Being a single mother isn’t easy – but Bristol Palin is ready to share her story with the world. Joining Teen Mom OG was a chance for Palin, 27, to show “that life doesn’t end after a divorce,” she tells Us Weekly exclusively in a new interview.
Palin was engaged to ex Levi Johnston from September 2008 to March 2009 and the two share one son, 9-year-old Tripp. Palin began dating Dakota Meyer in 2014 and the couple married in 2016. Together, they share two children, Sailor, 2, and Atlee, 16 months. However, Meyer and Palin officially divorced in August 2018.
While Meyer and Palin are still living together on Teen Mom OG, their relationship is now “a work in progress,” Palin tells Us. “We’re trying to navigate coparenting and navigating coparenting in the public eye can be difficult. We’ve got two young girls, and we have to communicate and focus on the girls and do what’s best for them.”
“I think that our focus needs to just be the girls, and what’s best for them. We gotta get together on the same team, cheering for our girls,” she says.
The Dancing With the Stars alum has a little experience at this since she does the same with Johnston, who lives in Alaska, while she lives in Texas.
“We have the same common goal of what’s best for Tripp. It’s taken us a long time to get there, but we’re getting there,” she says of Johnson, who will appear on Teen Mom OG as well. “He’s definitely a part of it. Tripp goes back and forth to Alaska quite a bit, and Tripp will spend summers there. When Tripp has a long weekend from school, he’ll go there as well. They’ve got a good relationship, and he’s a great dad.”
Teen Mom OG premieres on MTV Monday, October 1, at 9 p.m. ET.
Reporting by Jennifer Peros
