Bristol Palin on Son Tripp’s College Plans After Moving in with Dad Levi

Bristol Palin said she’s not steering her 16-year-old son Tripp toward attending a university once he finishes high school. 

The Wasilla, Alaska-born reality star, 34, fielded questions from her 549,000-plus followers on a number of different topics Thursday, one of them being her eldest child and his educational future.   

Asked if her son Tripp – who lives with his father, Levi Johnston, in Alaska – wants to go to college, Bristol replied, ‘I’d never push college.’

Bristol said that Tripp ‘already works actually,’ and ‘wants to work’ as soon as possible after high school, with an eye on the real estate business she is currently active in. 

‘He’ll go into a trade and will have his hand in some sort of real estate/development I’m sure!’ the Teen Mom OG star.

Daily Mail has reached out to Bristol via Instagram for further clarification on her comments. 

Bristol Palin said she’s not steering her her 16-year-old son Tripp toward attending a university once he finishes high school. Bristol and her son pictured in November of 2021

Asked if her son Tripp, 16, wants to go to college, she replied, ‘I’d never push college.

Tripp moved north to reside with his father Levi in Alaska nearly a year ago, as Bristol expressed her heartbreak over her son’s decision to leave her family home in Austin, Texas in an emotional Instagram post last August. 

‘As hard as it is has been to come to this decision – it’s truly not about what I want,’ the daughter of former Alaska governor and 2008 vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin said.

Bristol pointed out that her son was growing older and that there was  massive value in him spending time with his father, in explaining how she was processing the life change. 

‘He’s almost 16-years-old and that relationship with his dad is a lot more important than my own selfish desires of having him with his mama forever!’ Bristol said.

Bristol said she was still highly emotional about the situation, and hoping for as seamless a transition as possible: ‘I can’t talk about it yet without crying, but selfishly praying for a quick year and easy transition for us.’

The Teen Mom OG star on Thursday also updated her fans on her condition via social media, as she was asked by one follower what symptoms she dealt with prior to physical changes in her face. She made clear the condition literally crept up on her, with no warning signs whatsoever.

‘I woke up and it was paralyzed completely out of the blue – no warning, wasn’t sick didn’t get the v@x, no recent Botox … just paralyzed,’ she said. 

Tripp seen posed with his dad Levi Johnston during a hunting excursion in 2021

Bristol and her then high school sweetheart Levi were thrust into the public eye after her mother Sarah Palin announced the 17-year-old was pregnant at the 2008 Republican National Convention 

Bristol and Levi called off their engagement in March 2009, just three months after their son, Tripp, was born on December 27, 2008 

Bristol has past told her followers that different strategies she has taken in her health battle – including a year without alcohol; and nerve block treatments.

Another user asked Bristol how she was handling the situation on an emotional level.

Bristol responded, ‘I feel like I’m handling it well. I can’t look at pictures of myself right now.’

Bristol estimated her face was ‘probably like 70% back to normal’ about six months after the situation began.

Another user asked Bristol why she wasn’t spending that much time on Instagram these days.

‘Maybe it’s just me – but IG feels self absorbed the older I get,’ Bristol explained. ‘I LOVE connecting with y’all and having friends on here but I don’t love posting a whole lot.’

Bristol said she would try to share more of her professional endeavors with her followers if there was an opportunity to do so. 

‘Maybe when I have more house projects and I’m playing bob the builder – I want to show you guys but right now I enjoy an offline quiet little life,’ she said. 

Bristol accompanied the posts by images of her with her children; a smiling selfie; and a shot of her hand, as her nails were painted fluorescent yellow. 

Bristol Palin spoke about her ongoing bout with facial paralysis in series of posts Thursday on her Instagram Stories

Bristol estimated her face was ‘probably like 70% back to normal’ about six months after the situation began. She posed with daughters Sailor Grace, nine, and Atlee Bay, eight 

Bristol accompanied a post by a shot of her hand, as her nails were painted fluorescent yellow 

Asked if her son Tripp, 16, wants to go to college, she replied, ‘I’d never push college. 

‘He wants to work – he already works actually,’ Bristol said. ‘He’ll go into a trade and will have his hand in some sort of real estate/development I’m sure!

Bristol in January said that her doctor believes she has a case of Bell’s palsy — which is temporary paralysis or weakness of the facial muscles — as the tests she’s undergone have turned up ‘nothing.’ 

Bristol admitted five months back that she has seen very little improvement in her condition as the health crisis eclipsed the three-week mark. 

‘We’re on 23 of this, which is absolutely insane,’ she said in February ‘Can’t move the left side of my face at all. It’s really hard to blink. I can’t blow out a candle. My sisters makes so much fun of me because I look crazy.’

Bristol told more 552,000 followers on the platform the adjustments she’s made to her health regimen amid the battle with facial paralysis.

Bristol said in the Instagram Stories clip said that she has undergone treatments spanning acupuncture, massage, oxygen chamber treatment and red light therapy, as well as cutting out ‘most of the processed foods’ in her diet. 

