Back in March, Bristol Palin announced her engagement to Dakota Meyer, a US Marine and recipient of the Medal of Honor. If I’m being honest, the guy pinged on my sketchball radar a little bit, not because of his military service, but because he seemed to be too comfortable with having firearms and children close together. Then something interesting happened over the weekend – the Daily Mail published a story about how Dakota had a “secret marriage” under his belt, a marriage that Bristol didn’t know about. Apparently, he married a young woman in 2008, but the marriage fell apart quickly and they were divorced after a few years. The story came out because one of his ex-wife’s friends called Dakota out on social media. When I read the DM story, I kind of thought they were reaching – I mean, how did they know that Dakota hadn’t told Bristol about his starter marriage? And why is it a big deal anyway? Well, it was a big deal. Because Dakota and Bristol just called off their wedding.

Bristol Palin’s wedding to former U.S. Marine Dakota Meyer has been canceled, her mother, Sarah Palin, announced in a Facebook post on Monday.

“Bristol and Dakota couldn’t be more thankful for the love and support of family and friends over the past months while preparing for their wedding,” the former Alaska governor wrote. “They have informed loved ones that unfortunately the announced celebration planned for May 23 will not be held.”

She added that the Palin and Meyer families would still gather for a barbecue in Kentucky, where the wedding was supposed to be held, to “celebrate life, in general!” She also included the following statement from her daughter.

“Regarding salacious headlines in recent days about ‘secret wives,’ Dakota and I discussed our past relationships prior to our engagement. Dakota was legally divorced years ago, as any good reporter could and should have disclosed to readers. As usual, false stories and dramatically written headlines begging controversy should be disregarded, and we have faith that our privacy will be respected at this time by those with decency.”

It was reported last week that Meyer had married another woman, Cassandra Wain, in May 2008, and that he’d hidden his previous marriage from Bristol. Neither Bristol nor Sarah said if the couple had ended their engagement or if the wedding had been moved to a different date.

Their Facebook post accompanied a photo that read, “Trust in God’s timing. It’s better to wait a while and have things fall into place than to rush and have things fall apart.” Bristol had shared the same picture on Instagram on Saturday.

[From People]

Regarding Bristol’s statement (via Sarah Palin’s Facebook): I guess I believe that Bristol and Dakota did have “the talk” about past relationships and maybe he did tell her about his first marriage. But if that’s the case, why call off the wedding? And why announce everything so publicly? My sketchball radar is pinging again.

I actually don’t feel any sense of schadenfreude with this – while I think the Palin family is full of trainwreck personalities, the fact that Bristol is calling off her wedding so last minute makes it seem like Dakota has issues and Bristol wanted to get out before she was legally tied to him. If that’s the case, props to her for trusting her gut.

Photos courtesy of Bristol and Dakota’s Instagrams.