All things considered, Sarah Palin has had a fairly impressive career.
She was elected as the first female governor of Alaska in 2006, and was subsequently chosen
to be John McCain's running mate during the 2008 presidential election.
McCain lost that election, of course, and Palin resigned as governor the following year,
mostly due to the costs of battling a legal ethics complaint filed against her.
Before she was thrust into the national spotlight, the mother of five was a proud hockey mom
who worked hard for her state.
Casual politicos may have come to know Sarah Palin from Tina Fey's Saturday Night Live
impersonation of her, as well as Palin's often bizarre comments during interviews and speeches.
"You know the man can only ride you when your back is bent.
So strengthen it!"
But before there was Sarah Palin, the politician, there was Sarah Heath, the 1984 third runner-up
for Miss Alaska.
The future governor earned a degree in journalism in 1987, and she and her high school sweetheart,
Todd Palin, eloped the following year.
The couple worked on his family's commercial fishing business in their early years.
They subsequently had five children — Bristol, Willow, Piper, Track, and Trig.
To many outsiders, it may have looked like Palin had it all, but the truth is that she
and her husband's relationship was swiftly imploding.
In 2019, Todd Palin filed for divorce after 31 years of marriage, citing "incompatibility
of temperament."
While they didn't publicly reveal the cause of their split, it's possible that the pressures
of fame took its toll on the couple.
Family friend John Coale told People magazine:
"It's been a long road to this.
The family just had to take so much and couldn't handle it, I don't know if anybody could.
It's a tragedy.
Sarah Palin is a great person, and now it seems the family is in tatters."
Court records show that, in the spring of 2020, the couple very quietly finalized their
split.
It's hard to keep a secret when you're living in the public eye, but the Palins managed
to let the ink dry with no one being the wiser.
According to those documents, their divorce was granted on March 25th, 2020.
This news came almost 10 months after Todd had initially filed for divorce, which just
so happened to have fallen on his 55th birthday.
The legal jargon in those documents mimics that found in countless other documents, suggesting
that both parties claimed irreconcilable differences.
While they have otherwise remained sealed, we do know that both Palins asked for joint
custody of their youngest son, Trig.
As for the reason Todd Palin decided to walk away from his marriage, well, no one really
knows.
But he often stood further from the limelight than his famous wife.
In the end, Todd reportedly informed his ex-wife of his desire for divorce through an email.
At the time, Sarah Palin told NBC News that the news of her marriage ending came as a
shock saying: "I thought I got shot."
She further described the experience as "devastating," saying:
"Except for the death of a child, I don't know what could be more [painful]."
There had been rumors of infidelity on both sides of the marriage for 10 years, but each
time the Palin camp wrote them off as lies.
Author Joe McGinniss' book, The Rogue: Searching For The Real Sarah Palin makes some pretty
serious claims about the former governor, including unfounded rumors that she used drugs
— and even had a six-month-long affair with one of Todd's business partners.
The book also includes allegations of Todd's questionable activities, such as an affair
of his own, as well as a recreational drug habit.
The Palins briefly reunited in November of 2019 for their daughter Willow, who gave birth
to twins.
And while we may never know the real reason that the couple decided to call it quits,
insiders will always speculate.
Meanwhile, Palin herself has teased a 2022 Senate Run, telling the Christian pastor Ché
Ahn:
"If God wants me to do it, I will."
Otherwise, the former governor's most illustrious achievement of late appears to have been appearing
on The Masked Singer as a rapping pink bear in 2020.
As if you needed another reason to forget that year.
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