They find it hard to live together as husband and wife,” Todd Palin wrote in the divorce petition he filed for his wife Sarah Palin, the former governor of Alaska and GOP vice presidential nominee.
The 55-year-old Todd Palin filed paperwork to end his 31-year marriage to Bristol on Friday in Anchorage Superior Court. The paperwork was handed in on September 6th, exactly eight days after the couple’s anniversary.
The Anchorage Daily News was the first to report on the file, which uses only initials but includes information about the couple’s marriage and the birth of their son Trig, who is now 11. The lawsuit requests a 50/50 split of the couple’s assets and obligations.
Sarah Palin’s husband apparently files for divorce, saying it’s “impossible to live together” https://t.co/QbVQt2zHKm pic.twitter.com/VbDpJEWA9u
— CBS News (@CBSNews) September 11, 2019
They’ve been together since 1988 and have five children: Track, Trig, Bristol, Willow, and Piper. In his petition, Todd Palin seeks joint custody of Down syndrome child Trig.
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Sarah Palin, also 55, served as governor of Alaska from 2006 until 2009, two years before her term was over. During the 2008 presidential campaign, she ran as Sen. John McCain’s running mate, but the pair ultimately lost to Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
Since his wife Sarah Palin emerged onto the global stage during the 2008 presidential election season, her husband Todd has mainly avoided the spotlight.
In 2016, he was involved in a snowmobile accident that left him with multiple injuries, including a collapsed lung, broken ribs, a shattered shoulder blade, a broken collarbone, and damage to both legs. The event was one of the few times the husband made the news.
Nonetheless, that doesn’t mean he played no part in his political-active wife’s career. MSNBC discovered in 2011 that former Alaska governor Todd Palin frequently emailed key state officials on a wide variety of topics.
There were discussions about potential board appointees, citizen complaints, state jet use, oil and gas production, marine regulation, gas pipeline bids, higher education, wildfires, native Alaskan issues, the state’s effort to save the Matanuska Maid dairy, budget planning, potential budget vetoes, oil shale leasing, mansion staffing, pier diem payments for travel by the governor, possible cuts to the governor’s staff, and the Bureau of Land Management.
The children of this couple have likewise been in and out of the public eye.
Their eldest son, Track, was given a year in prison after a woman said he beat her in the head, stole her phone, and told her she couldn’t leave his Wasilla home.
Todd Palin allegedly suffered injuries to the head after Track Palin broke into his parents’ home in December 2017. In June of 2018, he entered a guilty plea in veterans court for a lesser crime.
Bristol Palin, the couple’s daughter, appeared on “Teen Mom” on MTV for a few episodes before leaving the show in April. Leaving the show “allows God to rebuild me (and my small fam) in the correct path,” she stated in her statement, explaining that she had decided the reality series wasn’t the perfect match for her.
Bristol Palin, at 17, was engaged to Levi Johnston when she became pregnant with their son, Tripp. Sailor Grace and Atlee Bay are her and ex-husband Dakota Meyer’s daughters.