Bristol Palin Wanted Levi Johnston to Work 'His Butt Off' to Finish School, Get a Job

Aug. 4, 2010— -- A day after Bristol Palin announced her engagement to Levi Johnston was off -- again -- she said she wanted her ex to be more like her dad, who "works his butt off."

"It is true that I wanted Levi to be at home, complete his education and get a regular job," Palin told "Good Morning America" in an exclusive statement. "Levi told me he wanted the same thing."

The couple's tumultuous on-again, off-again relationship became decidedly off Tuesday when Palin, 19, said Johnston may have fathered a child with another teenage girl. The news, she told People magazine, came the same day last month that they went public with their rekindled romance.

Now, it seems, the war of words between the young parents has picked up again after a brief respite.

"I see that Levi's representative said I expected Levi to be more like my dad. Exactly," Palin said in her statement to "GMA."

"My dad works his butt off and always put his family first. Every woman should want a husband like that," she said. "That is what I expected from Levi."

Palin, mom to 19-month-old Tripp, didn't name the young woman she believes is pregnant with Johnston's child. Rumors swirled last week that Johnston, 20, had impregnated his former girlfriend, Lanesia Garcia. But Garcia, 20, told Usmagazine.com Saturday that those reports are "not true at all."

Palin claims she has only seen Johnston once in the past three weeks. What eventually pushed her away were his fame-hungry ways.

"The final straw was him flying to Hollywood for what he told me was to see some hunting show but come to find out it was that music video mocking my family," she told People. "He's just obsessed with the limelight and I got played."

But she hasn't lost hope that she'll find love and a man to be a father for Tripp.

"I have faith that I'll find it," she told People. "Through this whole experience I know I need a man who's going to be completely honest with me and someone who loves me and Tripp and wants to be with him all the time. I also want someone who has religious beliefs and a good family."

Sarah Palin Reacts to Daughter's Break Up

She's got support from her mother.

"I wish for Bristol to be able to move forward in life with her same forgiving, gracious, optimistic spirit, but from henceforth she'll know to trust but verify," Sarah Palin said in a statement to People. "Bristol is strong, she is independent, and she knows what is right for her son."

While Sarah Palin didn't condone her daughter reuniting with Johnston, the now split couple ecstatically announced their second engagement in July via the cover of Us Weekly magazine.

"It felt right," Palin told the magazine at the time, "even though we don't have the approval of our parents." She added that she planned for Johnston and Tripp to wear matching camouflage vests at their outdoor wedding.

In June, Bristol Palin told ABC's "Good Morning America" that she was reuniting with Johnston for the sake of their 1-year-old son, Tripp.

"I am doing my best to raise a happy, active and healthy boy," Palin said. "I believe that wherever possible, if the parents can cooperate and co-parent in a positive way, the child will benefit. Levi and I are turning a new page here as co-parents to this wonderful boy and putting aside the past because doing so is in Tripp's best interest."

Palin and Johnston's first engagement fell apart in March 2009 after they appeared together throughout Sarah Palin's 2008 vice presidential campaign. Following the breakup, Palin became a spokeswoman for teen abstinence, while Johnston chose a decidedly different path: posing for Playgirl magazine and exploring his options in the reality TV realm.