Tragic Details About Bristol Palin

Bristol Palin grew up before our eyes as the daughter of controversial political figure Sarah Palin. She was just 17 when it was announced her mom was running for vice president alongside John McCain and she's done a whole lot of growing up in the spotlight since then, from pregnancies, to marriages, to reality TV appearances. But her life certainly hasn't been all smooth sailing.

After fans noticed in 2023 that the former "Teen Mom OG" star hadn't posted much on social media, she explained on Instagram Stories she'd had a tough time with body confidence that left her feeling deflated. "I stopped taking my adderall Rx and had those two surgeries within the last year — I gained some weight and it definitely took a toll on my confidence. I honestly didn't feel like posting anything," she said (via People). But that's far from the only tragedy the reality star has faced. She's made it through multiple tough times, from a nasty custody battle to a sudden Bell's palsy diagnosis.

In a January 2025 Instagram Stories upload, Bristol Palin opened up about a difficult health scare after she woke up and soon noticed one side of her face felt numb. In the clip, Palin's face was drooping. "Within a couple hours the entire left side of my face was numb and just paralyzed. Couldn't really blink my eye. Definitely had no movement on [the left side] of my face," she explained. Palin visited her doctor and was told she was likely experiencing Bell's palsy.

Thankfully, nine days after she first noticed symptoms, Palin shared she was doing better. "I know I look crazy right now, but this has been such an improvement from what I was looking like," she said. "I'm finally starting to get some of the sensation back." The star shared she was on medication to help the temporary condition clear up.

Palin isn't the only celebrity to be diagnosed with the scary condition, though. Former "The Bachelorette" star Emily Maynard developed Bell's palsy while pregnant, and Angelina Jolie tragically experienced the health issue in 2017.

Bristol Palin's 2018 split with her now former husband Dakota Meyer was anything but easy. Their fractured relationship played out on Season 7 of "Teen Mom OG," where she shared Meyer was experiencing PTSD. "I'm a punching bag for everything that he goes through internally," she claimed in an October 2018 episode (via The Washington Post). She also noted, "It's been a challenge to keep our family together." But the couple had actually split months before the episode aired. Meyer filed for divorce in February 2018, claiming in court documents their two-year marriage ended due to "discord or conflict of personalities," per People. He then made it clear they weren't on good terms when he told fans via an Instagram Story that September, "We don't talk to each other."

Palin opened up about the tough split on Instagram in June 2019. "Sometimes it's hard to not feel like a complete loser with having another scarlet letter plastered to your forehead.. (add that to getting knocked up at 17 + two baby daddies.. just rackin' those letters up y'all)," she joked. The mom of three added of her difficult year, "Hitting rock bottom — like a year ago felt for me — is undoubtably, an opportunity to be rebuilt better than before."

Prior to Bristol Palin's strained relationship with Dakota Meyer, she had a rocky romance with the Levi Johnston, the father of her son Tripp. After they ended their engagement in 2009, Palin filed court documents asking for sole custody of their son. Things turned nasty and the two battled in court until 2016, when Palin accused Johnston in court of not paying $82,000 in child support.

Later that year, Johnston was awarded joint custody of Tripp. "I'm so happy to have my son in my life, and to put all of this back in forth [sic] in the courts behind me," he wrote in a since deleted Facebook post (via E! News). "It might have taken me 7 years and cost me around $100,000 in lawyer fees, spread out among 3 different lawyers, as well as a lot of patience, but it was all worth it."

On a 2018 episode of "Teen Mom OG," Palin spoke candidly about their ups and downs. "Things with Levi haven't always been decent," she shared, claiming her ex-fiancé was mainly absent from Tripp's life until he was around 4 years old. On where their relationship stood almost a decade after their split, she said, "It's definitely a work in progress."

In August 2024, Bristol Palin shared her heartbreak after her then 15-year-old son Tripp chose to leave their home in Texas to live with Levi Johnston in Alaska. "This has been the hardest 'first day of school' yet with one of the biggest pieces of my heart missing," Palin wrote on Instagram Stories alongside a photo of the two daughters she shares with Dakota Meyer (via Today). "I can't talk about it yet without crying, but selfishly praying for a quick year and easy transition for us all," she added.

Palin further opened up about how sad she was over her son's decision to move that month on the "Sex, Lies, and Spray Tans" podcast. She explained Tripp sent her a text while visiting his dad to say he wouldn't be returning home. The mom of three admitted she was initially angry about his decision and considered going to Alaska to bring him back. "It still is gut-wrenching to me ... All I can do is just hope and pray that it is what's best," she said, sharing her son was adjusting well to life in Alaska. "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."

Bristol Palin has been open about her experience with bullying. Speaking on "Sex, Lies, and Spray Tans," she shared she wasn't subject to nasty comments growing up, but experienced it a lot when she appeared on "Dancing with the Stars" in 2010. "That's when I first experienced bullying, for sure," she shared. "The bullying, it always comes from, older people, older women. Which is insane to me."

While Palin returned for "Dancing with the Stars: All Stars" in 2012, the bullying got so bad her mom Sarah Palin defended her in a Facebook post. "I'm sorry to see that she's again getting those annoying death threats and more 'mysterious white powder' sent to her while on 'DWTS' this All-Star season," the political figure wrote. "These threats sure waste a lot of time, production and public resources; but do the haters really think this will stop Bristol and Mark [Ballas] and the show's producers from keepin' on keepin' on?"

Palin also dealt with being confronted in public. An unsettling 2011 Hollywood.TV video showed her riding a mechanical bull at a restaurant in Hollywood when a man shouted, "Her mother is a f**king whore, she's the devil." Palin confronted the man, who was sitting at a bar, and asked, "What did she do wrong?" He responded, "She lives, she breathes. If there was a hell ... she's gonna be there."

In a 2023 Instagram Story, Bristol Palin tragically revealed she got a botched breast reduction aged 19 that negatively affected her for years. "The doctor in Alaska cut me clear across and it caused a ton of muscle damage, tissue damage, a ton of scar tissue," she wrote (via People). "I've had implants taken in, taken out, just a ton of stuff," she wrote, adding she'd undergone nine surgeries to correct the issues. The "Bristol Palin: Life's a Tripp" star said she'd had another breast surgery a few months earlier, which also didn't go as planned. "I wanted to get smaller implants so I went in for that and it ended up being a huge surgery and she had to go back in January and do a complete revision," she told fans. "But a lot of cosmetic, breast type surgeries because of that botched breast reduction."

That's not the only cosmetic surgery the real estate agent has undergone that impacted her life, though. Palin revealed in a 2021 Instagram Story that a 2018 tummy tuck left her in immense pain. "I don't regret it. But recovery was, [without a doubt] thee worst pain of my entire life," she wrote, per E! News.