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(CNN) – Just when you thought Levi Johnston's 15 minutes of fame may have come to an end, the famous teen dad is back as the subject of a cover story and photo-spread in next month's GQ magazine.

Among the profile's revelations: Todd Palin, the husband of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and father of Johnston's former girlfriend, Bristol, repeatedly offered to buy his daughter a car if she dumped Johnston.

GQ also asks Johnston if he and Bristol Palin, who still stay in touch, ever "loved each other."

"I think we were in love. I wasn't one to stick with a girl for three years if I wasn't. I'm pretty sure you can call it love, but it's just amazing how fast it can change like that. We were together every day. The feeling we got when we were with each other, it was just totally gone," Johnston told the magazine.

(CNN) - Bristol Palin's abstinence tour continues this week on the cover of People Magazine.

In an exclusive interview with the magazine, owned by CNN's parent company Time Warner, the 18-year-old Palin says teenagers like her need to think about the consequences before they choose to have sex.

"Girls need to imagine and picture their life with a screaming newborn baby, and then think before they have sex," the daughter of former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin said.

"If girls realized the consequences of sex, nobody would be having sex," Palin added. "Trust me. Nobody."

The comments come one day after Meghan McCain, the daughter of Arizona Sen. John McCain, criticized Palin's abstinence tour as "not realistic for this generation."

"I think we need to have sex education with condoms, birth control and etc., etc.," McCain said on Comedy Central's The Colbert Report. "I think that if the Republican Party says abstinence only is the only way to be, then we're going to lose a lot of young voters. And I think I wouldn't want to practice anything I didn't preach."

Read full Palin interview on People.com

Looking like a lot of her classmates – giddy and irreverent, wearing a silly necklace of Blow-Pop lollipops strung together with curly gift ribbon – Bristol Palin stepped toward the stage in Wasilla Sports Complex Thursday night to receive her high school diploma, more a worried mom than a jubilant teen.

"Where's my baby?" Bristol mouthed, searching the two front rows where her family sat until she finally spotted son Tripp near the backstage door, where Bristol's Aunt Heather was feeding the infant a bottle. With a wave to the little one she alternately calls "Handsome" and "My Guy," Bristol crossed the stage – and crossed "graduate high school" off her to-do list.

"I knew it would be hard work, but I knew I was going to do it," Bristol, 19, tells PEOPLE.

Full story from People Magazine

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Teen mom Bristol Palin had a simple message for teens on Wednesday, the 8th Annual National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy.

The daughter of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin – the 2008 vice presidential nominee – said in an interview on NBC's Today Show that she wanted other teens to "learn from my example."

"If you're going to have sex, I think you should have safe sex," the unwed, teenage mother said as she held her infant son, Tripp. "And, regardless of what I did or anything like that, I think that abstinence is the only 100 percent foolproof way of preventing teen pregnancy."

Her father, Todd, acknowledged that his daughter was negotiating difficult territory as she holds herself out as an increasingly public advocate for the cause of preventing teen pregnancy.

"It's kind of a fine line that we're definitely walking on," he said when asked whether the governor's daughter could both advocate for teens to abstain and encourage practicing safe sex.

The young mother did have one topic she was not willing to discuss in detail – her increasingly strained relationship with Levi Johnston, Tripp's father.
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WASHINGTON (CNN) – Bristol Palin, the daughter of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, will participate in a town hall meeting on Wednesday to help raise awareness for teen pregnancy prevention, the Candie's Foundation announced Tuesday.

"I am so happy to have this opportunity to work with The Candie's Foundation on spreading the message of teen pregnancy prevention," Palin said in a statement released by the group. "I feel that I could be a living example of the consequences of teen pregnancy. If I can prevent even one girl from getting pregnant, I will feel a sense of accomplishment."

Palin, 18, gave birth to a son, Tripp Easton Mitchell Johnston, in December.

