Sarah Palin took cocaine while snowmobiling with friends and had illicit affairs with the NBA star Glen Rice and one of her husband’s business partners, a new Joe McGinniss’ book sensationally claims.

Sarah Palin, 47, who probably hopes for joining the 2012 presidential race is said to have taken the class A drug with her husband, while smoking marijuana at college in secret liaisons with one of her professors.

The explosive Joe McGinness’ book could halt Sarah Palin's 2012 bid before it has started

“The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin”, Joe McGinniss’ book is due to be published on September 20.

The book also alleges that Sarah Palin, the former governor of Alaska is far from the traditional family woman she claims to be.

Sarah Palin had a one-night stand with Miami Heat basketball star Glen Rice less than a year before she eloped with her husband, the book claims.

She is said to have met Glen Rice in 1987 when he was playing in a college basketball tournament in Alaska and Sarah Palin worked as a sports reporter for KTUU television.

The book also claimed that Sarah Palin had a six-month affair with Brad Hanson, who ran a snowmobile dealership with her husband Todd. The betrayal led to Todd Palin dissolving the business.

In a bid to expose Sarah Palin’s skeletons, Joe McGinness has studied the former vice presidential candidate for three years and last year even moved in to a home next door in Wasilla, Alaska, to dig some more.

McGinness writes that after college Sarah Palin developed a “fetish” for black men.

Palin allegedly had a tryst with basketball star Glen Rice in her younger sister Molly’s University of Alaska dorm room, while she was dating Todd and just nine months before the couple were married.

Sarah Palin got pregnant with Todd and they eloped in August 1988.

Palins son Track, the oldest of five, was born eight months later in April 1989.

According to the National Enquirer, a friend said Sarah Palin spent the night with the basketball star but could not confirm whether they had sex.

“I remember Sarah feeling pretty good that she’d been with a black basketball star,” the source told the magazine.

Glen Rice is said to have confirmed the night of passion in Joe McGinniss’s book.

The book goes on to claim that while married Sarah Palin also had an affair with her husband’s business partner, Brad Hanson.

Todd Palin is alleged to have ended all businesses with Brad Hanson after he found out about the affair in 1996.

Both Sarah Palin and Brad Hanson have denied the allegations.

Sarah Palin is said to have taken the class A drug with her husband, while smoking marijuana at college in secret liaisons with one of her professors

Joe McGinniss writes that while Sarah Palin attended Mat-Su College she took marijuana with a professor who was also the father of one of her female friends.

Before Palin was elected governor she is also said to have snorted cocaine with her husband off an overturned oil drum while snowmobiling with friends.

Todd Palin, who was arrested for DUI in 1986 used cocaine a lot and was “on the end of a straw plenty,” according to a long-term associate quoted in the book.

The explosive book goes on to quote those who knew the family growing up, claiming Sarah Palin was a “bad mum” who would lock herself in her room for hours on end asking not to be disturbed while her children cooked themselves dinner.

The former Alaska governor was plucked from obscurity to be the Republican vice presidential candidate in 2008.

The “pitbull in lipstick”, Sarah Palin sparked a media storm after accepting the nomination, despite questions over her experience.

Sarah Palin has remained tight-lipped on whether she would stand next year, but said she would likely make an announcement at the end of this month.

There have also been frequent rumors that Palin is set to divorce her husband Todd, which have always been denied.

Sarah Palin also has faced accusations by the father of her daughter’s child, Levi Johnston, that she wanted to keep Bristol’s pregnancy a secret and adopt the child herself.

She has yet to declare whether she intends to run for election in next year’s presidential race.

Joe McGinniss, 68, has written several political books including works on former president Richard Nixon and on Alaska.

Joe McGinniss is a controversial writer who has built a career on immersing himself in extreme subjects in order to “search for the truth, however elusive… Penetrating the façade of institutions and people in public life”.

Joe McGinniss

The author gained notoriety aged 26 when his first book about how Richard Nixon marketed himself, titled The Selling of the President 1968, became an overnight success – leading to him becoming the youngest living author with a book on the New York Times bestseller list.

McGinniss has since written a combination of true crime books and political exposés, as well as one non-fiction account of a year exploring Alaska.

In 1983, his take on the notorious Jeffrey MacDonald murder case led him being sued, with MacDonald alleging Joe McGinniss made him believe he was on his side before slamming him in the book. The case settled out of court.

Even before moving in next door Sarah Palin, Joe McGinniss had tried to get close to her, offering more than $60,000 to have dinner with the politician at a charity auction in 2009. The writer lost to a winning bid of 63,500.

When Sarah Palin found out about her new neighbor, she wrote on her Facebook page:

“We’re sure to have a doozey to look forward to with this treasure he’s penning.

“Wonder what kind of material he’ll gather while overlooking Piper’s bedroom?”