Keke Palmer admitted she easily forgives people who wrong her to avoid feeling ‘very alone’ in an unearthed podcast clip before filing for a restraining order against her ‘abusive’ partner.
The actress, 30, filed against her ex-boyfriend Darius Jackson on Thursday and included horrifying surveillance images in court documents showing her being beaten and thrown around her home.
Palmer alleges that Jackson abused her emotionally and physically for years – and claimed in her shocking restraining order filing that she remained with Jackson because he would ‘love bomb’ her during their relationship.
On Friday, she was awarded temporary sole custody of their baby, Leodis, and a temporary restraining order.
In a resurfaced clip from 2018 – years before her relationship with Jackson began in 2021 – the ‘Nope’ star spoke openly about her belief that ‘forgiveness is a major part of love.’
‘You’re gonna be hurt by people because people are not perfect,’ she said.
‘If someone I love hurts me in a major way, and I feel we can move past it, if they have owned their fault and have been honest with me about why they did it… then yes I will forgive them,’ she said.
In her restraining order filing, Palmer included horrifying images purportedly showing her ex-partner beating her in her home
Palmer said in her filing that her relationship with Jackson (pictured together in 2021) ‘finally ended for good’ early last month ‘primarily due to the physical and emotional abuse inflicted’
Palmer, made the remarks in an April 2018 appearance on SiriusXM Radio, where she spoke about how she navigates her personal life while in the spotlight.
‘Forgiveness is a major part of love,’ she began. ‘A lot of people don’t want to admit that.’
She said when she was younger, she was ‘one of those people that’s like, ‘You did me wrong? You’ve hurt me? We’re done. Number changed, you’re blocked.’
‘And I’ve learned that that’s not right,’ she added.
‘I’m not saying you need to be forgiving for something major, you’ve gotta be able to set your boundary lines, but I feel like I have learned throughout my life because I have cut a lot of people off.’
Palmer reasoned that she became more forgiving because she ‘lost a lot of people and have found myself very alone’, feeling that pain was acceptable because ‘everybody gonna hurt you once or twice, including your mommy and your daddy and your family members.’
‘You’re gonna be hurt by people because people are not perfect,’ she concluded.
‘If someone I love hurts me in a major way, and I feel we can move past it, if they have owned their fault and have been honest with me about why they did it, and we can move forward, then yes I will forgive them.’
One of the startling video stills that was included with Palmer’s testimony, which the star alleges show Jackson manhandling her near the stairs of their home
Palmer said her relationship with Jackson ended last month ‘primarily due to the physical and emotional abuse inflicted’ when they were together
Following the news that Keke filed for custody of their son, Darius took to his Twitter to share a photo of him holding Leodis, and wrote, ‘I love you, son. See you soon’
In her filing, Keke expressed being ‘concerned for Leo’s safety’ after Darius ‘started getting rough with Leo physically’ after becoming frustrated by his crying
In the court filing, Palmer said the alleged abuse she suffered at the hands of Jackson was not just physical, but also ’emotional and manipulative’, claiming he would ‘make me feel like I was the most important woman in the world, only to get extremely distant and cold over a perceived insult to him.’
‘If we were at a party or event, and I spoke with one person too long or looked at someone a “certain way,” he would storm off in a rage – telling me I was “slut” and a “whore,” accuse me of cheating on him, and that I did not love him.’
‘Darius had a way of gaslighting me to make me feel like I was doing something wrong even though I wasn’t,’ she wrote in documents.
His alleged violent jealousy often began as emotional abuse before escalating to physical behavior, she claims, adding there have been ‘many instances’ of domestic violence including in front of their young son.
In April 2022, Palmer said that she was out for dinner with Jackson in Santa Barbara when he accused her of flirting with a woman, forcing them to come home early.
‘Darius grabbed my prescription eyeglasses away from me, threw them on the ground and stomped on them. He then opened my bag, threw all of my belongings onto the pavement in the rain, and threw my car keys across the parking lot before he got into his own car and drove off,’ she alleges.
Palmer accused Jackson of abusing her as recently as November 5, stating that she has security footage to back up her claim; they are seen in 2022
Relationship drama: Darius publicly criticized Keke over the summer, after she wore a sheer black dress over a thong bodysuit to an Usher concert
Jackson’s behavior in the time after he and Palmer went public with their relationship has come under scrutiny following her allegations, including when he tweeted his disapproval of her tight, sheer, see-through bodysuit dress she wore to attend an Usher concert in July.
At the time, he wrote online, ‘It’s the outfit tho… you a mom.’
When fans came to Palmer’s defense, Jackson doubled down as he fired off a second tweet defending himself.
‘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,’ he said.
His attitude towards Palmer has also been remarked upon in an appearance he made in an episode of her podcast, Baby, This Is Keke Palmer, recorded before the filing, where Darius admitted to having exceedingly high standards for his romantic partners.
Palmer asked Jackson how he felt when they decided to go public with their romance.
The fitness instructor revealed he felt ‘pressure’ to be perfect, and confessed to holding Keke to that same standard of perfection.
‘You almost feel that pressure of needing to be perfect,’ Jackson answered.
‘And so, it really confused me and infiltrated my mind because not only did I have to hold myself to that perfect standard, I was also holding you to a perfect standard as well,’ he added.