Palmer discussed coming out as a free spirit, what her parents thought of her sexuality and more on a new episode of Symoné's podcast.
Keke Palmer is getting candid about her sexuality.
While appearing on The Best Podcast Ever with Raven and Miranda, Palmer opened up to Raven-Symoné and her wife, Miranda Maday, about coming out as a free spirit and how she broached the topic of sexuality with her family.
"There was a moment in my life where I was like ya know, can I be myself? The moment where you overthink sh*t," Palmer explained to Raven, who had her own coming out in 2013. "That's not even me, why am I overthinking this? I guess you just get to the point where I want my life to be my own life."
While Palmer said her parents never voiced any disdain about being gay in her household growing up, she did share that there was something unspoken surrounding the topic.
"There is like an unsaid thing that can make you feel -- and because I liked guys too, I was kinda like, 'Well, we don't have to talk about it.' Because I like guys too, it was like that's another extra thing that no one really has to know about. I don't really have to live out," she shared.
She did want to test the waters, however, telling the podcast hosts that by the time she was 17 that after years or repressing her feelings, she decided to "explore her life."
Wanting love and being open to it helped with that too, with the Nope actress adding that she didn't want anything to hold her back.
"I ultimately just feel like, the acceptance of that part of myself, in general, was a part of my process of being able to have love in my life," Pamer noted.
She continued, adding of her parents, "Sexuality and stuff like that, that was not even -- my parents never even cared about something like that or talked about that. And I know that by the time they saw how free of a spirit I was, and whoever I wanted to date, they were like, 'Whoever cares.' It was never anything that was in their mind."
Palmer has long been open about her sexuality, using her 2015 music video for her song, "I Don't Belong to You," as her way of making her stance known.
"The video was to represent the young woman today -- it's not the traditional woman anymore -- and not the specifics of 'Am I gay? Am I straight? Am I bi?'" the actress told People of the video, which sees Palmer explore both sides of her sexuality. "I'm making the rules for myself, and I don't have to be stuck down to one label."
"I don't feel the need to define nothin' to nobody, because I'm always changing," she added. "Why say that I'm this or that when I might not be tomorrow? I'm gonna follow my own feelings and my own heart."
Palmer most recently has been dating Darius Jackson. Palmer and Jackson, who met in 2021, welcomed their son, Leodis, in February, and appeared to be going strong until he shamed her online for a sheer outfit she rocked at an Usher concert, which led to massive backlash against Jackson.
While she didn't detail where their relationship stands, Palmer spoke to The Cut about her mental headspace in the wake of the drama.
"After having my baby, I've gotten so much more powerful. I'm just so strengthened in a crazy way. Strutting my stuff, enjoying," she said. "I'll be honest, I think before I even had the baby, I was really actually quite self-conscious. In a way that you would expect, considering the kind of work that I do as a public figure. Always trying to be on point with my body and always trying to make sure I'm taking care of this and that."
"There's a lot of physical attention," Palmer continued. "Being slim and being fit in a particular way was always something that I was gunning for. After having the baby, my body got so much bigger and I started getting fluff in areas I never had before."
"I was trying to work with my trainer, Corey Calliet, and he was just like, 'Well, we are never going to try and get your body back to how it was before a baby because you birthed a child.' It's like, that's not something to hide, that's something to embrace," she added.
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