Young couple said they hadn’t yet told Sarah Palin about engagement. By Gil Kaufman Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston Photo: New York Daily News More than a year and a half after calling off their first engagement, Playgirl model Levi Johnston and Bristol Palin are ready to give marriage another try. The couple first got engaged after Bristol became pregnant with their now 18-month-old son, Tripp, and took the stage together with Palin’s mother, former vice presidential candidate and half-term Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, at the 2008 Republican National Convention . They broke up just weeks after Tripp’s birth in December 2008, but the couple told Us Weekly in this week’s cover story that they are ready to get hitched. “We got engaged two weeks ago,” abstinence advocate Bristol, 19, told the magazine. “It felt right, even though we don’t have the approval of our parents.” That might be the sticky part. Johnston, 20, recently offered a public apology to the Palins, especially to Sarah, for the harsh comments he made about the family in the fallout from his breakup with Bristol. Despite agreeing to pose with Tripp on the cover of the magazine and announcing their second engagement on the cover, they admitted that they hadn’t yet told Sarah Palin about their plans. The couple said they reconnected three months ago while working on a custody plan for Tripp and unexpectedly rekindled their romance. “I really thought we were over,” Johnston said. “So when I went, I had no hope. I think we both just started talking — and then we took Tripp for a walk.” Bristol added, “When he left that night, we didn’t hug or kiss, but I was thinking how different it was. He texted me: ‘I miss you. I love you. I want to be with you again.’ … I was in shock.” Sarah Palin has been very outspoken about her feelings about Johnston in the past, lashing out at him when he claimed last fall that she referred to her infant song Trig — who has Down Syndrome — as “retarded,” slamming the aspiring model/actor and high school dropout by referring to him as “Ricky Hollywood” during an Oprah Winfrey interview and mocking his “aspiring porn” career. That contentious relationship has Bristol a bit worried about how her mother will react to their engagement. “It is intimidating and scary just to think about what her reaction is going to be,” she said of the outspoken Fox News contributor, who had not yet weighed in on the news at press time. “Hopefully, she will jump onboard.”
