In 2018, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin told a reporter from the Daily Mail that that she and her then-husband Todd were “finally in that spot where we can seize the opportunity to get outside and do more.” They had already owned one luxury home in Scottsdale, Arizona, had sold it, and were building an even bigger mansion in the same area.
“We were anchored here [Wasilla] for the kids. Now our youngest daughter is going to be out of school — she’s going to go to nursing school — she’ll be taken care of,” Palin said in an interview published that year. “And we’re ready to do a lot more.”
“We’re not going to be holed up in Wasilla, Alaska, the rest of our life,” Palin told the reporter. There was no indication they intended to sell their house on Lake Lucille, but it was clear to readers they were going to spend more time out of state; they were building the kind of home in Arizona that most would not consider an occasional getaway.
Palin’s new mansion on Scottsdale mountain property was being built after the Palins sold their other Scottsdale home for $2.275 million in 2016, according to The Los Angeles Times.
According to MansionGlobal.com, the Palins had purchased the new lot for $937,000 in 2015. With the mansion still under construction in 2018, the 30-year marriage was failing. Todd filed for divorce, and she put the unfinished project on the market. The two-story, 7,660-square-foot house sold for $6.2 million.
Sarah and Todd had been an item in Wasilla since high school. In the 2018 interview, they told the reporter they thought it was time for a change.
“I want to do something that will influence our culture,” Sarah is quoted as saying. “To really remind people how important a work ethic is and to try to erase a lot of this idea that people have that government owes them anything. Or that anybody owes them anything.”
Palin told the Daily Mail in 2018 she wanted to be more national in focus, in “some positions here to get that message out there, how important it is to be independent, get out there and work for yourself.”
“He’s more driven than I am to bust out and get some things done,” Palin said of Todd, adding, “If you see sea planes flying around Arizona or New Mexico you’ll know who it is.”
Palin, now 58, retreated to her Wasilla house for a couple of years, but appears to be spending more time out of state once again with her new beau, retired NHL hockey player Ron Duguay, who has a house in New York City and another in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. Duguay, 65, and his ex-wife, supermodel Kim Alexis, divorced in 2016.
Although she is campaigning for Congress in Alaska in 2022, Palin is rarely seen in public in her home state, or anywhere else for that matter, since the heady days this past winter when she was a regular item with Duguay in New York City, while her lawsuit against the New York Times was being heard in a Manhattan courtroom. She was being featured in newspapers in New York almost daily.
After Don Young died, she made her move to rejoin political life. She has done a few parades — the Colony Days Parade, the Bear Paw Parade, and the Golden Days Parade, but otherwise she has kept a fairly low profile.
Palin has filed for Permanent Fund dividends and she has voted in most elections in Alaska for the past decades, except for a couple of municipal elections. She has maintained her street credibility as an Alaskan.
Last week Duguay told a Canadian reporter that he and Palin were negotiating marriage. Palin appeared flustered at the comment and said it sounded like he was negotiating a hockey contract. The National Enquirer in May wrote, however, that it is Palin who has an extensive list of prenuptial demands of Duguay.
