Keke Palmer‘s mother has come clean about her claim that Usher is “gay,” admitting she made it up to protect her daughter.

Sharon Palmer’s allegations came during an alleged phone call with her daughter’s ex-boyfriend Darius Jackson that surfaced online on Wednesday (November 15) following the news of Jackson’s alleged abuse towards Keke.

During the heated conversation, Palmer can be heard yelling at Jackson for “harassing” her daughter, calling him a “dick sucker” and saying he has “mental problems.”

She also references the incident that sparked issues between the couple (at least in the public eye): the viral clip of the Nope star dancing with Usher during the singer’s Las Vegas residency earlier this year.

“Usher is gay!” she exclaimed. “You and your stupid-ass family, y’all don’t even understand business. Usher’s gay, guys.”

After the audio circulated online and led to Usher trending on social media, Sharon Palmer took to Instagram to clarify that she was lying about the R&B icon’s sexuality for her daughter’s “safety.”

“The lie I told about Usher was to get Darius to stop abusing my daughter on account of his jealousy,” she wrote in a comment on The Nieghborhood Talk‘s page. “So I said he didn’t like women for her SAFETY.

“Everything else I meant with my chest and didn’t expect anyone to hear it because recording me is illegal. I guess he is okay with jail but I knew that when he put his hands on my daughter. He is still abusing her in all of this, trying to paint himself as a victim. Textbook behavior.”

Keke Palmer came forward last week with her allegations against Darius Jackson, with whom she shares an eight-month-old son named Leodis.

She claims Jackson assaulted her several times over the course of their two-year relationship, which ended in October, and he would sometimes do it in front of their son.

In one incident following their breakup, Palmer claims Jackson trespassed into her home without her knowledge or consent and “threatened” her before “lunging for my neck, striking me, throwing me over the couch and stealing my phone.”

Jackson’s pattern of “physical and emotional abuse” also included “destroying my personal property, including diaries and prescription eyeglasses, throwing my belongings into the street, throwing my car keys to prevent me from driving away, hitting [me] in front of our son, spewing profanities about me to our son [and] threatening to kill himself with a gun if I left him,” according to Palmer.

The actress has been granted a temporary restraining order against Jackson, as well as sole custody of their child. A hearing to determine whether the restraining order will become permanent is scheduled for early December.

Jackson, who works in both the fitness and entertainment industries, has denied the allegations and levied his own claims against Keke Palmer’s mother, accusing her of threatening to put a bullet in his head.