Keke Palmer Details ‘Inappropriate” Relationship With Older Man at 15

Keke Palmer is looking back on a past relationship through a different lens.

The Nope actress recently shared that while she was a teen starring on True Jackson VP she was in a secret relationship with a 20-year-old man.

“I was trying to balance between being really young, but also feeling quite mature,” the 31-year-old told People in an interview published Oct. 30. “If I thought it was inappropriate, then I wouldn’t have done it. Obviously I shouldn’t have been 15 dating no 20-year-old.” 

“But in my mind it was like ‘I got a full-time job…Can’t nobody understand me but a grown man,’” Keke continued. “But he knew there was a lot of stuff that there’s no damn way for me to understand at damn 15.”

While it hasn’t negated how she felt making her Nickelodon show, it has made looking back a bit more complicated. “I had a great time doing True Jackson VP,” she admitted, “but it was also a very stressful, difficult, depressive time.”