The Candie's Foundation, whose mission it is to "educate teens about the devastating consequences of teenage pregnancy," tapped her to be the teen ambassador for its National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. The group said she will participate in a town hall meeting at the Times Center in New York City Wednesday with actress Hayden Panettiere, baseball player Matt Garza, and other panelists.

(CNN) – Teen father Levi Johnston dropped a bombshell into the middle of the escalating family feud between Johnston’s family and the family of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, whose eldest daughter is the mother of Johnston’s infant son.

In an interview with CNN’s Larry King, Johnston, his mother, and his sister acknowledged that they have a lawyer and are contemplating taking legal action to protect Johnston’s parental rights.

“That is what we’re going to have to do next,” Johnston’s mother, Sherry, said Wednesday on Larry King Live. “We were just hoping that we wouldn’t have to,” Sherry Johnston also said.

But “that is the step we’re going to have to go,” Johnston’s mother said later in the interview.

The teen father said that he and Bristol Palin, Gov’s Palin’s daughter, do not have a formal custody agreement regarding Tripp, their 4-month old son.

While the young father and his mother at times appeared hesitant about the prospect of taking formal legal action, Mercede Johnston, Levi Johnston’s younger sister, seemed anxious to get the brewing custody battle in front a judge.

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(CNN) – A third generation of the Palin clan is getting in on the increasingly public feud between the family of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and the family of Levi Johnston, Bristol Palin’s ex-fiance who is the father of Gov. Sarah Palin’s infant grandson.

In an issue of US weekly that hit newsstands Wednesday, Chuck Heath, the governor’s father and Bristol Palin’s grandfather, told the magazine that Johnston "’has not contributed anything’" for the infant son, Tripp, he fathered with Bristol.

The strife between the Johnston and Palin clans reached a new level recently when Johnston, his sister, and his mother tried in television interviews to dispel what the Johnstons called false rumors about them.

After an initial appearance by the Johnstons on the Tyra Banks show, a spokesperson for Governor Palin said the teenage father had lied about ever having lived in the Palins' home. Days later, the teenage father struck back in a second interview on CBS, complaining about how the the Palin family is treating him now.

Related: Palin statement fueled coverage, reporters say

In the US Weekly interview, Heath took issue with Johnston’s recent media rounds.

"'I don't agree with what he's doing right now,’" Heath told the magazine. "'It's not right. He's broke, so he's trying to capitalize on this. I wish he’d take some of this money he’s making and buy some diapers with it.’"

In the Johnstons’ interview with Tyra Banks, the talk show host made a point of emphasizing that the family was not being paid for appearing on her show.
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(CNN) – A third generation of the Palin clan is getting in on the increasingly public feud between the family of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and the family of Levi Johnston, Bristol Palin’s ex-fiance who is the father of Gov. Sarah Palin’s infant grandson.

In an issue of US weekly that hit newsstands Wednesday, Chuck Heath, the governor’s father and Bristol Palin’s grandfather, told the magazine that Johnston "’has not contributed anything’" for the infant son, Tripp, he fathered with Bristol.

The strife between the Johnston and Palin clans reached a new level recently when Johnston, his sister, and his mother tried in television interviews to dispel what the Johnstons called false rumors about them.

After an initial appearance by the Johnstons on the Tyra Banks show, a spokesperson for Governor Palin said the teenage father had lied about ever having lived in the Palins' home. Days later, the teenage father struck back in a second interview on CBS, complaining about how the the Palin family is treating him now.

Related: Palin statement fueled coverage, reporters say

In the US Weekly interview, Heath took issue with Johnston’s recent media rounds.

"'I don't agree with what he's doing right now,’" Heath told the magazine. "'It's not right. He's broke, so he's trying to capitalize on this. I wish he’d take some of this money he’s making and buy some diapers with it.’"

In the Johnstons’ interview with Tyra Banks, the talk show host made a point of emphasizing that the family was not being paid for appearing on her show.
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WASHINGTON (CNN) – A recent statement by a spokesperson for Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin only served to fuel the media’s coverage of the ongoing feud between Palin’s family and that of Levi Johnston, the father of Palin’s infant grandson and the ex-fiance of Palin’s teenage daughter, two journalists said Sunday.

