Edwin Arroyave Is Choosing ‘Faith’ After Teddi Mellencamp’s Surgery

As his estranged wife, Teddi Mellencamp, recovers from surgery to remove multiple tumors in her brain, Edwin Arroyave is choosing to think positively.

Arroyave, 47, explained his outlook via an Instagram Reel posted on Thursday, February 20, just over a week after Mellencamp’s surgery.

“So I wanted to share with you guys something that has always helped me through tough times and that’s just remembering that happiness is not the absence of problems, it’s the ability to deal with them,” he said. “And as simple as this is going to sound, my No. 1 secret to dealing with problems is just having faith.”

Arroyave presented it as a choice between positive and negative thinking.

“When you really think about faith, faith is just a projection of the most positive thing for the future, versus the opposite, is fear,” he explained. “Fear is the projection of the worst possible thing for the future.”

“So when you think about it, they both haven’t happened yet,” he continued. “It’s up to you if you’re going to choose to be positive or you’re going to choose to be negative. And it takes the same amount of mental energy to focus on failure than it does to focus on success. So I’ve always chosen faith no matter what I feel like, no matter what it looks like, I choose faith.”

Arroyave’s video comes as he and the former couple’s three kids remain by Mellencamp’s side during her recovery. The two married in 2011 before Mellencamp filed for divorce last November. They share kids Slate, 12, Cruz, 10, and Dove, 4.(Mellencamp has also been a stepmother to Arroyave’s eldest daughter, Isabella, from a previous relationship.)

Arroyave said that the surgery went well but the recovery has not been easy.

“So many people asking for updates. All I will say right now is surgery went well,” he wrote via his Instagram Story on February 13. “That said, I’ve never seen @teddimellencamp in so much pain. She’s finally getting some needed rest. I know she is so grateful for the outpouring of love.”

The surgery, the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum explained, was to remove two tumors that doctors believe had been growing for “at least six months,” while the remaining, smaller tumors, would be dealt with via radiation later.

“I am blessed to be surrounded by my children, family, friends, doctors, nurses and surgeons who are doing everything possible to get me back into better health,” she wrote via Instagram on February 12, before the surgery. “Thank you to everybody who has reached out, and to everyone who has supported me along this journey.”