While a guest on Cheryl Burke’s podcast, Bristol Palin, daughter of former Alaskan governor Sarah Palin, opened up about a difficult parenting moment she had to recently endure.
As Palin told Burke, her oldest son, 15-year-old Tripp, whom she shared with her ex-fiancé Levi Johnston, asked if he could move back in with his dad in a text message.
“He just texted me,” Palin told Burke. “He’s like, ‘Hey Mom. I’m not coming back.’ 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.”
Johnston lives in Alaska, while Palin moved her three children to Texas.
“It was like…it still is gut-wrenching to me because it’s been just Tripp and I. And then I’ve had my girls but it’s always been Tripp and I,” Palin explained.
But now, it’s just Palin and her two girls, whom she shares with ex-husband Dakota Meyer. Palin says the “dynamic has changed so much” now that Tripp isn’t home with them.
Her feelings aside, however, Palin ultimately agreed to allow her son to move in with his dad. “It’s one of those things where he’s almost 16. He does need his dad. And he needs that relationship,” Palin continued, admitting she had to put her “selfish” feelings aside and support her son’s decision.
“He thinks that this is best right now and all I can do is just hope and pray that it is what’s best.” Palin told Burke that Tripp is adjusting well to life in Alaska, where he has since started school and joined several teams.
“But kids…especially boys, they need their dads and I can’t hinder that for myself. So as hard as it is for me, and it’s so hard for my girls too, I know that he needs to grow that relationship with his dad,” she admitted. “And he loves Alaska so much, he’s hunting and fishing all the time. So I know that it’s going to be a good thing.”
With all that said, Palin said she still keeps in constant contact with her son.
“We talk before school every day and after school every day. We FaceTime every day,” Palin shared knowing that it was a “monumental decision” for Tripp to make.
“I’m sure it was so hard for him to bring it up to me,” Palin concedes, “but I respect that he thinks this is what’s best and he needs that relationship with his dad.”
Palin admitted that she hopes to one day have a secondary house in Alaska, admitting she already travels to her hometown “every other month” to see her family and now to watch Tripp play football “and whatnot.”