Keke Palmer Found Strength Reflecting on Darius Jackson Split for New Album (Exclusive)

Keke Palmer is getting vulnerable.

The multi-hyphenate star, 31, released her new visual album Just Keke on Friday, June 20, and both the lyrics and accompanying film chronicle the past couple years of her personal life — including her public breakup from ex Darius Jackson, with whom she shares 2-year-old son, Leo.

Titled after Palmer’s former BET talk show, Just Keke is structured as a variety program hosted by the One of Them Days actress and features high-concept videos for each song on the project referencing the likes of Whitney Houston and Brandy, plus cameos from her family and Issa Rae.

Through honest lyrics about publicly enduring the rough end of a relationship that ultimately produced perhaps the most cherished human in her life, Leo, Palmer goes deep on her side of the matter and feelings toward the situation overall.

Today, Palmer and Jackson, 30, are at a place where they’re able to successfully co-parent their child despite the end of their romantic relationship — and she’s happy to have reached the other side of such a difficult period.

The former child star caught up with PEOPLE to discuss Just Keke, showing the project to Jackson before its release, how family keeps her grounded and realizing her own strength.

PEOPLE: Just Keke chronicles the events of your romantic life in the last couple of years. Why did you want to kind of tell this story and put it into this project rather than letting it subside?

KEKE PALMER: It was a life-changing moment. I’m somebody that really keeps things private, not because I have something to hide, but because I really respect my audience and I don’t want to give them drama or bull just for the sake of it. I always want what I give to be something that can be of service to them. So, now that this has become a part of my public story without my desire for it to, I felt like it was pushing me to have to address something that maybe I needed to address, something deeper. 

PEOPLE: The project opens with some people heckling you over being viewed as a stereotypical “baby mama” without a husband following your breakup. Were you afraid of being perceived that way by the public?

PALMER: Yeah, afraid of it not being seen as a choice. I think that’s also a big part of what the album speaks to is the reclamation of your own narrative. It is what it is when our life doesn’t go the way we’ve planned, or even if we just go a different route than people expected. The problem is when somebody else tells you what that means or puts an idea on what that means. For me, yeah, that was why I started at that point, because that’s what it’s about. It’s about me reclaiming my own story and what it meant to me.

PEOPLE: Did you talk to Darius about this project?

PALMER: I did. Once I completed it, I shared it with him because I was still also coming to my own understanding as I was working on the project. As soon as he listened to it, he was like, “I’m really proud of you.” I think we both have grown a lot. Life is funny that way. Sometimes things happen, and they teach you about yourself, good or bad, and then you have to decide what to do with it. At the end of the day, it wasn’t just me and him that was a part of the story, the real star of the story is my son and who he’s called us both to be. I do think we both, whether we did it perfectly in the moment or not, have risen to the occasion of being who he needs us to be. And if we don’t, we know what the outcome is.

PEOPLE: How do you feel knowing that Leo will see this one day?

PALMER: I feel proud that I didn’t just burn the page, that I actually continued the story — went off-script, but still the movie is continuing. There’s a continuation, there’s a closure, there is an understanding, and that my son knows that he was wanted. He was no mistake. He was planned. No matter who me and his dad are, he was meant to be here, and he was made from love. I mean, “Unless It’s You,” that song, that’s with the spirit of my child in it. That’s true, pure, at its core. It’s about growing. It’s about evolving.

PEOPLE: “My Confession” is an important song on Just Keke because it’s about how the whole public element of your breakup sparked with you attending the Usher concert in Las Vegas. How do you look back on that experience? Is there anything you would’ve done differently?

PALMER: No, there’s nothing I would’ve done differently. I think that was the whole thing. I didn’t really get it. Like I said in the song, it was kind of like, “What’s going on?” It’s one of those things where if I were to say that I would do something different, that would mean that I felt I did something wrong. That’s not what I felt. It’s like, you hate that it upset somebody, but there’s nothing you can do other than move forward. 

PEOPLE: You sing about your family on “Ripples,” including your mom, Sharon, whom you’ve worked with for a long time. Tell me what your relationship with her means to you, not only as a mom and manager, but as a grandma to Leo.

PALMER: Oh my gosh. I literally live for her as Grandma. She is so good with the kids —not just my son, but my nieces and my nephew. They all be at her house in the pool, and she just is giving Big Mama, straight up. It’s like, “Oh my gosh, Mom, I can’t believe this new evolution of you.” My mom and I have gone through so many different changes. As a kid, it was really hard because it was like, “Am I your daughter, or am I your colleague? Are we business, or do I know you?” And then as I got older, she became more fluent in the language of Mom, not just manager. Now, we’re at this point where she’s seeing me as a grown woman on my own, and we’re partners, and we’re building the Keke Palmer company and seeing how we are continuing to grow, not just from the product of Keke Palmer, but the things that can stand on the back of what we built. That’s what “Ripples” is. Let me continue to take this lineage as far as it can go.

PEOPLE: It’s also about generational strength. How do you lean on family in low moments?

PALMER: My family is everything to me. Whenever I’ve gone through anything hard in my life, I’ve just turned to them and remembered who I am. As a public figure, or even in this day and age, you don’t even have to be a public figure to be dragged online or to be misconstrued for who you are. When you’re seen in the public eye, whether by a thousand or multi-million, you can only be flattened. You can never really be seen in full 3D, 4D, whatever. It’s difficult, but that’s why you turn to the people that know you truly, and they can remind you of who you actually are. We miss a lot of nuance, I think, nowadays because we’re looking at everything from a screen where you can only see the surface, you can’t see the depth. 

PEOPLE: There’s a moment around “Misunderstood” where you wonder what Darius might be up to, but then you ultimately end up calling a truce in the name of Leo. How do you find closure when you’re also forming a co-parenting relationship?

PALMER: That’s tough. I say closure has to come from you, but the co-parenting part can go through ebbs and flows. It depends on that person you’re co-parenting with. But if you make the decision to be good regardless of how they feel, and that your focus is on making sure that you’re in the best position you can be for that baby, it makes things easier. It makes hard decisions easier. Really, it’s about you both being able to be at your best for the baby. If the interpersonal drama becomes bigger than that, well, then they’re not co-parenting. They’re just being selfish. For us, that was the big thing. “Can we get on the same page? Can we co-parent? Can we actually put Leo first?” And then the closure piece is like, “I’m okay with that being all that it is. Because I don’t want to be in something that makes me unhappy, or you either.” You can’t make people who you want them to be. You have to accept them for who they are.

PEOPLE: What did you learn about yourself from making this project?

PALMER: I learned so many things. I learned that I’m stronger than I knew I was, meaning I can endure, I can get on the other side. I can take the small steps. I can have the patience that I need to have with myself, the grace and the compassion to be all that I know I can be, because it’s not easy, again, when you experience stuff. Even just turning 30, having a baby, the relationship as well, but all of it together. Sometimes you don’t know. You’re like, “Can I?” And I think I really showed myself a lot of love, a lot of grace and a lot of compassion. And to me, that’s strength.