Keke Palmer Shares How She Got 'Back in Touch with' Her Body After Having Her Son
Keke Palmer Shares How She Got 'Back in Touch with' Her Body After Having Her Son
Janey Wetzel, Lizzie HymanSun, June 21, 2026 at 10:30 PM UTC
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Keke Palmer and her son LeoCredit: Keke Palmer/Instagram -
Keke Palmer sat down with Whoopi Goldberg at the 2026 Tribeca Film Festival and discussed her wellness journey and motherhood
The actress launched a digital wellness platform, Practice by Palmer, inspired by her personal journey to reconnect with herself
Palmer is mom to son Leo, born in February 2023
Keke Palmer is opening up about her new priority in life — committing to becoming the most "grounded" and "embodied" version of herself.
The actress, 32, sat down with Whoopi Goldberg at a 2026 Tribeca Film Festival Storyteller event in New York City on June 8. Their conversation explored Palmer's relationship with fame and social media, her connection with her body after giving birth and her journey to a healthier life.
The I Love Boosters actress welcomed her son, Leodis "Leo" Andrellton Jackson, in February 2023.
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Whoopi Goldberg and Keke Palmer at the 2026 Tribeca Film Festival in N.Y.C. on June 8, 2026Credit: Dia Dipasupil/Getty
Palmer shared that having Leo prompted her to find ways to reconnect with her body, including practicing Pilates.
"After I had my son, I started to think about everything differently, and obviously I need to get back in touch with my body because [pregnancy is] such an out-of-body experience," she told Goldberg, 70. "But then, I started to realize being disembodied and kind of not being within myself has been something that I was unconsciously doing, and during the practice of Pilates, I started to understand being intentional about choosing to stay in my body."
She went on to explain that Pilates trains her to "stay in" her body and hold her core, "so it kind of showed me myself in a way that then I felt like it made me better in my daily life."
Keke Palmer and son Leo in September 2024Credit: Sara Jaye/Getty
When talking about her motherhood experience, Palmer stated frankly, "There's no messing around… your child makes you present."
"I got to just make sure that I'm good today, and I got to make sure that I'm really showing up for me because somebody needs me," she continued. "It's a really incredible gift."
Being a mom, Palmer admitted, also showed her what she deserves in life, "just by loving this baby."
Wellness goes far beyond clean eating and gym sessions for the actress. Instead, she told Goldberg she's focused on finding a sustainable sense of balance to stay grounded.
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Committing to this goal has opened Palmer up to new approaches in life, she said. "I was taking the same experience that I was having in that practice and I was able to do it in real time where I'm in a tough situation that I maybe usually would leave, I decided to stay present," she said. "I decided to actually pull through."
Keke Palmer snaps a selfie while dressed in hot pink workout setCredit: Keke Palmer/Instagram
Inspired by her personal journey, Palmer is now sharing her daily wellness rituals with others.
Earlier this year, she launched a holistic digital wellness platform and app called Practice by Palmer. The subscription service focuses on personalizable wellness practices for the mind and body that can easily fit into users' day-to-day lives.
The intention behind the platform started with Palmer's own journey to "reconnect with herself."
She told Goldberg that, while vanity can be a good motivator, it is never enough to make anything stick. Once she realized this and began seeing results, she was hooked. "I was like, wait a minute…I want to follow that. I want to feel this ease," she recalled. "I want to feel what it feels like to be light on my feet."
"If you can't change the world, you can change how you operate inside it and you can take those that are down with the same plan along with you and that's my whole goal is," she added to the audience. "I can't change everything, but I know how I'm going to decide to live and I know that I can have people beside me that want to live the same way and we can make it better with each other."
The tools and resources Practice by Palmer provides to subscribers are the practices she has implemented into her life already. Some of those include workouts, audio-style reflections, a shared community space to reflect and even live sessions with Palmer. In the future, Palmer hopes to bring opportunities for more 'IRL' experiences for the online community, too.
Keke Palmer and son Leo practicing their PilatesCredit: Keke Palmer/Instagram
Elsewhere in the conversation, Goldberg asked Palmer how she felt about her recent TED Talk.
Looking back on the speech, Palmer said she was "elated" with how it turned out. "There is nothing more empowering than to be able to author your story with precision," she said, noting that she had "a big moment of reclamation" after "articulating something that I thought I could never get the words to."
Palmer's TED Talk, titled "How I set myself free," covered similar topics to the festival panel.
"You need a break long enough to look around, take stock and feel gratitude for what you've already built. It's important we check the systems we're still running on," she said on the TED stage, "some of the functions that saved you may be keeping you from the very you that you were always trying to save."
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