From “Baby, it’s Keke Palmer!” to “Keke Palmer’s a mother!” The Nickelodeon alum gave birth to her first child with boyfriend Darius Jackson in February 2023. Keep reading for everything the Nope actress has said about being a mom.
Keke first revealed she was pregnant in the most iconic way, as she does most things, during her Saturday Night Live monologue in December 2022.
“There’s some rumors going around. People have been in my comments saying, ‘Keke’s having a baby, Keke’s pregnant,’ and I want to set the record straight — I am,” Keke said while hosting the sketch comedy show, opening her jacket to reveal her stomach.
She joked, “It is bad when people on the internet spread rumors about you y’all, but it’s even worse when they’re correct.”
The former True Jackson, V.P. star announced the birth of her son Leodis Andrellton Jackson on February 27, 2023, via Instagram. “Born during Black History Month, with a name to match,” she wrote. “LEODIS ANDRELLTON JACKSON, welcome to the world baby Leo.”
“I’ll be honest, I think before I even had the baby, I was really actually quite self-conscious,” Keke revealed in an interview with The Cut in July 2023. “After having my baby, I’ve gotten so much more powerful. … We’re going to lean into this new body. That is the whole aura of what’s happening with me in this big boss era as I come into my 30s, and I have my baby boy. I’m just continuing to spread my wings as a young woman.”
She spoke more about how her son has empowered her in this unexpected way during an event in Washington, D.C. in July 2023.
“I was really always preoccupied on the low key of my body and then after I had a baby, it kind of freed me in a way where I just didn’t care as much and so the fact that I didn’t care, it made me just have an ease and a comfortability and a love for myself in a way that I didn’t have before,” she said. “And it just gave me a sense of freedom that I can’t describe, where I’m not afraid, because it’s like, this is what I have, this is who I am.”
She continued, “I never would have imagined that my son would have given me such a deep confidence and empowerment to just really be like, ‘Yo, we about to do this.'”
Click through our gallery to uncover everything Keke has said about becoming a mom to baby Leo.
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