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The Real Reason Bristol Palin Is Getting Divorced

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A Medal of Honor recipient, a teenage political headline-maker, and a marriage that couldn’t survive the fallout of war.

Bristol Palin confirmed in August 2018 that her divorce from Dakota Meyer was final, closing out roughly a year and a half of marriage that had already survived one broken engagement and a very public on-again, off-again courtship. The split, filed in Texas earlier in the year, cited the standard “discord or conflict of personalities.” But as both Palin and Meyer prepared to address it on camera ahead of her debut on MTV’s Teen Mom OG, the real story turned out to be far more specific — and far more personal — than a generic irreconcilable-differences filing.

• Palin and Meyer called off their engagement in May 2015 just days before their planned wedding, then reconciled and married quietly in June 2016.
• Meyer moved out of the family home in December 2017 and officially filed for divorce in Texas in early 2018, citing “discord or conflict of personalities.”
• Palin has publicly attributed the marriage’s collapse to Meyer’s PTSD from his combat service in Afghanistan, saying, “We don’t know how to co-exist together.”

A Relationship That Nearly Ended Before It Started

Bristol Palin first became a household name in 2008 at age 17, pregnant with her son Tripp while her mother, Sarah Palin, ran for vice president. Years later, she got engaged to Dakota Meyer, a U.S. Marine veteran awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in Afghanistan’s Ganjgal Valley. That engagement fell apart in May 2015, called off just days before the ceremony was supposed to happen — an early sign of the instability that would eventually define the marriage. The two reconciled and married quietly in June 2016, going on to have two daughters, Sailor Grace and Atlee Bay, joining Palin’s son Tripp from a prior relationship.

The Breaking Point

By December 2017, Meyer had moved out of the home the couple shared. He filed for divorce in Texas in early 2018, and court paperwork listed the familiar catch-all “discord or conflict of personalities” — language that explains nothing on its own but set the legal wheels turning. It wasn’t until promotional material for Palin’s arrival on Teen Mom OG that either side spoke plainly about what actually drove them apart.

PTSD Takes Center Stage

Palin didn’t dodge the subject once cameras started rolling. She told viewers directly what had been eating at the marriage behind closed doors.

“My husband, Dakota, has been struggling with PTSD and it’s been hard on our marriage. We don’t know how to co-exist together.”

That admission reframed the divorce entirely — not as a scandal-driven collapse, but as a relationship strained by the lingering effects of Meyer’s time in combat. PTSD following deployment is a documented, common struggle among decorated veterans, and Palin’s willingness to name it publicly gave the split a far more sympathetic shape than the tabloid speculation that preceded it.

Meyer’s Side of the Story

Meyer offered his own take on social media, framing the split less as a tragedy and more as a decision made out of self-preservation. He said Palin “wasn’t happy with me so it’s for the best,” and advised followers to recognize “when enough is enough” after trying everything to make it work. It’s a blunt, no-frills response consistent with how Meyer has generally carried himself in public — direct, unsentimental, and unwilling to dress up a hard outcome. Readers who’ve followed other celebrity breakups know the pattern well; the same dynamic of public statements filling in for private explanation played out in The Real Reason Phaedra Parks Got Divorced and in Everything We Know About Hoda Kotb’s Split From Joel Schiffman.

With the divorce finalized and both sides on record, the next chapter played out on Teen Mom OG itself, where Palin’s October 2018 debut promised to follow her navigating co-parenting Tripp, Sailor Grace, and Atlee Bay while Meyer’s own comments continued circulating on social media — leaving fans of the show to watch the aftermath unfold in real time rather than in a courtroom filing.