Keke Palmer jolted pop culture awake on a sleepy Saturday night when she whipped open her coat to reveal a large baby bump.
Keke Palmer on “SNL” (Video screenshot via: YouTube – Saturday Night Live)
“There’s some rumors going around, people have been in my comments saying, ‘Keke’s having a baby, Keke’s pregnant,’ and I wanna set the record straight — I am,” the Hustlers star said, cradling her baby bump for the cameras. “Guys, I’m going to be a mom! Even though some people feel a little weird about me having a baby ‘cause I was a child actor, I just wanna say, ‘Look, I’m 29, I’m grown, I have sex, and I own a home. … You know, things adults do.’”
Meanwhile, the scribes and paparazzi have been beating the pavement trying to procure information on Palmer’s boyfriend, Darius Daulton Jackson. Here are seven things that we know so far, according to “The Tamron Hall Show,” The Daily Mail, IMDB.com and People magazine.
Writer Darius Jackson (Image source: Instagram – @dvulton)
– Darius Jackson, according to his Instagram bio, is a Jackson is a writer, a fitness trainer and has acted in a few movies and TV shows, including the hit series “Games People Play” and in the upcoming film Dawn of the Predator.
– The actor is the younger brother of Sarunas Jackson, who played Dro in Issa Rae’s phenomenon series on HBO, “Insecure,” from 2017 to 2021.
– Jackson’s budding love apparently grew organically after meeting at an industry party hosted by Diddy and Issa Rae in the summer of 2021. Jackson’s brother is the one who introduced them.
– Jackson later confirmed that he is the father of Palmer’s unborn child by captioning a photo of an obviously pregnant Palmer with “2023.”
Keke Palmer (Image source: Instagram story [email protected])
– Jackson posted a heartfelt message to Palmer on how the prolific actress positively impacted his life. “You’ve been a blessing from above,” he penned on Instagram Stories at the time. “Never would have expected summer 2021 to turn out the way it did, but here we are. I’m glad we were able to help each other throughout our lowest of times & show one another that what we are bringing to the table is everything that we got.”
– One of the things that Palmer likes about Jackson is that he’s not addicted to the industry. “I’ve always been somebody that hasn’t wanted too much industry stuff in my life,” Palmer said during November 2021 interview on ‘The Tamron Hall Show.” “He’s very industry-adjacent, meaning he understands it but that’s not what he’s about.”
– Jackson agreed to take their relationship public in August 2021 after initially meeting Palmer on Memorial Day of that year. However, they’ve kept their romance pretty under wraps ever since. Until today.