Actress and singer Keke Palmer is spilling the tea on how she knew her longtime partner Darius Jackson was the right person for her.
Palmer, who made this admission during her latest Baby Its Keke Palmer podcast, has been with Jackson since 2021. After going public with their relationship on social media that same year, the couple embarked on various life-changing experiences together.
The list includes Palmer and Jackson professionally collaborating on a show called Sportsfan featured on the 29-year-old's network KeyTV. The pair also welcomed their first child, Leodis Jackson, in February 2023.
In the podcast with relationship expert Damona Hoffman, Palmer opened up about online dating and why she hated the experience prior to meeting Jackson, and the several qualities she loves about the actor.
Keke On Online Dating
During the May 2 discussion, the Nope star revealed that she didn't like online dating platforms such as Raya, an invite-only dating app, because she felt like she was networking with potential suitors rather than finding her significant other.
“I hate the online dating atmosphere. I think it kills your relationship or, or at least, it just makes it difficult, to some degree," said Palmer. "I’ve tried the dating apps, like, but the only one I really ever tried was Raya. It felt like I was at a f–king networking event when I actually did go out with the person that I was meeting on Raya.”
Palmer would add that when she was in the dating scene, she often preferred to meet a person through a mutual friend and exchange messages on social media, which was the case with how she met Jackson. Palmer and Jackson would reportedly cross paths in May 2021 during a Memorial Day celebration hosted by Issa Rae.
Keke On Darius’ Qualities
As the conversation shifted to manifestation and using it as a tool to visualize the type of partner a person wants, Palmer shared that before she and Jackson started dating, she wanted someone that met her specific needs.
Palmer's qualities in a partner included an individual with a great relationship with their family, a person that doesn't fit the typical standards of being a man, and someone that doesn't take themselves too seriously, all of which Jackson fits.
“It’s so true because my partner is, in so many ways, everything. I mean, obviously not perfect. I’m not perfect. No one’s perfect. But it’s like you are literally everything I visualized, and I say that all the time to him and he’s like, ‘No way, Jose.’ And I’m like, ‘Yes way, Jose,’” she said. “I always wanted a man that was not so overly obsessed with being masculine, you know what I mean? Still had masculine energy, but also welcomed the softness that feminine energy can give. Somebody that’s had a good relationship with their mother, someone that didn’t take themselves too seriously, somebody that was a little bit, you know, cheesy and corny in all the right ways, but still knew how to dress and gave me a vibe every now and then.”
To this day, Palmer and Jackson continue to showcase that love and dating, when done correctly, can be a beautiful and fulfilling experience.
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Feature image by Cindy Ord/MG23/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue
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Skylar sees things differently. At the time, she was shooting content on her iPhone. Temi came into the picture with a new perspective, an understanding of tech, and, eventually, a camera. “He doesn't give himself enough credit,” Skylar says. “He wasn't just my tripod. He wasn't just standing behind the camera and going ‘click.’ He was giving advice. He was giving me insight to how I could look at things from a different perspective. And I was like, 'Oh, he’s an artist.' I think it was maybe a heartbeat of that kind of energy of like, ‘Baby, can you take this picture?’ And it turned so quickly into, we're partners. We can work together in a way where we're advancing each other's creative thinking.”
The pair often says they’re two sides of the same coin. Skylar is an Aquarius. She attended art school, paints, and loves poetry. She’s more than happy to let the couple’s management firm and agency, Kensington Grey, handle their admin work. And, she loves to sleep in. Temi, on the other hand, wakes up early. He’s a Virgo. He loves a to-do list and regularly checks in on the couple’s brand partnerships spreadsheet to make sure everything is on track.
Because his storytelling was steeped in his love of technology, he didn’t always think of himself as a creative person. “Where I [am] the dreamer who wants to pluck things out of the sky and spend all day with my head in the clouds, Temi [is] so good at grounding me and helping me figure out how to make things make sense on paper. We just work together in such a complimentary way,” Skylar says.
It’s been more than six years since Brooklyn-based couple Temi and Skylar started dating, and nearly four since they cemented their working relationship. On TikTok and Instagram, the couple’s travel, fashion, and home content regularly rack up hundreds of thousands of views. They’ve worked with brands such as Coach, Aesop, Away, and Liquid IV, bringing their vibrant perspectives to every campaign they execute. Still, nearly two years since both Temi and Skylar committed to full-time content creation and creative directing, the couple says their romantic connection remains their priority.
“We told each other we would much rather go back to full-time jobs and preserve our relationship than to be full-time freelancers, barely getting a night's rest [and] barely kissing each other because we're so busy shooting,” Skylar says.
Working from home can make it hard to separate work from personal life for any entrepreneur. It can be even more challenging when your business partner is also your lover. Temi and Skylar had already used couples therapy as a tool to help them effectively communicate with one another. When they ran into challenges while working together, their therapist helped them set physical boundaries to help combat the issues.
"We told each other we would much rather go back to full-time jobs and preserve our relationship than to be full-time freelancers, barely getting a night's rest [and] barely kissing each other because we're so busy shooting."
“It actually took us doing very specific physical things to create boundaries between work and play in our relationship,” Skylar says. “So, for instance, we will only have conversations about work when we're out of bed or we're at the table or in the office. Initially, when we started, we had to light a candle to say that, 'Okay, this is a space where we're connecting, we’re not talking about work.' We needed really hard boundaries at the top. And then it became a little bit more organic.”
The boundaries have been crucial to implement, especially because the couple began working together so naturally. When the pair first met, Skylar was NY-based a social strategist for BuzzFeed and was using content creation to drive business to her lingerie company. She was shooting her own content. Temi was working for Microsoft in D.C. He’d recently traded in his DJing equipment for a camera. “I've always loved taking pictures,” he says. “Even when I was a kid, my African mother would wake me up at 3:00 a.m. [during a] party, and be like, 'Come take the family picture.'”
Growing up, Temi says he watched his parents support each other and be the true definition of partners. He knew he wanted the same for his own relationship. But, the couple also wanted to make sure they were being financially responsible. The pair didn’t quit their traditional jobs until they’d saved up two years' worth of their cost of living. And, Temi received his Master of Business Administration from New York University with the knowledge that it could either help him advance in his corporate career or be applicable to his business with Skylar.
Temi and SkylarCj Hart @hartbreakToday, they say their working relationship is more of a “quiet dance.” They still implement some of the boundaries they learned in therapy, but they also lean into their natural strengths and deep love for one another. When we speak, Temi has planned a date for the couple to see Princess Mononoke in 4K IMAX and added it to their Notion so they can factor it into their busy schedules. “I fully plan to date for the rest of my life,” he says.
Skylar says the couple doesn’t just wait for date nights to check in with one another, though. This often happens in the mornings, after Temi has made her peppermint tea and poured himself a cup of coffee. When they ask each other how they slept, she says, it’s not just a “nicety.” It’s a genuine question meant to foster connection.
“A lot of it happens during the day in the midst of work. We'll stop and we'll hug. Or we’ll slow dance in the kitchen,” she says. “Sometimes it's hard to set a whole date night when you have 7,000 things going on. So, we must grasp these moments and check in when we can. And I think it's become so organic to us that I actually didn't even realize how often we do it. But all day long, we're like, 'Are you good? I felt like your energy shifted,' because we're best friends, we just know. We just feel it happen.”
What’s better than being in love? Building wealth while doing it. Watch Making Cents here for real stories of couples who make money moves together.
Featured image by Cj Hart @hartbreak
