Keke Palmer’s relationship with her parents has been a rocky one.
According to Keke, she experienced pressure from her parents, Sharon and Larry Palmer to be the family’s breadwinner as a child star.
In an interview with The Cut, she recalled dealing with “so much pressure to rise to the occasion for my community, for my parents, for my siblings, for their sacrifices.” Eventually, she began to harbor feelings of resentment.
“I hated my parents for a long time,” Keke admitted.
While her family “weren’t saying” that the pressure was on her, “that was the reality,” that she couldn’t escape.
“Because I’m the one that we all came here for,” Keke added.
She also shared that a former manager added to her emotional distress saying she was “really, really traumatized.” Keke claims that the manager said her mother would die if she didn’t lose weight.
“It got me thinking she was going to die, thinking about things like medical bills. It was just too much.”
The acclaimed actress felt pressure to remain the breadwinner of the family.
Because of her family dynamic, Keke said she identified with her character in True Jackson, VP on Nickelodeon, a teenager who was asked to lead a major fashion brand.
“She was climbing a corporate ladder, working a grown-up job as a kid. I felt the same way,” Keke explained.
“She was making it happen for herself independently in the world,” she added. “Growing up with that character — it bled over into how I wanted to show up, how I want to deal with life.”
Previously, Keke shared about their struggles with her family in an interview with PEOPLE in October. During her time on True Jackson, VP, she even dated a 20-year-old man.
“Obviously I shouldn’t have been 15 dating a 20-year-old,” Keke said. “But in my mind, it was like ‘I got a full-time job. . . . Can’t nobody understand me but a grown man.’ But he knew there was a lot of stuff that there’s no damn way for me to understand at damn 15.”