Levi Johnston Opens Up About Being A Dad Again

Wonderwall, Wednesday, April 11, 2012, 2:58pm (PDT)

The Insider

• Levi Johnston and his pregnant girlfriend Sunny Oglesby exclusively sit down with The Insider's Brooke Anderson to talk about Levi being accused of being a "deadbeat" dad, why Levi doesn't feel like a father to his son with Sarah Palin's daughter Bristol, and how Levi accidentally got a girlfriend pregnant for the second time.

  Levi has been involved in a longstanding war of words with the Palin family, and Sunny, a 20-year-old college student and substitute preschool teacher, says, "I'm tired of people thinking that my boyfriend's a bad father, especially now that I'm having his baby. I don't want people thinking that about him."

  RELATED: Was Bristol Palin's Teenage Pregnancy Planned?

  The couple, who have been dating about a year and a half, tell Brooke that their pregnancy was "unplanned," with Levi explaining, "There was a time we went to the cabin and forgot the birth control pills and, you know, about a month later we found out we were having a baby."

  Levi alleges that he has not been able to see Tripp recently, and says he doesn't "feel like a dad" to Tripp: "I love Tripp more than anything and he is my son, but I don't feel like a dad to him. Not by choice … hopefully one day I can be."

  Levi, who admits that he owes child support to Bristol but says he intends to catch up on payments, denies being a deadbeat dad, saying, "No, and I never will be." Sunny comes to his defense, saying, "It's really sad, his image, because it's pretty much the complete opposite of how he is in real life. He's an awesome dad. And he tries to get Tripp all the time."

  She continues, "It's really sad that [The Palins have] put that image out for him cause I mean everyone's gonna believe them because they're more famous… you know it's Sarah Palin and she has a lot of fans so everyone believes that and Levi really doesn't have a chance against them."

  RELATED: Bristol Palin on Losing Her Virginity

  Brooke asks, "Do you think Sarah Palin is keeping your son away from you?" to which Levi replies, "I think she's, you know, she plays a big role... on Bristol you know, Bristol looks up to her and that's a family and, you know I listen to my family, so I'm sure she does have some part of it, yeah."

• The Palin family attorney tells The Insider in a statement, "Mr. Johnston has never exercised his agreed visitation. The record demonstrates that this lack of visitation is largely voluntary and not due to interference by Bristol or her parents. If Mr. Johnston would like to exercise visitation, or perhaps pay child support, he knows Bristol's number and should contact her directly. While it may not get Mr. Johnston the publicity he seeks, such direct communication between the parents is the preferred way of resolving these types of disputes."

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  Ultimately the young couple says they hope that Tripp will be a part of their new child's life. "I would love to have Tripp be a big brother to our new baby. That would be great," Levi says.

  Tune in to The Insider Thursday night for much more with Levi and Sunny, including whether wedding bells will be ringing for the couple, how Levi intends to support his new family, and which member of the Palin family he says recently flipped him the bird.