Keke Palmer explains moment she knew 'something was wrong' after fan proposed to her

US singer Keke Palmer has opened up on the strange moment which saw a fan propose to her at an event last month.

While we all have our celebrity crushes, one man took things a step too far when attending an event with the 'Maybe I'm Amazed' singer last month.

The 32-year-old was speaking on stage at the South by South West film festival in Austin, Texas in March for the world premiere of her new movie, I Love Boosters.

However, things took a strange turn when a man approached the stage, got down on one knee and popped out a ring, which might have been romantic if Palmer actually knew who he was.

While the actress assumed that it was a very early April Fools joke, she soon realised that he was actually being serious, and has now spoken out about the viral moment.

Speaking on the Wednesday 1 April, episode of the Decisions, Decisions podcast, she admitted that it was the quality of the ring which made her more concerned, as it would have been a very expensive joke.

She said: "This is how I knew that something was wrong because the ring was nice. It wasn't like no Cracker Jack ring.

"I'm serious, the ring looked expensive. It looked expensive. That's when I knew something was up."

Naturally, you'd be pretty alarmed if someone completely random proposed to you but according to Palmer, it was as if the man knew exactly who she was, despite her having never seen him before.

"That's when I was like 'is this a joke' because it was so sincere," she said. "I could see in his eyes that we've had romance. We had a lifetime in this man's eyes."

Unsurprisingly, the singer's answer was a resounding no, with the man eventually escorted away by security.

You can watch the moment here:

Keke Palmer getting proposed to by a stranger during her podcast interview with the cast of “I Love Boosters” at SXSW

Full convo out now: https://t.co/YMNJyMw2v8 pic.twitter.com/wuDBYpZ7DU

— Block Topickz (formerly Glock Topickz) (@BlockTopickz) March 31, 2026

Palmer added: "So then I was like, 'Okay, sir, no, I cannot marry you, I cannot marry you, sir.' And then that's when I knew when he started looking back to the people and he was like, 'She wants to say yes. Help her say yes.' And I was just like, 'Oh, no.' "

Although she wanted to stress that she is 'only human' and that people shouldn't approach her in that way simply because she is a public figure, she did suggest that she felt for the man.

"This is nothing to play with. And that's why I just started feeling sad because I was thinking to myself, 'man, this guy is in a really bad way, man,' " she said.

"I hope that we can all start having these conversations around what it means to be an entertainer, what it means to be a celebrity, what it means to have impact and visibility."