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

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

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

Palmer and Jackson, a health teacher, have been mentioned to have begun relationship in 2021. She would reveal her being pregnant a 12 months 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 may very well be poisonous.

That assumption could be confirmed when Palmer filed a restraining order in opposition to Jackson later that 12 months, alleging bodily and emotional abuse.

Talking to The Cut, Palmer claims she initially had problem 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 beginning to her son was the wake-up name she wanted to go away the connection, “earlier than it had the possibility of turning into one thing that I needed to survive.”

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

“You may 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 very good particular person deep down,’” she now realizes, including, “You may make so many excuses for habits that would have stopped.”

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

“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 latest 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 rigidity between two arguing, white co-stars. A kind of stars – whom Palmer renames “Brenda” within the e book – then turned to Keke and acknowledged, “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 answer her claims – not that Palmer minds, anyway.

“I did what I needed to do for me, and it triggered me a difficulty with some of the in style and profitable males within the trade,” she famous, “and generally attending to your success might value you to do the identical factor.’”

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

As co-star and an govt producer of the mission, Palmer says it took almost 5 years of improvement and 4 script rewrites earlier than lastly arriving on the completed product – a narrative based mostly on two pals doing their greatest to remain hopeful and afloat in a world the place gentrification is rapidly turning into the norm.

“I needed to actually be particular about what wanted to alter,” the entertainer shared, “what the jokes have 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 mission as a complete.”

Palmer’s subsequent huge function, a darkish comedy known as “I Love Boosters,” shares comparable theme with “Considered one of Them Days,” however in the end is about constructing and sustaining a group.

“You may’t make the world care about you. You simply can’t,” she notes. “However when you attempt your greatest, you may construct a group and battle for belongings you need.”

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