Keke Palmer is officially a mom! The actress and her boyfriend Darius Jackson welcomed their first child together — a boy named Leodis ‘Leo’ Andrellton Jackson — on Feb. 25. The actress made the reveal two days later, on Feb. 27, with a series of photos and videos taken inside the hospital after she gave birth.
The arrival of Keke and Darius’ bundle of joy comes nearly three months after she revealed she was pregnant during her hosting gig on Saturday Night Live on Dec. 3. The beauty happily showed off her growing bare baby bump as she took the stage for the opening monologue of the show and was glowing. She was talking about pregnancy rumors about her when she decided to confirm the news.
“There’s some rumors going around,” she said during the monologue. “People are in my comments saying Keke’s having a baby, Keke’s pregnant. And I want to set the record straight…I AM!” She then flaunted the bump and the audience cheered.
“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 continued. “I mean, like, I was trying so hard to keep it on the down low cause I got a lot of stuff going on, you know? People kept coming up to me like, ‘Congratulations,’ and I’m like, ‘Stop! I got a liquor sponsorship on the line!’ But honestly, his has been the biggest blessing, and I’m so excited. Guys, I’m going to be a mom!”
Keke’s announcement surprised many but her and Darius’ new roles as parents is sure to bring them epic opportunities and happiness. The couple started dating in 2021 and have been pretty private about their romance throughout. Keke did, however, open up about the hunk, in an interview on the Tamron Hall Show. “It became more difficult to hide,” she admitted. “We spend all this time together and he really is my closest friend, so it just becomes a thing where I’m not going to 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?”
Keke’s romance happened amid her long acting career. Since she has been in the industry since she was a child, she addressed critics thinking she may be too young to have a baby, during the rest of her lighthearted SNL monologue. “I’m 29,” she said before adding jokes to the mix. “I’m grown. I have sex. I own a home. I stormed the Capitol on January 6. You know? Things adults do!”