Keke Palmer and Boyfriend Darius Jackson Discuss Challenging Relationship preceding Dress-Shaming Controversy

Keke Palmer and boyfriend Darius Jackson opened up about how their relationship can be “hard” and he admitted to holding her up to a “perfect standard” prior to publicly insulting her for wearing a revealing to an Usher concert.

The comments were made on the latest episode of her podcast, “Baby, This is Keke Palmer,” which dropped on Tuesday, July 12. It was taped prior to her outfit drama.

“How did you feel when we were first like, gonna be a little bit public about our relationship? Keke asked her beau.

“At first, it definitely was hard because it could all be very overwhelming. It was definitely overwhelming and intense at first,” Darius said. Keke made the personal trainer Instagram official in an August 2021 post after they met at a Memorial Day party earlier that year.

“And it’s like, you almost feel that pressure of needing to be perfect,” Darius continued “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.”

“So, any moment of flaw on my side or on your side it was World War III because it’s like…” he added, as Keke interjected, “And now the world sees us.”

Keke Palmer and Darius Jackson pose for a selfie.

“It’s a lot of pressure, cause this is the thing. We are very proud and there are things we want to share with one another, but at the same time we do want to be able to maintain the privacy of our relationship, and I feel like we’ve been able to do such a good job of that,” the Nope star explained.

The discussion happened prior to Darius publicly calling out Keke for wearing a sheer dress with a black bodysuit underneath to an Usher concert in Atlanta. The couple share a son, Leodis Andrelton Jackson (nicknamed Leo), who was born on February 25, 2023, and Darius thought the outfit was too sexy.

He posted a video to Twitter on July 5 of Keke on stage with Usher as the pair sang his hit “There Goes My Baby.” Darius wrote, “It’s the outfit tho … you a mom,” which set off a firestorm of angry comments from her fans. One person told him, “Don’t date a baddie if you’re gonna be this insecure.”

Darius doubled down on his comment, tweeting, “We live in a generation where a man of the family doesn’t want the wife and mother to his kids to showcase booty cheeks to please others and he gets told how much of a hater he is,” even though the two are not married.

Keke and Darius unfollowed each other on Instagram and he initially wiped his page of any photos of her, but the fitness buff has since added a carousel of pictures wishing her a Happy Valentine’s Day and showing various loving snapshots together.