Keke Palmer Reflects On ‘Toxic’ Pairing With Ex Darius Jackson

The younger media mogul, 31, lately took a second to replicate on her ex whereas selling her upcoming buddy comedy, “One in every of Them Days,” co-starring singer SZA.

Palmer and Jackson share a son, Leodis, who will have fun his first birthday this February.

Palmer and Jackson, a health teacher, had been stated to have begun relationship in 2021. She would reveal her being pregnant a yr later whereas internet hosting “Saturday Night time Dwell.”

Following a now-infamous public shaming on X (previously Twitter) in 2023 when Jackson called out the “True Jackson, VP” star over a bodysuit she wore to an Usher live performance – “It’s the outfit although… you a mother” – followers started to fret that Palmer’s pairing with Jackson could possibly be poisonous.

That assumption can be confirmed when Palmer filed a restraining order in opposition to Jackson later that yr, alleging bodily and emotional abuse.

Talking to The Cut, Palmer claims she initially had issue accepting the cruel actuality of her relationship with Jackson.

“There’s a [sensationalizing] that occurs with that phrase,” she says. “However there actually are sometimes no different phrases to explain such a poisonous dynamic.”

Palmer admits that giving start to her son was the wake-up name she wanted to depart the connection, “earlier than it had the possibility of changing into one thing that I needed to survive.”

For years, Palmer says she did what she might to make excuses for Jackson’s conduct – one thing she attributes to observing others whereas overlooking her personal wants.

“You possibly can say, ‘I do know you’re not like that,’ or ‘I do know it’s not like this,’ or ‘I do know you’re a superb particular person deep down,’” she now realizes, including, “You can also make so many excuses for conduct that would have stopped.”

Even with being a purported home violence sufferer, Palmer was extra involved with how Jackson’s abuse could lead on followers to pity her – one thing she has by no means wished.

“I hated it,” she admits. “It was my private junk. It didn’t deserve a spot within the middle of one thing that I labored very arduous to make encouraging and empowering.”

Regardless of sightings of the 2 celebrating Palmer’s birthday and Jackson’s current enrollment within the army, the 2 stay separated whereas “peacefully co-parenting” their son.

Palmer additionally gave particulars of the place issues stand following the wave of headlines crafted from an alleged dialog on the set of “Scream Queens,” the 2015 Ryan Murphy horror-comedy sequence.

Per “Grasp of Me,” Palmer’s 2023 memoir, the second occurred after she tried to ease stress between two arguing, white co-stars. A type of stars – whom Palmer renames “Brenda” within the e-book – then turned to Keke and said, “Keke, don’t. Who’re you – Martin F-cking Luther King?”

Palmer has by no means recognized the particular person outright however says they by no means apologized. They did, nonetheless, attain out to the actress through Instagram to congratulate her on the e-book.

“I used to be like, ‘Hey, thanks, it feels good,’” she revealed. “She was simply checking the temperature. She is aware of what she did.”

As for Murphy himself who, per The Blast, as soon as yelled at Palmer for taking a previously-scheduled time off, the producer has but to reply to her claims – not that Palmer minds, anyway.

“I did what I needed to do for me, and it triggered me a problem with one of the crucial common and profitable males within the trade,” she famous, “and generally attending to your success could price you to do the identical factor.’”

Palmer’s challenges in life and her profession had been paramount within the combat to keep up her imaginative and prescient for “One in every of Them Days,” her first big-screen function since 2022’s “Nope.”

As co-star and an govt producer of the undertaking, Palmer says it took practically 5 years of growth and 4 script rewrites earlier than lastly arriving on the completed product – a narrative primarily based on two mates doing their greatest to remain hopeful and afloat in a world the place gentrification is shortly changing into the norm.

“I needed to actually be particular about what wanted to alter,” the entertainer shared, “what the jokes had been going to say, what story we’re telling about the place these two characters come from. I used to be extra than simply an actor doing the function. I actually cared concerning the undertaking as an entire.”

Palmer’s subsequent huge function, a darkish comedy referred to as “I Love Boosters,” shares related theme with “One in every of Them Days,” however finally is about constructing and sustaining a group.

“You possibly can’t make the world care about you. You simply can’t,” she notes. “However should you strive your greatest, you may construct a group and combat for stuff you need.”

Palmer’s comedy, “One in every of Them Days,” co-starring SZA in her first movie function, hits theaters on January 17, 2025. Watch the trailer above.