The feud reached a new level when Levi Johnston, joined by his mother and his sister, sat down for interviews early last week in a media tour designed to dispel several rumors about the family that the Johnstons said were false.

After an appearance Monday on the Tyra Banks show where the young father said he had lived at Gov. Palin’s home while Palin’s daughter, Bristol, was pregnant with the teenage couple’s child and soon after the baby’s birth, a spokesman for the governor said Levi Johnston had lied in the interview.

In a later interview on CBS’ morning show, the young father struck back, sharply refuting the Palins' claim he was lying about being permitted to live with his onetime fiancé and suggesting the Palin family is now essentially treating him as an outcast.

Rather than quell the media frenzy surrounding the break-up of the two teenagers and subsequent feuding between their respective clans, the statement on Palin’s behalf only served to add fuel to the media fire, two journalists said Sunday on CNN’s “Reliable Sources.”

“Did the governor, you know, boost the ratings of these programs by blowing it up into this big public family feud?,” CNN’s Howard Kurtz asked journalists Deborah Norville and Amy Argetsinger.

“I think there is no question,” Norville, the host of “Inside Edition,” said. “Because when an elected official who was campaigning for the second highest office in the land issues a statement, we’re obligated in the news media to pay attention.”

Argetsinger, who writes for the Washington Post, agreed. “I don’t think anyone was particularly interested in talking to Levi Johnston after the Tyra show,” observed Argetsinger. “But she (Palin) called him a liar, which opened up the door to going back and getting his response. She created the day two, day three story, really.”

Soon after being named as Republican Sen. John McCain’s running mate last fall, Palin revealed that her unmarried teenage daughter, Bristol, was pregnant with Johnston’s child. Johnston joined the Palin family at the Republican National Convention.

The two teenagers had plans to marry but, instead, their relationship ended after the birth of their son, Tripp.

Johnston and his family said in interviews last week that Johnston is permitted to visit with his son at the Palin home but is not permitted to take the child away from the home.

(CNN) - A Palin family spokeswoman Monday is continuing to push back against recent claims from Levi Johnston, saying the former fiancé of Bristol Palin told an outright "lie" when he said the two were allowed to live together.

"Levi has never lived under the same roof as Bristol or any of the Palins," Palin spokeswoman Meghan Stapleton told CNN.

In an interview that aired in full Monday on the Tyra Banks Show, Johnston said he moved in to the Palin household shortly before the birth of son Tripp last December.

"I just wanted to be there for her when she had the baby," Johnston said, adding the two were allowed to share a room.

"Do you really think the governor and Todd would have allowed that," Stapleton said in an e-mail.

In a statement released late last Friday, Stapelton was also sharply critical of Johnston for appearing on the show.

"We're disappointed that Levi and his family, in a quest for fame, attention, and fortune, are engaging in flat-out lies, gross exaggeration, and even distortion of their relationship," Stapleton said. "It is unfortunate that Levi finds it more appealing to exploit his previous relationship with Bristol than to contribute to the well-being of the child."

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(CNN) - Could one of America's most famous ex-couples get back together again?

In an interview with ABC News, Levi Johnston - Bristol Palin's former boyfriend and father of her newborn baby Tripp - said it's possible the couple that made a splash at the Republican National Convention last summer could once again be an item.

"We'll see, we'll see how it is," The 19 year-old said in an interview on "Good Morning America" airing Monday. "We'll just remain friends for now. We're both cool with that decision, and we'll see."

The two were thrust into the spotlight last September when Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Bristol’s mother, was chosen to be the Republican vice presidential candidate. During the GOP's national convention in Minneapolis, Palin revealed then-17 year-old Bristol was pregnant with Johnston's baby and the two had plans to marry.

The former vice presidential candidate later indicated the wedding would occur this summer. But news surfaced last week the two had split.

In the interview with ABC, Johnston said the breakup occurred after a fight.

