Levi Johnston talked a lot of smack about the Palin family last year, most notably claiming that Sarah Palin referred to her child with Down’s Syndrome as her “retarded baby.” He said that thePalins were working to keep him away from his son, Tripp, and that they convinced Bristol to break up with him by buying her a car. He claimed Sarah wanted to be famous and often complained about how she would quit her “hard” job as governor after she earned some easy money from her book. (Which she did, leaving a full six months before her term was up.) He also claimed that Sarah and her husband Todd were having marital problems and that Todd regularly slept on the couch. (There’s more, like Sarah and Todd supposedly knowing that he was sleeping with their daughter and then conspiring to cover up her pregnancy. I probably forgot a couple of things.)

I don’t like the Palins at all but Levi really did step out of line with his little press tour. The Palins didn’t stay quiet about anything he said of course and fired back with bitchy statements at just about every turn. He didn’t have to talk so much smack about his would-be in laws, as entertaining as it was at the time, only he didn’t have anything else to talk about and needed to keep his name in the press. He wanted to reinvent himself as “Ricky Hollywood” and have some kind of media career despite his lackluster personality. It didn’t work and he couldn’t even fall back on his good looks. The Playgirl photoshoot he did ended up being a pathetic dud.

Now Johnston is getting along with Bristol again and probably sleeping with her. (Although they’re calling it “co-parenting” and Bristol is swearing she’s chaste and cashing in on it.) He’s had to eat a little crow and has issued a vague apology for all the crap he said about the Palins:

Levi Johnston isn’t just getting past his differences with Bristol Palin – he’s also hoping to make amends with her famous mom.

“Last year, after Bristol and I broke up, I was unhappy and a little angry. Unfortunately, against my better judgment, I publicly said things about the Palins that were not completely true,” he tells PEOPLE exclusively. “I have already privately apologized to Todd and Sarah. Since my statements were public, I owe it to the Palins to publicly apologize.”

Bristol added her own statement Tuesday saying, “Part of co-parenting is creating healthy and honest relationships between the parents. Tripp one day needs to know the truth and needs to know that even if a mistake is made the honorable thing to do is to own up to it.”

Johnston and the former vice presidential candidate had been engaged in a war of words, with the 20-year-old accusing Palin of complaining about her job as governor of Alaska and claiming “there was a lot of talk of divorce” in the Palin household.

Palin spoke out against the “malicious” remarks and also ripped Johnston for posing for Playgirl and talking about sex on The Tyra Banks Show.

Though they had been in a bitter custody battle, Bristol, who recently made her acting debut on ABC Family’s The Secret Life of the American Teenager, has said she and Johnston want to turn “a new page here as co-parents … and [put] aside the past because doing so is in [our son] Tripp’s best interest.”

“So to the Palin family in general and to Sarah Palin in particular, please accept my regrets and forgive my youthful indiscretion,” Johnston says in the statement. “I hope one day to restore your trust.”

[From People]

So what wasn’t true, that Sarah wanted to cash in and abandon her post as governor of Alaska? She kind of proved him right on that one, but I’m thinking that the marital strife was normal and that Levi was blowing it out of proportion. I’m hoping that Sarah never called little Trig “retarded,” either.

I want to know whether Levi is still paying the $1,750 a month he owes Bristol in child support now that she’s making her own money from being famous like her mom. If he reunited with her and convinced her he was broke, maybe she would overlook some missed payments. I’m just saying.