The Messiest Parts Of Sarah Palin's Divorce

Sarah and Todd Palin looked destined to become one of those rare forever couples. After all, they first started dating while attending Wasilla High School in the early 1980s, and by the end of the decade, the teenage sweethearts had become husband and wife, going on to have five children together — Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper, and Trig — over a 20-year period in which they skyrocketed to fame.

Indeed, even amid the pressures of Sarah Palin's remarkable rise from governor of Alaska to John McCain's running mate, plus numerous reports of various infidelities on both sides, the couple appeared to stand strong. However, just a week after they celebrated their 31st wedding anniversary, news emerged that the woman who'd repeatedly advocated for the sanctity of marriage was heading for the divorce courts. From cryptic social media posts and unorthodox hirings to awkward reunions and legal contests, here's a look at how things subsequently got messy.

Famous people appear to do divorce differently. Remember when Phil Collins was accused of informing his second wife, Jill Tavelman, that she was about to be his second ex-wife by fax machine? Well, Sarah Palin was also left blindsided when she received a similar message via a slightly more modern, but still hugely insulting, method of communication.

In 2019, the former governor of Alaska (who has enjoyed quite the transformation over the years) revealed in an interview with Family Talk Christian ministry founder James Dobson that she learned her husband, Todd Palin, wanted out through an email. Sarah had been perusing her inbox as normal when she spotted the offending notice, which apparently came completely out of the blue, sent from her then-husband's lawyers.

Three months later, Todd's filing was made official. "It was devastating," Sarah told Dobson (via People) about this particular development. "I thought I got shot." Addressing the listeners of Dobson's podcast, she added, "I'm sure so many of you either, maybe you've been through it or you have people whom you love, you've witnessed how horrible it is. But I just think, wow, maybe except for the death of a child, I don't know what could be more ... Yeah, it hurts."

So, why exactly did Todd Palin decide to file for divorce from Sarah Palin after 31 years of marriage? Well, in the official paperwork filed in Anchorage Superior Court in 2019, the former oilfield production operator cited an "incompatibility of temperament between the parties such that they find it impossible to live together as husband and wife."

At the time, the Palins had been residing in a two-story home in Wasilla that looks out onto Lake Lucille, and one that Todd had helped to build back in 2002. But the couple also had several other properties, including a half-finished four-bedroom house nestled in Arizona's McDowell Mountains, which later sold that same year for $6 million, and a vacation cabin in Petersville.

According to Laura Wasser, who founded the web-based divorce platform ItsOverEasy.com, "incompatibility of temperament" is simply the Alaskan way of saying a more familiar term. "It sounds yuckier than irreconcilable differences, so they might want to think of changing that legislatively," she told Entertainment Tonight (ET). "But that's pretty much the same thing."

Nothing is ever straightforward when it comes to the Palins. On the same day the news broke that Todd Palin had filed for divorce from Sarah Palin, a former member of their oft-shady family appeared to wade into the drama. How and why exactly, however, remains something of a mystery.

In fact, it was only minutes after the development hit the headlines that Dakota Meyer, who'd been married to the couple's eldest daughter, Bristol Palin, between 2016 and 2018, took to Instagram to post a cryptic message that left everyone baffled. "A man should understand he doesn't protect his woman because she is weak," read the text (via Daily Mail), which accompanied a snap of a crossbow-wielding, inked man. "He protects her because she is IMPORTANT."

Meyer, a Medal of Honor recipient and Marine member whose own divorce proceedings had been decidedly messy, then added to the confusion with the caption, "Exactly. We need more of this." Was he suggesting that his former mother-in-law had been wronged? Or was it a completely random post that just coincidentally happened to be uploaded at the same time as her private woes became very public? We're still none the wiser.

Sarah Palin appeared to be going through the first stage of denial after her husband, Todd Palin, filed for divorce in 2019. Indeed, during a chat with Family Talk Christian ministry founder James Dobson, the former vice-presidential nominee insisted there was still a chance their marriage could be saved.

"We're going through counseling now, so it's not over, over," Sarah claimed (via People). "Attorneys are getting rich off of us, and I don't like that whole system. It makes no sense to me." The devout Christian, who argued that God doesn't want to separate families, also revealed that the five children they share are also similarly baffled by the development.

"They're mad because they have been brought up with that teaching that you have made a covenant with God," Sarah explained before noting how her own parents had been together for nearly six decades. "Everybody's kind of traditional family sticks together through thick and thin because you made a vow to God that through thick and thin, good and bad, you're going to make that choice to ... jump whatever hurdles are in front of you, and you're going to make it. So my kids witnessing what's happening, they don't like it."

No doubt wanting to keep the tabloids at bay, Todd Palin may well have thought he was being super covert by only using his and wife Sarah Palin's initials when filing for divorce. Instead, according to an expert on the subject, he ended up drawing more eyeballs to the paperwork.

Indeed, Laura Wasser, who as the founder of ItsOverEasy.com helps couples navigate the pitfalls of divorce proceedings, told ET exactly why Todd's attempt to go under the radar sparked the exact opposite effect: "I think it makes it more obvious when high-profile people use their initials because people are really looking through it to figure it out..."

So what should Todd have done instead of using S.L.P. and T.M.P. in the official documents? Well, Wasser has an apparent foolproof plan: "What we will try and do is, if the high-profile person has a different name, like a maiden name or a stage name, we can somehow get it through that way."

