Keke Palmer reveals how backlash to Ellen DeGeneres’ coming out episode impacted her

Keke Palmer recently opened up about how Ellen DeGeneres’ coming out impacted her as a kid.

The Nope star joined Raven-Symoné and wife Miranda Maday on a recent episode of their new podcast, The Best Podcast Ever, during which the trio discussed coming to terms with their sexuality as young people.

Related:

Actress Keke Palmer opens up about her sexual fluidity: “Love is love, life is life.”

Palmer first came out in a 2015 music video.

“There was a moment in my life when I was just like… can I be myself?” Palmer, who has been open about her sexual fluidity since at least 2015, said.

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Maday asked whether Palmer and Raven, who were both child actors, thought they would have come out sooner if they hadn’t grown up in the public eye.

“There is like an unsaid thing that can make you feel – and because I liked guys too, I was kinda like, ‘Well, we don’t have to talk about it,’” Palmer explained. “That’s another extra thing that no one really has to know about. I don’t really have to live out.”

Raven brought up conversations in media and pop culture about other celebrities who were either suspected of being queer or came out publicly in the 90s.

“I will never forget when Ellen’s first show… I remember this vividly as a kid,” Palmer said. “When Ellen’s first show was on and on the last episode — well, it became the last episode. She was like ‘I’m gay’ and it was like the next day the damn show was cancelled.”

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DeGeneres famously came out publicly on the cover of Time magazine in 1997 ahead of a two-part episode of her show, Ellen, in which her character also came out as a lesbian. The episode won multiple awards, including an Emmy and a Peabody Award, and DeGeneres was hailed as a trailblazer. But while the show actually ran for another season following the episode, ABC began running a parental advisory ahead of new episodes, and the series was canceled in 1998.

“I never forgot that. I never forgot that as a kid,” Palmer said. “That kind of stuff sticks in your brain like ‘Oh, you’ll be outcasted.’ Something’s quote-unquote ‘wrong with you.’”

Palmer said that, ultimately, she got to a place where she wanted to be open to love, which helped her embrace her identity. “I didn’t want anything to hold me back from it… The acceptance of that part of myself, in general, was a part of my process of being able to actually have love in my life—accepting and loving all parts of me.”