John Mellencamp reveals new girlfriend after bitter Meg Ryan split

John Mellencamp has opened up about his new girlfriend, not long after commenting on how he treated his ex-fiancée, Meg Ryan.

The 71-year-old ‘Jack & Diane’ singer recently appeared on ‘Club Random with Bill Maher‘ earlier this week, where he spoke about his new romance.

Mellencamp revealed to Maher, 67, that he’d met his new partner completely by accident and “unexpectedly” at the start of this year, and that, since then, “she has not left [his] side.”

Maher did probe a little, asking for more information about Mellencamp’s new leading lady, but the ‘Hurts So Good’ singer said he is keeping her identity a secret.

“She’s a beautiful 57-year-old woman who just walked into my apartment in New York unexpectedly. She was with a couple of friends. She walked in. She didn’t know I was going to be there. I didn’t know she was there. We met each other,” he recalled, per Page Six.

Mellencamp – whose daughter Teddi was once a regular on ‘The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills‘ – revealed his new love has “never” been angry with him during the seven months that they’ve known each other.

He then quipped: “It’s so hard to believe, I know. She has a really high threshold for tolerance.”

Though, Mellencamp hasn’t always had the best dynamic with his previous relationships. In fact, his almost decade-long romance with actress Meg Ryan – which lasted between 2011 and 2019 – wasn’t as happy.

In June this year, Mellencamp told Esquire in an interview that he had been a “sh**ty boyfriend” to Ryan, 61, to whom he’d been engaged.

“She’s a great girl,” he said, adding: “I love Meg Ryan. I went with her for 10 years. She doesn’t love me so much.”

John Mellencamp, Meg Ryan, and her son Jack Quaid pictured at an NBA game in NYC in 2017. Credit / James Devaney / Getty.

The pair first parted ways in 2014 due to the struggles of a long-distance relationship, with Mellencamp telling Howard Stern in 2017 that his ex “hated him to death”.

However, Ryan must not have hated Mellencamp that much, as the pair rekindled their romance that same year, getting engaged in 2018. Then, in 2019, the duo called it quits for good.

Mellencamp told Esquire that he believed Ryan grew a lot from the end of their relationship, saying: “I think she’s learned how to do everything, and I’ve learned how to do nothing.”

Since splitting with Ryan, Mellencamp has had several short-term relationships – including with a realtor named Natasha Barret, who dated the rocker in 2021 for six months.

Mellencamp has five children from three previous marriages, while Ryan was previously married to Dennis Quaid for ten years, and has two children.

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