What to Know
At the start of 2026, Bristol Palin took to social media to share a health update and revealed that she’s been dealing with facial paralysis for a year now. The 35-year-old reality TV personality, who is also Sarah Palin’s daughter, told her followers on January 3 that things are “not looking great” for her but “could be worse.”
Bristol shared the update in response to a question from one of her followers, who asked, “How’s your face? Updates? Progress?” during a Q&A.
Bristol said she plans to experiment with another treatment method.
It seems like she’s trying to remain optimistic, but she’s also hoping that Botox will help. “If anyone’s wondering, today’s day 323 of my face being paralyzed,” she said in a clip that was recorded on December 9, 2025, according to the timestamp. She added that there’s “not a whole lot of movement.” To show her followers what she was talking about, she also took her sunglasses off.
Gesturing to her eye on the affected side of her face, she said, “I will eventually get Botox in it. It just gets so small when I smile, or when I’m expressive at all.”
Though things have not dramatically improved for her at this point, she added, “Could be worse, could be better. At least I’ve got cute sunglasses.”
In 2025, she opened up about ‘a little weird sensation’ in her face.
At first, she just felt “a little off,” but a couple of hours later, “the entire left side of [her] face was numb.” In a video shared to her Instagram Stories in January 2025, Bristol said doctors told her it could be Bell’s palsy caused by stress or lack of sleep. She suspected that it was caused by stress.
Per the Mayo Clinic, Bell’s palsy, which can occur at any age, often begins improving within a few weeks. Most people recover from the condition in six months. However, some people could experience symptoms for life. “I woke up nine days ago with a little weird sensation in my face,” Bristol said in January 2025. “My mouth was pulling this way, and it just felt a little off. Within a couple of hours, the entire left side of my face was numb and just paralyzed. I couldn’t really blink my eye, definitely had no movement on the side of my face. So crazy.”
The fact that Bristol’s symptoms came on suddenly is not unusual. It’s unclear why she’s still experiencing symptoms a year later, but it’s not unheard of.
