Keke Palmer and Darius Jackson’s romance is “complicated” amid their public drama, a source exclusively tells Us Weekly.
“It’s their own lives. Those close to them hope they can work things out for the sake of themselves and their child,” the insider adds. “They have to resolve things on their own.”
Palmer and Jackson, both 29, welcomed their son, Leodis, in February after two years of dating.
“They love each other,” the source says. “But they keep their life very private.”
Though the duo may keep the majority of their relationship out of the public eye, Jackson brought it to the forefront after mom-shaming Palmer for her outfit choice at an Usher concert in July.
“It’s the outfit tho … you a mom,” Jackson tweeted alongside a video of Palmer — clad in a form-fitting black bodysuit — on stage with the singer, 44. Despite the backlash, Jackson only doubled down on his words in a follow-up tweet.
“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 & he gets told how much of a hater he is,” he added. “This is my family & my representation. I have standards & morals to what I believe. I rest my case.”
While Palmer hasn’t directly addressed Jackson’s remarks, she has certainly thrown her own shade in response. She not only appears on Usher’s new track, “Boyfriend,” but she also makes a reference to Jackson’s tweets in the music video.
“What time is it? Dammit, I missed the show. I’m so tired. I’m a mother after all,” Palmer says while talking on the phone in the video.
The Nope star also launched a new merch line in the wake of the drama that seems to allude to Jackson’s remarks.
“One thing is certain and one thing is true, IM A MOTHA, through and through! 😍,” she tweeted last month. “‘IM A MOTHA’ and ‘Stevie to the bulls–t’ shirts available NOW!”
Since welcoming Leodis, Palmer has been candid about her journey as a mom, telling The Cut in July that she’s “just gotten so much more powerful” after giving birth. “I’m just so strengthened in a crazy way. Strutting my stuff, enjoying,” she shared.
In the interview — which was published several days after Jackson’s tweets — Palmer explained how she was learning to embrace her new body.
“If there’s one person on this earth that loves [me] for sure, it’s that baby,” she said. “[I’m] happy, because there’s no love like it. Somebody loving you like that, hell, who cares [what I look like]?”
