Bristol Palin does have things to tell, and she laid out her relationship and motherhood story in her autobiography Not Afraid of Life: My Journey So Far, written in collaboration with Nancy French. While it can hardly be termed as a romantic story, it is certainly a revealing one.
The 20-year-old single mother shares that her virginity was stolen, rather than taken, from her during a camping trip. The girl had gotten drunk for the first time in her life, and her boyfriend Levi Johnston took advantage of it. When she came to, she was in her tent alone and heard Johnston talking to his pals outside. She was aware what had transpired but had no clear recollection of it.
Johnston (who is now 21) didn’t deny anything when confronted and promised that there would be no more sex before marriage – a promise that was broken in a short time.
In 2008 Palin was taking pills for her cramps that were also birth-controlling, but somehow they didn’t stop her from getting pregnant. She couldn’t believe at first that she was with a child, but had to come to terms with it after doing eight home pregnancy tests.
Her boyfriend’s reaction wasn’t reassuring as he voiced a rude-worded wish to have a boy. Palin’s autobiography comes down rather heavily on Johnston who allegedly badmouthed her family on more than one occasion and was generally a cheat. His son’s mother refers to him as a “gnat” and a “self-involved slacker.”
On the other hand Palin’s parents proved to be unexpectedly helpful. They wanted her not to lose sight of her future and go on with her education. They also tried to bring their daughter and her boyfriend closer together displaying Johnston as almost a member of the Palin family in August 2008 when Sarah Palin was introduced as a vice presidential candidate by Senator John McCain.
In December 2008 Bristol Palin gave birth to a boy, Tripp Easton Mitchell Johnston, and soon afterwards Palin learned that Johnston was having an affair with somebody else. The confrontation ended with the couple breaking up.
But it wasn’t the end of the road: in July 2010 the duo was surprisingly back together again stunning their families with the news that they were going to get married after all. The second engagement was over in three weeks after Johnston disclosed that he had another woman pregnant by him. Palin was devastated that she should have believed him and “made a complete fool of myself.”
Johnston is currently at work on his book called Deer in the Headlights: My Life in Sarah Palin’s Crosshairs. We will read the story from his side when the book is out this fall.