Bristol Palin shared more details about her family’s recent heartbreak after her 15-year-old son Tripp moved out of their Texas home.
The 33-year-old reality star revealed how her teenager informed her of his decision to relocate to Alaska full-time to live with his father, Levi Johnston, her ex-fiancé.
‘He just texted me and was like, “Hey Mom. I’m not coming back,”‘ she recalled on Monday’s Sex, Lies and Spray Tans podcast. ‘Oh, I couldn’t even believe it. At first I’m like, “I’m coming up to Alaska, we’re not doing this.” I was so mad. So mad.’
The daughter of former Alaskan governor Sarah Palin, who lives with her and ex-husband Dakota Meyer’s daughters Sailor Grace, 8, and Atlee Bay, 7, added, ‘It still is gut wrenching to me because it’s been just Tripp and I, and then I had my girls, but it’s always been Tripp and I.’
She then confessed: ‘It’s changed the dynamic of so much.’
Bristol Palin shared more details about her family’s recent heartbreak after her 15-year-old son Tripp moved out of their Texas home
The 33-year-old reality star revealed how her teenager informed her of his decision to relocate to Alaska full-time to live with his father, Levi Johnston, her ex-fiancé; (Levi on left, Tripp on right)
The former Dancing with the Stars contestant expressed that, as her son approaches 16, he needs his father and believes moving to live with him is the best option.
‘All I can do is just hope and pray that it is what’s best,’ she explained.
Bristol also mentioned that she is contemplating a move back to Alaska, where much of her family still lives.
‘Selfishly, I’m just like, “I want him with me forever. He’s my best friend. My kids are my whole world,’ she explained. ‘But I can’t be selfish in that.’
In an Instagram post from August 14, Bristol revealed how profoundly Tripp’s decision had affected her.
‘This has been the hardest “first day of school” yet with one of the biggest pieces of my heart missing,’ she wrote at the time. ‘Tripp has decided to finish out high school in Alaska to be closer to his dad and our entire family.’
‘If you know Tripp, you know he lives for hunting/fishing and I honestly can’t blame him for wanting to be back home.’
Bristol said she was doing her best to cope with the change.
‘He just texted me and was like, “Hey Mom. I’m not coming back,”‘ she recalled on Monday’s Sex, Lies and Spray Tans podcast . ‘Oh, I couldn’t even believe it. At first I’m like, “I’m coming up to Alaska, we’re not doing this.” I was so mad. So mad.’; Pictured in May of 2022 along with her son Tripp, 15, daughters Sailor Grace, eight, and Atlee Bay, seven, and ex-husband Dakota Meyer, 36
Levi and Sunny posed in 2020 with Tripp and their three daughters
Sunny, like Bristol, works in the real estate industry
‘As hard as it is has been to come to this decision – it’s truly not about what I want,’ Bristol said.
‘I can’t talk about it yet without crying,’ Bristol said, ‘but selfishly praying for a quick year and easy transition for us.’
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 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. She has enjoyed other brief romances since, but appears to be currently single.
She posted an image of her two daughters on the doorstep of their home to commemorate their first day of school, while detailing the changing dynamic in her family
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 documented her teen pregnancy in her book Not Afraid of My Life, in which she called Levi a ‘gnat’ who had ‘stolen her virginity’ while she was drunk. She later insisted on Good Morning America that 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.’
That launched a round of court battles between the two, which started off bitterly and only got worse. In an initial affidavit, Levi asked for the hearings to be public ‘as a check against anyone’s need to be overly vindictive, aggressive, or malicious.’
He added: ‘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.’
In November 2013, Levi filed court documents attempting to get 50/50 custody of Tripp. At the time, he argued it was in the little boy’s best interests to have his father around just as much as his mom.
Bristol, who had been awarded full custody by a previous judge, claimed the custody demand was an attempt by the former oilfield worker to reduce his child support payments.
Her lawyer alleged in court that Levi, who had appeared nearly naked in Playgirl after the split, owed $66,000 in back payments.
Shortly afterward, Bristol headed to court again, claiming Levi was an unfit parent, saying he had no regular visits with his firstborn and that rather than pay child support, he spent all his money on fancy cars, hunting, and extravagant trips.
However, Bristol made plenty of money from her own lucrative deals. She became a spokesman for the Candie’s Foundation — a non-profit dedicated to preventing teen pregnancy — after Tripp was born, receiving $262,000 in one year for her work, according to her tax returns.
She also appeared on Dancing With the Stars, wrote a 2011 memoir, and had a reality show, Life’s a Tripp, on Lifetime TV, which was canceled after one season. She also starred in Teen Mom OG in 2018.
Bristol used her newfound wealth to buy her first five-bedroom home in Arizona. By 2014, she was claiming she had not earned a penny in 18 months and pushed a judge to increase Levi’s child support payments to $1,750 a month.
Sunny posted an image of Tripp, who is headed into 10th grade, alongside his three sisters Breeze, 13, Indy Rae, eight, and Delta Jo Johnston, five, with their respective classes
Bristol posed with her daughters as they headed off for their first day of school
Within weeks of that filing, it was Levi’s turn to increase the heat, asking a judge to find Bristol in contempt of court for taking Tripp out of Alaska without his permission. The former couple finally settled their child custody dispute over Tripp in 2016, seven years after their son was born.
Levi also has three daughters — Breeze Beretta, Indy Rae, and Delta Jo — with his wife, Sunny Johnston, née Oglesby, whom he married in 2012.
Bristol and Levi have had an easier time co-parenting in recent years.
Bristol is now pursing a career in real estate and has a clothing brand called Boyhart, which she promotes on Instagram.
