Keke Palmer Shared The Heartwarming Advice Will Smith Gave Her When She Wanted To Legally Emancipate Herself From Her Parents At Age 17

Keke Palmer was just 10 years old when she landed her acting role in the hit comedy film Barbershop 2: Back in Business.

She bagged her first leading role a couple of years later in Akeelah and the Bee, and eventually went on to appear in several fan-favorite films and TV shows, like Madea’s Family Reunion, Jump In!, and, of course, Nickelodeon’s True Jackson, VP.

As she’s gotten older, Keke has been open about the reality of becoming her family’s breadwinner when she was just 12.

Revealing last year that her parents stopped working to support her acting career, Keke noted that while she considered it a “huge blessing” to provide financial stability for her family, she felt that becoming a “parentalized child” caused her “a lot of pain.”

This week, Keke, now 31, appeared on an episode of the Toast podcast, where she recalled clashing with her parents as she navigated her newfound fame.

“I did have problems with my parents during that time, of just them not understanding what I was going through,” she shared.

While Keke went on to praise her parents, noting that they did a good job of trying to help her process what she was going through, she revealed that she did consider legally emancipating herself from them.

If you didn’t know, an emancipated minor is someone who is legally a child but free from control by their parents or guardians, meaning that they’re allowed freedom regarding their living arrangements and handling their finances.

Keke recalled, “I remember when I was about 17, I was like, ‘I’m done with my parents, they don’t understand me, I can’t do this anymore.’”

“I emailed my attorney... I said, ‘Look here... I’m ready to be emancipated,’” she recounted before revealing that her attorney — who still works with her to this day — advised her not to go down that route.

“He was like, ‘Keke, there are other ways to deal. You don’t have to do it this way. Maybe your parents and you just need to do therapy… You don’t need to go this route,’” she recalled.

“He really urged me to not run away from the hardship of being the first in my family to be in this kind of situation,” she added.

Keke went on, “Couple of weeks go by, and I'm on the set of True Jackson, VP, and I get a call from this really, really obscure number. And I'm like, ‘What? Like this is weird, I'm not answering this.’”

However, when the mystery caller left a voicemail, Keke later discovered that it was none other than Will Smith.

Impersonating Will, Keke recounted his message: “Hey, Keke. It's Will. We're over here doing Karate Kid with Jaden.”

Will’s son, Jaden Smith, was just 11 years old when he was shooting the hit film Karate Kid alongside Jackie Chan.

“‘I just want to let you know that I talked [to your lawyer],’” Keke recalled Will saying. “‘He let me know everything you're going through, and I want you to know sometimes it's hard being the first, but you'll get through. Just keep staying focused, love on your family, and y'all gonna be good.’”

In his 2021 memoir, Will recalled Jaden asking the question at 15 years old after he was widely mocked and criticized for his appearance in the 2013 film After Earth alongside his dad. 

“After Earth was an abysmal box office and critical failure,” Will wrote. “And what was worse was that Jaden took the hit.”

“Fans and the press were absolutely vicious; they said and printed things about Jaden that I refuse to repeat. Jaden had faithfully done everything that I'd instructed him to do, and I had coached him into the worst public mauling he'd ever experienced,” he continued.

“At 15 years old, when Jaden asked about being an emancipated minor, my heart shattered. He ultimately decided against it, but it sucks to feel like you've hurt your kids,” Will added.

Keke explained that Will’s advice was partly why she decided not to go forward with filing for emancipation from her parents.

“It's something that happens when you're stepping out, and you could be a child entertainer, or you could be the first person in your family to go to college, or the first person in your family to get married. There's so many firsts that can happen as the generations of your family continue to grow and evolve,” she said as she talked about the tensions that had caused her to consider emancipation in the first place.

“Whether they're notable names or they're my attorney… I had a good community that my parents made sure I was around, that would encourage community and not like dissension and us breaking apart,” she added.

Can you think of other times that child stars filed for legal emancipation from their parents? LMK down below in the comments. Meanwhile, you can listen to Keke’s full appearance on the Toast podcast here, and you can purchase her newly-released book, Master of Me, here.