Keke Palmer Explains What ‘Changed Everything’ After Tumultuous Divorce From Darius Jackson
If you’ve seen a lot of Keke Palmer lately, it’s because the former child star is experiencing a major season of growth after pivoting from a traumatizing 2023. As she promotes her new memoir, the 31-year-old is detailing how she moved on from ex-husband Darius Jackson and the difficult headlines that came with their marriage. Learn more about what “changed everything” for Palmer as she shared with Gayle King this week.
As Palmer celebrates the launch of her second memoir, Master of Me, she’s visited several New York City studios. CBS Mornings hosted the Nope star for a chat with co-host Gayle King. During their eye-opening conversation, Palmer looked lovely in a black knit top, black pants, and patent leather stilettos. She paired the look with a bright pink lip and ’90s-inspired updo.
Throughout their talk, King trod carefully around Keke Palmer’s personal life. She began, “You’ve had a lot of viral moments in your life. Some great, some not so great. We’ll talk about Darius because I think for many people when they saw the terrible videotape of the abuse — we know that you’ve been through a divorce. He sued. You sued. But now … you have a very different tone in how you talk about him. I so admire that you were able to do that in the way that you have done it.”
Palmer hesitated before saying, “I gotta be honest. I would’ve never thought that I’d be where I am now. So I’m very grateful that this has now been the outcome and we’re able to coexist and show up for our son and just be in a different place. It’s a real blessing. That’s the best way I can explain it.” The Akeelah and the Bee star’s new outlook comes one year after ending her romantic relationship with the father of her son, Leodis, who’s now nearly two years old.
Palmer began dating Darius Jackson in June 2021. She announced that she was expecting a child with the fitness instructor in late 2022. Leodis Andrellton Jackson was born in February 2023. Things quickly went south for the couple after several domestic violence incidents caused Palmer to receive a temporary restraining order against Jackson as well as temporary sole custody of their son.
Now, things seem to have settled between the pair. In Master of Myself, Palmer shared her thoughts on co-parenting, saying it’s “not a competition.” During their CBS Mornings interview, King pushed further. “How did you get to this place? Because you realize — you said, ‘I don’t want my son to dislike his father. I don’t want the public to dislike his father because, after all, we are the parents of this child.'” Palmer responded, “Boundaries. I don’t think I had enough boundaries, and I talk about that a lot in the book. People cannot respect boundaries you don’t have.”
Palmer’s relationship with Darius could be considered a lesson in boundaries. The fitness instructor came under fire in July 2023 when he criticized the outfit Palmer wore to an Usher concert in Las Vegas. Darius tweeted, “It’s the outfit tho.. you a mom.”
He later justified the comment, according to Yahoo. Darius wrote, “We live in a generation where a man of the family doesn’t want the wife & mother to his kids to showcase booty cheeks to please others & he gets told how much of a hater he is. This is my family & my representation. I have standards & morals to what I believe. I rest my case.”
As Palmer explained her learning experience with boundaries, this controversy comes to mind. “Sometimes it’s hard to make boundaries with people that you love,” The Long Shot star told King. “You want to make excuses … But you’re actually handicapping them because you’re not allowing them the room to grow and show up in the way that they need to show up because you’re not drawing any lines.”
Palmer credits her son with helping her realize she needed better boundaries in both her personal and professional relationships. “Anything that’s taking from me that I could’ve been okay with before, I’m not anymore because I need to be 100% for this child,” she explained. “And I think that that changed everything … People respect you more when you tell them no and when you give them consequences. “
