After a month of letting romance speculators speculate about her relationship status with the man known by all as the \u201cHot Ones guy\u201d (aka Sean Evans), Keke Palmer is clearing some things up. She\u2019s not in love. The chicken wing torture artist is simply her \u201cwork husband.\u201d<\/p>\n
So what, she was caught having a romantic Brooklyn dinner date with him<\/a>? Or that she told the entirety of Jay Shetty\u2019s Cannes Lions panel that she and Evans were indeed \u201changing out?\u201d That doesn\u2019t mean she married the guy. On Monday, Palmer made an appearance on Today\u00a0<\/a>and told hosts Sheinelle Jones and Jenna Bush Hager that the whole situation has left her feeling, and I quote, \u201cgagged.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI was gagged that everybody was ready to marry me off,\u201d she said. \u201cI was like, \u2018Guys, let it cook!\u2019 They married your girl off in two seconds.\u201d You heard Keke.<\/p>\n \u201cOur chemistry is genuine,\u201d Palmer said. \u201cI couldn\u2019t force that if I tried. We always felt that chemistry from the first time we did the show.\u201d The two have indeed been having fun with the rumors since 2023, when Evans first revealed his crush on Palmer<\/a> to his arch-chicken-rival, Amelia Dimoldenberg, on Chicken Shop Date. After that, Palmer appeared on his show again and asked him for a \u201cquick smooch.\u201d She also introduced him as her \u201cpotential future suitor<\/a>\u201d on an episode of her podcast, Baby This is Keke. But now, Keke admits, things might have gone too far\u2014not with the romance, but with everyone else caring so much about it.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, for us, it\u2019s life. Essentially we met at work, and we had chem\u2026 It\u2019s like work husband\/work wife, and you just had that chemistry with people. Then we hang out, and for people to then\u2026 they write the story before you can live it.\u201d She\u00a0did tell everyone at Jay Shetty\u2019s Cannes Lions Panel that they were \u201changing out,\u201d which has certain connotations, but I see her point.<\/p>\n She went on to share a story about a fan who approached her as she was going through TSA and asked her about Evans: \u201cI\u2019m like, \u2018Girl, you gotta let time pass. This just happened yesterday,\u2019\u201d she recalled. \u201cIt\u2019s this thing that\u2019s so parasocial, the world we live in now.\u201d<\/p>\n The only way to put these rumors to rest once and for all would be to reunite Palmer and Evans for a third and final chicken-related interview (what say you, Scott Pelley?) and get a tell-all on what this relationship actually is. But for now, it seems like a work-husband situationship, and that\u2019s all Palmer will allow us to (parasocially) have.<\/p>\n