A year after Keke Palmer and Darius Jackson’s relationship came to a rocky conclusion that included a custody battle and allegations of abuse on both sides, the actress and mom is reclaiming the narrative.
In her upcoming memoir, “Master of Me: The Secret to Controlling Your Narrative,” out Nov. 19 through Flatiron Books, the 31-year-old reflects on her life, motherhood, fame, and relationship with Jackson, including where things stand between them now.
“I wish I could say he was terrible the entire time or that I was … but it wasn’t that black-and-white, and that was the problem.” She writes of her tumultuous relationship with Jackson, in a section released by People magazine.
She continued, “I didn’t want my son to think his father is a monster, because I don’t.”
Palmer and Jackson dated for roughly two years between 2021 before welcoming their son, Leo, in February 2023. At the time, everything seemed well with the pair, so it shocked fans when Jackson openly criticized Palmer’s attire on social media in July 2023.
“[It’s] the outfit tho… you a mom,” he posted on X in a now-deleted post under a video clip of Palmer dancing with Usher during his Vegas residency.
By November of that same year, Palmer was awarded a temporary restraining order against Jackson after she accused him of several incidents of physical and emotional abuse in court. Among the allegations was an incident caught on Palmer’s home security camera of Jackson breaking in and assaulting her.
“It got so out of control,” she told People in an interview ahead of her book’s release. “The only way I knew how to bring order was through the court.”
When it came to what went wrong between them, she explained that “having a baby was a big stressor.” Fame has also proven problematic for her.
“Not just with my romantic relationships, but with family and friends. It’s always become a burden,” she told the outlet, adding, “Too many voices get in. It can make everybody else not trust you. It’s hard to explain.”
Palmer told People that, almost a year since that all went down, she’s found forgiveness. She even said she’s “proud” and “happy” for the recent progress in Jackson’s life; he’s since joined the military.
“I feel very at ease now knowing things are under control,” she said.
Jackson is just the most recent romantic relationship Palmer revisits in her memoir. The former Nickelodeon star reveals that the first “unhealthy” relationship she experienced occurred at the age of 15 with a man who was then 20. At the time, she was starring in Nickelodeon’s “True Jackson MVP” and hid the relationship, which lasted until she was 20 years old.
“Obviously I shouldn’t have been 15 dating no 20-year-old,” she told People magazine. “But in my mind, it was like, ‘I got a full-time job. . . . Can’t nobody understand me but a grown man.’ But he knew there was a lot of stuff that there’s no damn way for me to understand at damn 15.”
Ultimately, she writes in her memoir, per People, “The power dynamic put me in a place that harmed me in ways I couldn’t have known. I didn’t have the language or the strength to accept that who he met was a child, not the woman I wanted to become.”