‘I’m more open to love’: Keke Palmer reflects on life after Darius Jackson

The entertainer opened up about love, dating and finding fulfillment beyond relationships during a Tribeca Festival conversation.

Keke Palmer says she has redefined her relationship with love since her split from Darius Jackson, telling Whoopi Goldberg at the 2026 Tribeca Festival that she is no longer letting romance dictate who she is.

The update came during a Storyteller event on June 8 in New York City, where the actress spoke candidly about where she stands nearly three years after separating from Jackson. In January 2025, theGrio covered Palmer opening up about the “toxic dynamic” of her relationship and how much she hated the public attention it received. TheGrio also reported on her memoir in which she reclaimed the narrative around the relationship, writing that it “wasn’t black-and-white.” According to People, Palmer told Goldberg she is now “thrilled about not being so pressed about an outcome.”

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“I’m more open to love than I was before especially after having my son, I was kind of like, ‘I don’t even know what it is to be touched,’” Palmer said. “You just don’t even want to be looked at. Obviously, some of that’s postpartum and obviously some of that’s just when you have a big separation.”

She went on to describe how her priorities have shifted since the split. “Romance love is now more like 20% of my love box, where 60% is Leo, 15% of it is work,” she said. “Romantic love, it’s more like five to 10%. It doesn’t make up the whole box, and I think that’s important. It doesn’t mean that I’m not giving 100% when I decide to love someone, but I’m not letting that define me.”

Palmer, 32, filed a domestic violence restraining order against Jackson in November 2023, alleging multiple incidents of abuse during their relationship. Jackson countered with his own filing. The pair settled on a joint custody agreement for their son Leodis, now 3, in 2024. Palmer has not been in a public relationship since.

She and Hot Ones host Sean Evans recently addressed their viral chemistry when Evans appeared on her podcast Baby, “This Is Keke Palmer” on May 26. “I didn’t give it a second to breathe,” Evans said of a kiss they shared during Palmer’s 2025 Hot Ones appearance. “Once I heard the offer and the conditions, I immediately signed.”