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Levi Johnston speaks on Bristol Palin, Obama and baby
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-10-14 09:32 WASILLA, Alaska -- Levi Johnston, who's having a baby with the daughter of Republican vice presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin, can't believe all the things he's hearing.
No, he wasn't held against his will on the campaign trail. No, he's not being forced into a shotgun wedding with 17-year-old Bristol Palin. "None of that's true," Johnston, 18, said in a rare interview with The Associated Press. "We both love each other. We both want to marry each other. And that's what we are going to do." Standing in the driveway of his family home in this small Alaska town, Johnston spoke about the rumors swirling around him. The soft-spoken teenager discussed his relationship with Palin and how life has changed with fatherhood fast approaching. He agreed to talk despite the presidential campaign's advice in the days following Gov. Sarah Palin's nomination to avoid the media. "They're not telling me anything right now," Johnston said as he checked his Blackberry. "It's pretty chill." Not surprisingly, Johnston was a little shocked when he learned about Bristol's pregnancy, but he says he quickly embraced the prospects of fatherhood. The baby is due December 18. Johnston has dropped out of high school to take a job on the North Slope oil fields as an apprentice electrician. There's no word on how his future mother-in-law feels about Johnston's decision to drop out of high school. Last year, she made a point of trying to turn around the high dropout rate in their hometown. "I'd remind the kids that no matter where they are in life, (maybe) in circumstances that probably aren't ideal, that there is no circumstance that they're in that is insurmountable or would necessitate them just giving up," Palin said. Johnston hinted he's expecting a boy, but he declined to discuss baby names. "I'm looking forward to having him," he said. "I'm going to take him hunting and fishing. He'll be everywhere with me." Johnston, considered a heartthrob in the town of Wasilla where Sarah Palin used to be mayor, said he wanted to set the record straight on a few issues. For starters, he said his much-maligned MySpace page was a joke, the one that claimed he said: "I'm a ... redneck," referring to a common stereotype of poor, rural, white Americans and "I don't want kids." Johnston said his friends created the page a few years ago, and he had nothing to do with it. Johnston said he has dated Palin since his freshman year in high school. "We were planning on getting married a long time ago with or without the kid," he said. "That was the plan from the start." While Johnston provided few details about next summer's wedding, the planning has started: A cousin will likely be his best man, and he has asked two hockey buddies, Ben Barber and Dane Wilson, to be groomsmen. Barber doesn't think anyone pressured Johnston into marriage. "If he thought it wasn't the right thing to do he probably wouldn't do it," he said. |
