KEKE PALMER the Highs & Lows of a Young Hollywood Star

THE ACTRESS AND TV HOST OPENS UP ABOUT EARLY FAME, MOTHERHOOD AND UNHEALTHY RELATIONSHIPS

- JANINE RUBENSTEIN

Shortly after the camera starts flashing, Keke Palmer, all decked out in Old Hollywood glamour and seated in the stylish sunken living room of her hilltop Los Angeles home, gets up to check herself out. "Now that lady has a story to tell!" she says in a campy retro broadcast voice of the image she sees on the monitor. She's joking, but it's true. The award-winning actress, singer and media power player has lived a life that belies her years-and one that has brought her to her knees many times over. "That's always been the thing with me: I'm in a mature scenario, having these older experiences in the workplace and with my sense of purpose," she says, "but then again, I'm just a regular 31-year-old with all of my immaturities."

It's a paradox that the former child star grapples with in her new book Master of Me: The Secret to Controlling Your Narrative, and one that recently came to a head in a very public and painful way. Palmer first found fame as a kid, putting her signature sass and strength on display in the 2006 film Akeelah and the Bee and on her hit Nickelodeon sitcom True Jackson VP, which ran from 2008 to 2011. She grew up onscreen, eventually landing edgier parts in films like 2019's Hustlers and Nope in 2022. And last year she welcomed her first child, son Leo.

But just as she stepped into the very adult role of becoming a mother, her relationship with Leo's dad, Darius Jackson, 30, publicly imploded after Jackson's social media post criticizing a dress she wore to an Usher concert kicked off a viral firestorm that led to allegations of domestic violence and a custody battle. In all, “It was the hardest thing I ever had to go through," she writes in her book.