Bristol Palin on Brother Track: ‘He Makes His Own Decisions’

The Palin family is used to making headlines – even when they’re negative. In June, Bristol Palin’s brother Track Palin pleaded guilty to first-degree criminal trespassing, following a December incident at his parents’ home.

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“My brother is a grown man, and I really don’t have anything to even say about it,” Bristol, 27, told Us Weekly exclusively when asked how he was doing. “He’s an adult, and he makes his own decisions just like I make my own decisions.”

In December 2017, Track was taken into custody and charged with felony first-degree burglary and misdemeanor fourth-degree assault after arriving at his parents’ Alaska house and allegedly getting into a physical altercation with his father. Todd Palin was bleeding from several cuts on his head, according to the police report. At the time of the arrest, Track was serving a two-year probation sentence stemming from a domestic violence arrest in January 2016, in which he allegedly assaulted his ex and pointed a gun at her.

However, Bristol is now focusing on the positive. The mother of three joined season 8 of Teen Mom OG, stepping back into the spotlight 10 years after making headlines for being a teen mother.

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“I just saw it as an opportunity, truly, to try to serve others,” the mother of Tripp, 9, Sailor, 2, and Atlee, 16 months, told Us. “I feel like I’m a pretty private person, but I truly believe that God gave me this platform to show my life, to help encourage others. So I feel like, truly, that God placed this in my life at the right time to shed light on a lot of different things.”

She also noted that “no matter what” she takes on in her life, she knows people will talk. However, she can’t think about that. “If I can sit here and be some sort of light at the end of the tunnel — whether it’s being married to someone with PTSD, or going through a divorce, or trying to juggle single parenthood – then that’s what I need to do,” she said.

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Bristol’s ex-husband, Dakota Meyer, with whom she shares her two younger children, suffers from PTSD stemming from his time in the Marines. That will be discussed in great deal during the upcoming season.

“He’s a great dad. I don’t talk to him on a personal level,” the Dancing With the Stars alum said. “That’s a work in progress. We’re just trying to figure out the steps that we need to take for this next chapter. Our girls deserve two parents that respect each other.”

Bristol also shares Tripp with ex Levi Johnson. He, too, is set to appear on the show.

Teen Mom OG premieres on MTV Monday, October 1, at 9 p.m. ET.

With reporting by Jennifer Peros