Levi may fight for custody of Sarah Palin’s grandson

Levi Johnston, the teenage father of Sarah Palin's grandson, has threatened to make a legal bid for custody of four-month-old Tripp.

Johnston, 18, who fathered the baby with the Alaska governor's oldest daughter, admitted to CNN's Larry King Live that he has employed a lawyer. Levi and Bristol, also 18, do not have a formal court agreement over visitation rights and he has not seen his son for a fortnight, he told Larry King.

Johnston has said in previous TV interviews that his former girlfriend has limited his access to the baby.

Although he said he is willing to go to court over custody of baby Tripp, Levi said he hoped it would not come to that. He said he liked the Palin family and hoped to work out an arrangement.

"I can go over there and see him," he told the show on Wednesday. "But it's now a kind of an uncomfortable thing for me to go over there. You know, I want to be able to take him and that kind of thing, go do the father thing with him and I can't."

"I don't think either one of us want to go and go to lawyers and try to fight for custody," he said. However if the situation between Johnston and Alaska's First Family did not change, "I think we're going to have to", he said. Levi initially said he did not have a lawyer but when pressed by King he admitted he did. "But I don't want to stir anything up", he added.

Appearing on the show alongside Johnston was Levi's mother Sherry Johnston and sister Mercede. The pair told King they were prepared to press for legal action. "That is what we're going to have to do next," Sherry said. "We were just hoping that we wouldn't have to."

Responding to the Larry King interview, Palin family spokeswoman Meghan Stapleton said: "Bristol is focused on going to college, raising Tripp, and advocating abstinence."

The Larry King interview is the latest in a series of high-profile interviews by Johnston, including appearances on The Tyra Banks Show. Levi insisted however that he is not seeking celebrity status. "I didn't ask to be thrown into this, so I'm not out here looking for fame. I'm just trying to get my story out," he said, adding that he had not been paid for any of the interviews and that he wanted to "let the people know what's really going on."