Backstory

Palin's Big Secrets

An unauthorized biography reveals why she kept her pregnancy from her kids.

Sarah Palin kept news of her pregnancy and the baby's Down syndrome diagnosis from her three children to "spare them from unwanted attention," a new unauthorized biography claims. The governor of Alaska's cover was nearly blown when one of her daughters found her ultrasound, but Palin "explained it away," author Lorenzo Benet writes in Trail Blazer, out tomorrow. “Not knowing in my own heart if I was going to be ready to embrace a child with special needs—I couldn't talk about it,” Palin herself has said. In addition to seeking help from extended family, the Palins hired a local nanny to help out when she ran as John McCain’s vice presidential nominee, Benet writes. Palin also wasn’t immune to the allure of celebrity: She once went out of her way to meet Ivana Trump.