Tamra Judge’s Vulnerable Admission About Teddi Mellencamp in Convo with Lala Kent

Season 19 of “The Real Housewives of Orange County” has been a wild ride for Tamra Judge so far. Sadly, this is partly the case because one of her real-life best friends, Teddi Mellencamp, is enduring a cancer battle. Now, the RHOC star is opening up about their friendship in an interview with Lala Kent. 

Judge was recently a guest on Kent’s “Give Them Lala” podcast. The host asked her about the emotional toll of filming “The Real Housewives of Orange County,” as her friend is facing a severe situation with her health. 

She said, “Teddi’s one of my good friends, but also, she’s my business partner.” Judge continued, “And we’ve built this amazing podcast together. Five days a week, we’re, you know, we’re talking, we’re chatting, we’re on the phone, we’re on Zoom.”

The RHOC star continued, “And now this is happening. Not a good time in my life, period. I won’t even watch last week’s episode. I’ve only seen clips on social media and for what people have told me. That’s it, because I don’t want to relive it.”

Judge Briefly Left ‘The Real Housewives of Orange County’

According to US Weekly, Judge posted in March 2025 that she was leaving “The Real Housewives of Orange County.” This was as the ladies were filming the season during a trip to New Orleans. Now, fans have seen the episode as well as Judge essentially walking off the show in season 19 episode six. 

Episode seven has now aired, featuring the return of Judge. During the episode, she spoke to a producer about her decision to take a short break from the series. According to Bravo, she said, “In New Orleans, everything just crashed down on me.”

Judge continued, “Life has been so emotional lately.” She then stated that she was able to fly home and “isolate” to “forget about everything” regarding the New Orleans cast trip. Amid her isolation, Judge also realized that she “wanted to go to therapy as soon as possible.”

She could then be seen in the episode talking to her therapist. It was in the session that she revealed that part of her emotional reaction was due to worrying about Mellencamp. For context, she had called to check on her before the intense dinner scene from the show, and only got her voicemail. 

She said, “So, I was a mess. Going into that dinner, I knew that this was gonna be really hard on me.” Judge admitted to taking medication and then said, “I don’t remember much after that.”

Mellencamp Recently Responded to Being Discussed on the Show

Mellencamp was recently on an episode of the “Two Ts in a Pod” podcast with Dolores Catania. Catania asked how she felt about watching “The Real Housewives of Orange County” as she’s being mentioned. 

She said, “It’s hard not to take things personally, but there’s a point where people are just blowing off anything Tamra is saying.” Mellencamp continued, “One, does nobody care how I felt? Not from my sake, but from all the other women. Like they see their friend struggling to this extent, why is nobody helping her?”