November 22, 2024
Keke Palmer Recalls The Sacrifices Her Family Endured To Propel Her Career, ‘What’s Mine Is Theirs’
Keke Palmer takes pride in supporting her family after they sacrificed everything to help launch her acting career.
Keke Palmer’s family sacrificed their lives in Chicago to move to Los Angeles and support her acting career. In return, Palmer has no hesitation about giving back to them tenfold.
The Nope star appeared on Shannon Sharpe’s Club Shay Shay podcast this week, opening up about the full-time salaried jobs both of her parents gave up to focus on Palmer’s budding acting career.
“My parents, at their best, made $40,000 a year growing up, a year. Yeah. I was making that a show,” Palmer shared.
Her parents Sharon and Lawrence “Larry” Palmer met in drama school and had both worked as professional actors before settling into full-time jobs. Her father, who is a Catholic deacon, worked for a polyurethane company, and her mother was a high school teacher who worked with autistic children.
With their shared passion for the arts and acting, Palmer’s parents likely didn’t mind investing in their daughter, who was continuing their legacy on screen. After rising to fame in Hollywood, Palmer was proud to provide for her family at a young age, recognizing the sacrifices they made to support her success.
“My parents rationed me out an allowance, but they also rationed out my older sister’s allowance as well,” Palmer recalls of her early financial responsibilities.
“You know what I think? The thing about it is somebody could say, ‘Okay, but that was your money.’ Yeah, but we have family and everybody sacrificed for me to be where I’m at. My, my dad gave up his pension.”
She continued. “Okay. He had worked at the company. He worked there for over 15 years. Gave up his pension for me to have the opportunity for my dreams. My mother… they gave up everything. She gave up everything so she could travel with me and do what she needed to do with me.
“So how I feel about it is what’s mine is theirs, what’s theirs is mine. Right. And I would do it again. I would give up and sacrifice 20 more years of my life working in this industry so that I could provide, and we could have the business we have today.”
The Scream Queens star expressed her pride in being able to support her family, describing it as “an armor” she wears with honor. In August, when celebrating her 31st birthday, Palmer hosted an intimate party she shared on Instagram and professed her love for her family.
“It’s my birthday, but it’s my community’s birthday too because they are the ones who got me this far,” she wrote under a photo of her family.
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