stay on top of all those other appointments that we let slide, like colonoscopies and mammograms."

And for now, she will get checked for skin cancer every three months. "We've seen how quickly it can turn from one melanoma to 12," she says. "So when your doctor says, 'See you in three months,' it's three months."