Keke Palmer opened up about being a victim of sexual abuse in a Facebook Live chat earlier this week.
The event was to promote her new book I Don’t Belong to You: Quiet the Noise and Find Your Voice where she goes into the struggles she endured and overcame to become an actress.
“So many people watch my career and sit back and think they can’t do the things I can do because they think I came from a privileged lifestyle,” she told fans when asked why she chose to share her story, adding that she didn’t come from “glitter and glow”.
“At the end of the day, it wasn’t handed to me,” she adds. “At the end of the day, the cards were against me. At the end of the day, I did grow up on Section 8. At the end of the day, I have experienced abuse, sexual abuse.”
The revelation of her past sexual abuse came as a surprise, but Palmer added that she wants to share her story to help others who have also endured tough times.
“The reality is it doesn’t matter where you’re from, it doesn’t matter who you are, it doesn’t matter what your daddy did to you or what your mama did to you,” she encouraged.
“It matters what you do with yourself. And that is the reality.”
I Don’t Belong to You is out next month.