Bristol said she was ‘eliminating most caffeine’ in her daily regimen..

Bristol in January said on the social media platform that doctors speculated she might have Bell’s palsy after undergoing a series of tests after suffering symptoms 

‘I still have a cup of coffee in the morning, but trying to clean up everything – to be very healthy – but since this was onset by stress, since it was set off by stress, I’ve been trying to eliminate anything that I can control that serves no purpose,’ she told her followers.

Bristol said she was focusing her efforts on eliminating the stress from her day-to-day routine in an effort to ‘lighter and feel better’ and not cause the ‘physical reaction’ she’s had.

‘I’m sleeping pretty sound sticking to a routine – just trying my best to get this healed,’ Bristol said.

Bristol said that it made her uncomfortable to discuss the topic publicly, but felt that she should inform the public what she was dealing with, lest leave them wondering for the worse.

‘I hate talking about the stuff on here,’ Bristol said. ‘The only reason why I wanted to post about it was that so when people saw me in person they didn’t think that something crazy had happened so I could control at least that narrative – but everything is fine.

Bristol wrapped up the clip in saying she was ‘praying for some breakthrough some healing soon.’

Bristol is mother to three children: son Tripp, 16, with ex Levi Johnston, 35; and daughters Sailor Grace, nine, and Atlee Bay, eight, and ex-husband Dakota Meyer, 37. Bristol in January said on the social media platform that doctors speculated she might have Bell’s palsy after undergoing a series of tests after suffering symptoms.

Bristol pictured in May of 2022 along with her son Tripp, 16, daughters Sailor Grace, nine, and Atlee Bay, eight, and ex-husband Dakota Meyer, 36 

‘I woke up nine days ago with a little weird sensation in my face – my mouth was pulling [to the left], and it just felt a little off. Within a couple of hours, the entire left side of my face was numb and just paralyzed.’

She said she couldn’t blink her eye and ‘definitely had no movement on the side of [her] face.’

A number of notable names have past received diagnoses of Bell’s palsy, including George Clooney, Angelina Jolie, The Bachelorette alum Emily Maynard Johnson and iconic pro wrestling announcer Jim Ross. 

Bristol was thrust into the national limelight in 2008 amid her mother’s vice presidential campaign alongside then Republican presidential candidate, late Arizona Sen. John McCain.

She appeared at the Republican National Convention in September 2008 alongside Johnston, as her pregnancy with Tripp when she was 17 made headlines, amid her mother’s swift rise to political prominence as McCain’s running mate.

Beyond the campaign, her relationship with Johnston remained in the public eye amid a pair of engagements before they eventually split for good.

Bristol made headlines in 2009 when she signed on for a $262,500 position to serve as an abstinence ambassador for a teen pregnancy prevention organization called The Candie’s Foundation. 

‘Abstinence is the only way you can effectively 100 percent prevent pregnancy,’ Bristol said in a 2009 Good Morning America appearance. ‘It’s the safest choice and it will prevent teen pregnancy and a lot of heartache.’

Bristol posed with her daughters as they headed off for their first day of school last fall

Bristol in March of 2015 revealed she was engaged to Dakota Meyer, a Medal of Honor winner as a Marine. After calling off their engagement, they wed in 2016, prior to Meyer filing for divorce in 2018. 

In her 2011 book Not Afraid of My Life, Bristol dubbed Levi a ‘gnat’ who had ‘stolen her virginity’ after she had been consuming alcohol. 

Appearing on Good Morning America in June of 2011, Bristol clarified she was ‘not accusing Levi of date rape or rape at all.

‘I’m looking back with adult eyes and thinking, that was a foolish decision,’ she said. ‘I should never have been underage drinking, and I should never have gotten myself into a situation like that.’

The statements triggered legal activity in which Johnston requested for hearings to be publicized ‘as a check against anyone’s need to be overly vindictive, aggressive, or malicious.’

Bristol was pictured in NYC during an appearance on SiriusXM in September of 2018

‘He’ll go into a trade and will have his hand in some sort of real estate/development I’m sure!’ the Teen Mom OG star predicted of her son Tripp

Johnston said, ‘Not that Bristol would be that way, nor would I. But her mother is powerful, politically ambitious, and has a reputation for being extremely vindictive. So, I think a public case might go a long way in reducing Sarah Palin’s instinct to attack.’

Johnston in November of 2013 filed court docs to have joint custody of Tripp, saying it had been in the child’s best interests, after Bristol previously had been awarded full custody. 

Bristol said that the court filing had been a move to impact child support payments, as he had been $66,000 behind on his slate at the time. 

Bristol would again take Johnston to court saying that he had not demonstrated he was fit to be a parent.

Bristol said Johnston hadn’t had visits with a young Tripp, and squandered his earnings on vacations, luxury vehicles and hunting trips as opposed to his child support obligations. 

In addition to her work on Dancing With the Stars, Bristol also appeared on the Lifetime TV series Life’s a Tripp and MTV’s Teen Mom OG in 2018.