Famous people seem to love gifting themselves on their birthdays. Calvin Harris, for example, celebrated reaching the age of 34 by purchasing a Los Angeles mansion owned by fellow superstar DJ Steve Angello. Kylie Jenner decided to treat herself to a custom-made Land Rover when she turned 19, and Katy Perry claimed to have given herself the "best birthday present ever" by voting for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election on the same day she turned 32. But Todd Palin might well be the first to commemorate the occasion by filing for divorce.

According to reports, the commercial fishing business owner decided to make the life-changing move on September 6, 2019, the very same day he hit 55. And this wasn't the only milestone that his paperwork aligned with. Only the week previously, he and Sarah Palin had "celebrated" being married for 31 years.

So, could there be another perfectly reasonable explanation, or was Todd being just a little bit messy? Well, Laura Wasser, CEO of online divorce portal ItsOverEasy.com, told ET, "I think we're overthinking it. There's no legal reason to do that. It might be that that was his gift to himself, to file on his birthday, but I don't know."

Filing the papers on his 55th birthday wasn't the only aspect of his divorce that Todd Palin made slightly messy. Indeed, in a bizarre move, the former Mr. Sarah Palin also decided to hire the same attorney that had played a part in the divorce of his daughter, Bristol Palin. But not the part you would have expected.

Indeed, Kimberlee Colbo represented Dakota Meyer, the Medal of Honor recipient who'd essentially gone to war with Bristol during an acrimonious split that was played out for the cameras on the MTV reality show "Teen Mom." So, what on earth possessed Todd to essentially side with the enemy?

Well, the former oilfield production operator may well have been impressed by how Colbo had previously managed to negotiate a deal that apparently satisfied both parties. Dakota and Bristol eventually put their differences aside to sign an agreement, which saw the former assume ownership of their previously shared home in Texas, helping put an end to one of the biggest Palin family scandals. 

If Todd Palin thought that hiring Kimberlee Colbo, the same attorney who helped his former son-in-law, Dakota Meyer, negotiate an agreement with his daughter, Bristol Palin, would lead to smooth divorce proceedings, he soon learned to think again.

Two months after his filing for divorce from Sarah Palin officially went through, the latter decided to issue a counterclaim, essentially meaning that she didn't agree on all the issues he'd put forward. It's not exactly clear what the former governor of Alaska contested, however, as the couple managed to get their court records sealed and away from the beady eyes of the tabloid press.

In an interview with James Dobson, the founder of Family Talk Christian ministry, Sarah had claimed (via People) that the children she shares with Todd were firmly on her side. "My kids are cool because they don't like it, and that helps me, you know. It helps me. They're not ones to say, 'Oh, it takes two to tango.'"

Oh, to have been a fly on the wall when Sarah and Todd Palin, the couple in the midst of divorce proceedings after 31 years of marriage, were forced to share the same space in November 2019. And due to the celebratory nature, they no doubt had to be the height of civility, too.

Just two months after Todd's filing for divorce officially went through, he and Sarah headed to the Anchorage hospital where their daughter, Willow Palin — who walked down the aisle just 24 hours after her brother Track Palin was arrested for domestic violence — had just given birth to twin girls Blaise and Banks. This was the first time that their middle child had become a mom; three years later, she and husband Ricky Bailey would also welcome son Pace Banner into the world.

Judging by the Instagram snaps that the proud grandmother uploaded, Sarah and Todd did manage to put their problems to one side for the happy occasion. The pair even posed side by side while holding the new arrival for a snap, which was captioned (via AOL), "Banks&Blaise!! BlessingX2. Congratulations Willow&Ricky = and then there were four."

The news of Sarah and Todd Palin's divorce in 2019 was all the more surprising for how dismissive they'd previously been about the subject. In an interview with People nine years earlier, the former recalled a conversation between the pair in which they openly snickered about the possibility.

"I call Todd on the cell phone [from the grocery checkout], and I say, 'Todd, you won't believe this cover!'" Sarah said, having just seen a tabloid report that claimed they were heading for a divorce settlement to the tune of $20 million. "And he says, '$20 million? Write me a check.' He's good about laughing some of that stuff off."

However, there were occasions when the gossip did start to have a negative impact on the couple. "It seemed like the lies would never let up," Sarah told the same magazine about the rumors, which reportedly surfaced from Bristol Palin's on-and-off boyfriend Levi Johnston. "Some days I would say, 'Okay, Lord, where is the light at the end of the tunnel?'"

In March 2020, six months after Todd Palin's papers were officially filed, his marriage of more than three decades to the former governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, legally came to an end. But judging by her interview with Page Six two years on, the latter was still struggling to reach the acceptance stage of the grief cycle.

"It was the most earth-shattering, bizarre thing I could have ever imagined, and it kind of remains so," Sarah admitted about their relationship's end. And although they agreed to joint custody of their youngest child, Trig, the one-time vice-presidential nominee claimed that Todd is still very much a distant figure in her life. "He spends his time with his girlfriend, whom he's had for some time now ...," she explained. "She lives down in the lower 48, so he spends a lot of time down in the lower 48."

Of course, despite still being knocked for six, Sarah managed to find a new love herself. Indeed, after reconnecting with old pal Ron Duguay, she and the ex-New York Rangers hero decided to make their platonic relationship a romantic one. "Ron is the first person that I've ever even talked to about a lot of this personal stuff," she gushed. "So it's been helpful and refreshing to have Ron to talk to about not just politics, because he's got more common sense in his little finger than the collective in DC, but just about life."