Keke Palmer Granted Temporary Restraining Order, Custody of Son After Accusing Ex Darius Jackson of Abuse
A judge has granted Keke Palmer temporary sole custody of her 8-month-old son with ex-partner Darius Jackson after she accused Jackson of harrowing physical and emotional abuse in a restraining order application filed Thursday in Los Angeles.
The order, issued Thursday and obtained by Rolling Stone, states Jackson must stay at least 100 yards away from Palmer and the couple’s son pending a court hearing set for December 5, 2023.
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In her application for the stay-away order, the “Nope” actress alleges Jackson abused her multiple times over the past two years, including during an alleged incident last weekend. Palmer says she was on the phone with her mother Sunday when Jackson “burst” through her bedroom door uninvited. He was filming her on his iPhone while she was “barely dressed and afraid of him” and demanded that she let him take their baby to a football game, she alleges. When she refused, Jackson became irate, she claims.
“At that point, he lunged at me, grabbing at my neck and face, knocked me backward over the couch, stole my phone out of my hands, and then ran out of the house,” her statement obtained by Rolling Stone reads.
She says her home security camera captured the violent attack, and she hopes to play the video for the court at the Dec. 5 hearing. She included color stills from the video in her filing.
According to Palmer’s petition, Jackson tried to flee with her phone, so she attempted to block his exit with recycling and garbage cans. “He nearly hit me with his car,” she writes. When police eventually arrived, they interviewed both parties and encouraged Palmer to file for a domestic violence restraining order, the filing says.
She further claims Jackson assaulted her back on February 13, 2022, the day after she showed him a bikini selfie that she took because she was “proud” of her “workout results.” She says the photo enraged Jackson to the point she thought they were going get in an accident during a drive home from a friend’s party.
“Darius spent the rest of the night yelling at me, not letting me sleep so he could keep yelling at me. In the bedroom, he slammed me on the floor and slapped my head from side to side. The next morning, he was standing at the bottom of the stairs near the front door, screaming at me as I was coming down the stairs. When I was almost at the bottom of the stairs, he grabbed me around the neck and body slammed me back onto the stairs,” she writes in her petition. She says that the incident was also captured on her home security surveillance system.
Palmer says other abuse included Jackson “destroying” her diaries and prescription eyeglasses, hitting her in front of their baby and “threatening to kill himself with a gun if I left him.”
Attempts to reach Jackson were not immediately successful.
“It is because of our son, Leo, that I was finally able to end my relationship with Darius once and for all and escape the abuse,” Palmer stated in a declaration. “Leo is the most important thing in the entire world to me; he needs and deserves to be safe and grow up in an environment free from violence.”
Her filing states the couple broke up for good in October.
While they were still together in July, Palmer and Jackson briefly set the internet ablaze when Jackson tweeted to complain about a sheer dress and black bodysuit Palmer wore while attending Usher’s Las Vegas residency show. “It’s the outfit tho.. you a mom,” he wrote online.
The following month, Palmer seemed to be embracing a new era in her life, starring in the music video for “Boyfriend,” a new single from Usher himself.
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