- POPSUGAR Australia
- Celebrity
- A Timeline of Keke Palmer and Darius Jackson’s Low-Key Relationship
A Timeline of Keke Palmer and Darius Jackson’s Low-Key Relationship
Getty / Gregg DeGuire
Keke Palmer and her boyfriend Darius Jackson have kept their relationship fairly low-key from the start. But on Dec. 3, Palmer announced she was pregnant while hosting “Saturday Night Live,” casting their relationship into the spotlight.
“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!” Palmer said during her opening monologue. “I gotta say, though – it’s bad when people on the Internet spread rumors about you, y’all. But it’s even worse when they’re correct!” She later added: “This has been the biggest blessing, and I am so excited, guys – I’m going to be a mom.”
Palmer’s boyfriend is the brother of “Insecure” alum Sarunas Jackson. He’s also an aspiring actor himself, per Elle, and works as a fitness instructor at Inspire Fitness Studio and runs a fitness YouTube channel, according to Us Weekly.
Aside from a few romantic Instagram tributes to each other, Palmer and Jackson have kept their relationship relatively private over the years, but here’s what we know about their romance.
Getty / Juan Ocampo
October 2021: Keke Palmer Shares Her Love For Darius Jackson on Instagram
In October 2021, Palmer took to Instagram to express her feelings for Jackson in a since-deleted video. “Without being too mushy because I HATEEEE THAT, it feels really nice to not be afraid to show this kind of care for someone that I don’t share the same blood with,” she wrote, per Life & Style. “I thought it could never happen, I can be quite guarded, but I appreciate you for being a safe space. I will always cherish what you have given me.”
In a November 2021 interview on “The Tamron Hall Show,” Palmer explained why she’d decided to make the couple’s romance Instagram official. “It became more difficult to hide,” she said. “We spend all this time together, and he really is my closest friend, so it just becomes a thing where I’m not gonna hide something that makes me happy. It’s not gonna be everything you see, my job is my job, but at the end of the day this is somebody that is important to me so why not.”
Getty / NBC
December 2022: Keke Palmer Announces She's Pregnant
Palmer unveiled her baby bump on a Dec. 3 episode of “Saturday Night Live,” which she hosted. After the show, she posted a long thank you message on Instagram – which ended with a shoutout to Jackson. “thank you to my other half @dvulton for giving me the things that only true unity can bring,” she wrote. “Love is all we have isn’t it, you do nothing in this world alone and trust me, I am not alone!”
Jackson also paid tribute to his girlfriend after the show, sharing a photo of a pregnant Palmer on his Instagram Story with the caption “2023” and a red heart emoji.