"We were just, we were in a fight," he said. "And trying to see if we can make things work. But this is what it kind of ended up turning into. But we'll see what happens.

"It's just us not, me not being mature enough, or something, and having a kid and thinking ... it could be better - better for us to separate for a while," he added.

But regardless if the two ever get back together, Johnston said he plans to play an important role in his young son's life.

"I'd give anything for, to be with him," he said. "[There are] a lot of changes when you're a father, when you hold him for the first time, you know. I don't do a lot of things I used to anymore, I'll tell you that."

"[I'm] growing up a lot," he added. "So, it's fun. It's good times."

Meanwhile, Sarah Palin told People magazine over the weekend daughter Bristol is "doing just great."

(CNN) – In her first interview since giving birth to son Tripp, Bristol Palin, daughter of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, said it’s not “realistic” to expect abstinence outside of marriage.

Watch: Bristol Palin breaks her silence

“Everyone should be abstinent . . . but it’s not realistic at all,” the 18-year-old told Fox’s Greta Van Susteren, adding that having sex as a teenager had become “more and more accepted now” among people her age.

The new mother, who gave birth to Gov. Palin’s first grandchild late last year, said her decision to go forward with an unplanned pregnancy was entirely her own.

“It was my choice to have the baby,” she said, in an interview that aired Monday night. “It doesn’t matter what my mom’s views are on it. It was my decision and I wish people would realize that too.”

Bristol Palin said she would eventually like marry Levi Johnston, her newborn son’s father. But they’ve “been focusing though on just getting through school and getting an education and stuff – getting a career going,” Palin said.

Palin said she was “excited to be a mom” and described her 2-month-old son Tripp as “awesome” and “very, very, very cute,” but said that other teenagers should not follow in her footsteps.

“I think everyone should just wait 10 years,” Palin said. Being a teenage mother “is not glamorous at all . . . your whole priorities change after having a baby.”

Full story

(CNN) - Bristol Palin, the teenage daughter of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, is going on the record about the recent birth of her son, Tripp Easton Mitchell Johnston.

In a statement dated Wednesday but posted on the Alaska governor's Web site Friday, Bristol says the pregnancy was "not ideal," but is thankful to have a family who supported her.

“Teenagers need to prevent pregnancy to begin with – this isn’t ideal. But I’m fortunate to have a supportive family which is dealing with this together," Bristol Palin said in the statement. "Tripp is so perfectly precious; we love him with all our hearts. I can’t imagine life without him now.”

In the same statement, Gov. Palin said she at first greeted the news of her daughter's pregnancy with "fear and a bit of despair."

"Isn’t it just like God to turn those circumstances into such an amazing, joyful blessing when you ask Him to help you through?" she said in the statement.

“The road ahead for this young couple will not be easy, but nothing worthwhile is ever easy. Bristol and Levi are committed to accomplish what millions of other young parents have accomplished, to provide a loving and secure environment for their child," added Palin, the former Republican vice presidential nominee.

Earlier: Bristol and Levi 'Working Their Butts Off,' says Palin

Tripp Easton Mitchell Johnston was born Saturday and is the son of Levi Johnston, a former high school hockey standout currently studying to be an electrician. Johnston and Palin reportedly plan to get married this summer.

A spokesperson for the Alaska governor told CNN Johnston is currently working to earn his GED while Palin is set to begin her final high school semester.

Bristol Palin, the 18-year-old daughter of former Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, gave birth on Saturday to a healthy 7 lb., 7 oz., baby boy in Palmer, Alaska.

"We think it's wonderful," said Colleen Jones, the sister of Bristol's grandmother Sally Heath, who confirmed the news. "The baby is fine and Bristol is doing well. Everyone is excited."

The baby's name is Tripp Easton Mitchell Johnston and he was born at 5:30 a.m., according to Jones.

Baby Tripp takes his surname from his dad, Levi Johnston, an apprentice electrician and former Wasilla High School hockey player who has been dating Bristol for three years.

Full story