Bristol Palin has been battling her mysterious facial paralysis for an entire year.
“If anyone’s wondering, today’s Day 323 of my face being paralyzed,” Palin, 35, said in video footage taken last month that she posted to her Instagram Stories on Saturday, January 3. “Not looking great.”
She continued, “This is what it looks like. There’s not a whole lot of movement.”
According to Palin, she plans to “eventually” get Botox in one of her eyes as a result.
“It just gets so small when I smile or when I’m expressive at all,” Palin explained. “It’ll be a year in January, could be worse, could be better. At least I’ve got cute sunglasses.”
Palin disclosed in January 2025 that half of her face was paralyzed.
“I woke up nine days ago with a weird little sensation in my face,” she said in a social media video at the time. “My mouth was pulling this way and it just felt a little off. So, I went and looked in the mirror. I’m like, ‘Wow, this is looking a little weird.’”
A few hours later, the Teen Mom alum noticed the left side of her face was “numb and just paralyzed.”
“Couldn’t really blink my eye, definitely had no movement on the side of my face,” she recalled. “So crazy. [I] went to the doctor. They ran tests, they did a CT scan [and] they put me on steroids, put me on other medications. Nothing came back with all the results. They think it’s just a case of Bell’s palsy maybe brought on by stress or lack of sleep.”
She added at the time, “I’m not really sure. There’s nothing that I was super stressed out about, but I think it was brought on by stress.”
According to the Mayo Clinic, Bell’s palsy is a temporary condition that causes sudden weakness in the muscles on one side of the face.
“I’m finally starting to get some of the sensation back. It’s been, like, a little painful the last two days, which is a sign [and a] good indication that it’s getting better, so praise the Lord,” she said. “This has been wild. Also if you know anyone that has any of these symptoms, I would highly suggest going more of the Eastern medicine [route], as well. I’ve been getting acupuncture multiple times and that’s helped speed up the process of recovery tremendously.”
Several months later, Palin revealed in another social media update that she was “handling [the situation] well.”
“I can’t look at pictures of myself,” she said in July 2025, adding that her face is “probably 70 percent back to normal. … I woke up and it was paralyzed, completely out of the blue. No warning. [I] wasn’t sick, didn’t get the v@x, no recent Botox. Just paralyzed.”
Palin still doesn’t have a definitive diagnosis.
“Black skinnies, black long sleeve, same denim shirt I wear all the time, vintage Louis Vuitton,” she captioned a November 2025 Instagram pic of her outfit, jokingly adding, “And still a crooked face.”
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