Keke Palmer Accuses Ex Darius Jackson Of Repeated Abuse, Files For Sole Custody Of Their Son

On Thursday, actress Keke Palmer filed a request for sole custody of her 8-month-old son, Leodis, and a restraining order against his father, Darius Jackson.

In the California Superior Court filing, Palmer said that on Sunday, “Darius trespassed into my home without my knowledge or consent, threatened me, then physically attacked me — lunging for my neck, striking me, throwing me over the couch and stealing my phone when I told him I was going to call the police.”

Palmer said that the incident on Sunday occurred when Jackson came to her home to take Leodis to a football game. The boy was with Palmer’s sister to visit family at the time.

After Palmer and Jackson got into a verbal disagreement, Palmer said Jackson “knocked me backwards over the couch, stole my phone out of my hands, and then ran out of the house.”

When she followed him outside to retrieve her phone, Palmer alleged, “he nearly hit me with his car.”

She presented screenshots of security footage where she is thrown over the couch and maintains that the entire interaction was caught on the security camera and will be played in court at the hearing. 

Palmer, 30, accused Jackson, 30, of multiple instances of abuse over two years.

She alleges there were “many instances of physical violence, including striking and grabbing me around the neck, descriptions of Darius destroying my personal property, including diaries and prescription eyeglasses, throwing my belongings into the street, throwing my car keys to prevent me from driving away, hitting me in front of our son, spewing profanities about me to our son, threatening to kill himself with a gun if I left him, harassment, and other physical and emotional abuse.”

She further said that Jackson emotionally abused and manipulated her.

The filing for the restraining order reads, “Darius would ‘love bomb’ me and make me feel like I was the most important woman in the world, only to get extremely distant and cold over a perceived insult to him. If we were at a party or event, and I spoke with one person too long or looked at someone a ‘certain way,’ he would storm off in a rage – telling me I was ‘s—‘ and a ‘w—-‘ accuse me of cheating on him, and that I did not love him. Darius had a way of gaslighting me to make me feel like I was doing something wrong even though I wasn’t.” 

In July, problems in Palmer and Jackson’s relationship were briefly made public when Jackson was upset that Palmer wore a fitted black bodysuit under a sheer dress at Usher’s performance at his Las Vegas Residency.

In a since-deleted post on X, Jackson wrote, “We live in a generation where a man of the family doesn’t want the wife & mother to his kids to showcase booty cheeks to please others…This is my family & my representation. I have standards & morals to what I believe. I rest my case.”