Levi Johnston, the former fiancé of Bristol Palin, is spearheading a campaign to pay for his custody fight over the couple's 7-year-old son, Tripp.
Johnston made his pitch to raise money for legal fees on
GoFundMe.com four days ago with a top goal of $10,000, but he's already exceeded that amount. As of Wednesday afternoon, the fund had received 215 donations totaling $11,130.
In the plea for money, Johnston and his wife Sunny, say:
"We have been engaged in a long and rather protracted legal battle to retain custody of Levi's son Tripp. The good news is that it appears the custody situation is settled. The bad news is that we still owe many thousands of dollars in legal fees.
"Unlike some we are not able to raise money through fundraising e-mails or SuperPACS and are instead asking for your help in paying these bills and allowing us to get back to the important job of raising our family.
"After so many generous people reached out to us and offered their help we decided to swallow our pride and take them up on their extremely kind offers … Every dime will go toward attorney fees and the outstanding debts that we accrued during this long and very difficult legal battle."
The Washington Post speculates that the couple's remark about being unable to use super Pacs to raise money could be a slap at Bristol's mother Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and vice-presidential running mate of Sen. John McCain in 2008.
"Despite those allegedly buried hatchets, do we detect another dig at his ex's political family?"
the Post's Emily Hein wrote.
In February, Bristol confirmed that she and Johnston now have joint custody of Tripp.
Bristol became pregnant with Johnston's love child at the age of 17 — a development first made public on opening day of the 2008 Republican National Convention.
She and Johnston split up, reunited and broke up again — and a long custody battle over Tripp ensued.
Bristol cashed in on her notoriety with a memoir
"Not Afraid of Life: My Journey So Far," published by William Morrow; a Lifetime show,
"Bristol Palin: Life's a Tripp," and as a competitor on ABC-TV's top-rated series
"Dancing with the Stars."
She is now married to Dakota Meyer, a decorated Marine veteran and former Playgirl model, with whom she has a daughter, Sailor Grace.
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