Bristol Palin reveals ‘gut-wrenching’ six-word text teen son Tripp sent her about moving to Alaska with dad Levi Johnson

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, as well as his stepmother Sunny Johnston and half-sisters Breeze Beretta, Indy Rae, and Delta Jo. 

‘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 Alaska governor Sarah Palin, who lives with her and ex-husband Dakota Meyer’s daughters Sailor Grace, eight, and Atlee Bay, seven, 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.’

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.’

Sunny on Tuesday shared a clip of Tripp playing in an organized football game on her Instagram Stories, as he was involved in a scoring play. 

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.’

Bristol said she was doing her best to cope with the change, added, ‘If you know Tripp, you know he lives for hunting/fishing and I honestly can’t blame him for wanting to be back home.’

‘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.

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.

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.

Earlier this week, Bristol said that there was one dance professional on Dancing With the Stars who she didn’t get along with very well during her 2010 run on the show.

Bristol appeared Sunday on the Sex, Lies, and Spray Tans podcast with one-time DWTS professional Cheryl Burke, where she spoke about her experience on the ABC ballroom competition.

The Wasilla, Alaska-born reality star told Burke, 40, that during her time on the show’s 11th season in 2010, she felt ‘tension’ emanating from one of the show’s stalwart dance pros.

Bristol would go on to finish third in the competition as she was paired with pro dancer Mark Ballas, 38.

Bristol said that she had tension with Maksim Chmerkovskiy, 44, who she said would roll his eyes during the segments in which she would get saved from being eliminated despite other pairs getting better scores from the judges.

‘Maks? He hated me so much,’ Bristol said of Chmerkovskiy, who had been paired up with singer Brandy that season. They finished fourth, while Dirty Dancing star Jennifer Grey and Derek Hough went on to win.

Asked by Burke what the issue was between her and Chmerkovskiy, Bristol said, ‘I don’t know, probably just because we kept going through.’

Bristol said Chmerkovskiy had been ‘real nice at the beginning,’ but things got progressively more pointed the further she advanced through the competition, and that she ‘definitely felt the tension from’ the Ukraine-born dance pro.

She added, ‘I forgot about that.’ 

Chmerkovskiy’s rep told Entertainment Weekly in a statement: ‘Maks doesn’t hate anybody. For [Palin] to say that would be a mischaracterization of his feelings.

‘I think he and everyone else in America, 14 years ago, thought that he and Brandy were on their way to winning that year, if not coming into the finals.’

Chmerkovskiy’s rep said that ‘there was a bit of disappointment when she leapfrogged him into the finals … it’s a competition. He’s very competitive and took it seriously.’

Bristol would go on to return to the ballroom floor two years later for the show’s lone Dancing with the Stars: All-Stars season that aired in 2012. 

Again paired with Ballas, the duo finished in ninth place, with The Bachelor alum Melissa Rycroft emerging victorious.

Bristol said that appearing on the ABC competition buoyed her with confidence that she can ‘step out of my comfort zone’ and ‘put myself out there.’

On the podcast with Burke, Bristol said ‘it was really hard’ having her weight constantly speculated on during her run on the series.

‘I mean, my weight fluctuates,’ Bristol said. ‘It was like everyone was talking about my weight, and then I was stressed out about my weight.

‘I felt like I was just eating even more and gaining even more weight. It was just like a vicious cycle and it affected my confidence so much for years to come because it was such a topic.’

She cited an instance in which comic Kathy Griffin called her the ‘white version of Precious,’ referring to Oscar-nominated actress Gabourey Sidibe, 41. 

Said Bristol: ‘It was all over the news for a while. It just bugs me so bad because I would be so upset if somebody was talking about my daughter like that. Obviously I knew I was gaining weight, and just for her to say something like that was, “Oh, OK.”‘

In a caption on Instagram, Burke said she wanted to express her ‘gratitude and admiration’ for the ‘candid conversation’ they engaged on on her podcast.

Dancing With the Stars 33rd season is set to debut on ABC and Disney+ September 17, landing on Hulu the next day.