Twelve years after a scandal ended her career on television, Paula Deen is telling her side of the story again. The former Food Network star was beloved on the network for her thick country accent and warm personality on camera. Not to mention, she was teaching her audience how to make Southern-style meals at home.
That all came crashing down when Deen was sued for discrimination and harassment in 2013. She went off the grid for years, but has slowly resurfaced in the last several years with her cooking Youtube channel, and the release of another cookbook in 2023 called “Love & Best Dishes.” Now she is addressing her transgressions head on in her upcoming documentary called “Canceled: The Paula Deen Story.” In an Aug. 20 interview with “Fox and Friends,” she opened up about her struggles with a mental health condition and nearly dying after the backlash from the lawsuit.
During the interview, TV host Steve Doocy tossed over to Deen to talk about the documentary, which will premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in September.
Speaking candidly she said, “My children and I were a little leery at first but then we decided – let me tell you something Steve, I thought I was gon’ die of a broken heart. And I said, I couldn’t let myself fall back into that terrible agoraphobia, but I had like 5 and a half 6 million people come in on my Facebook and put their arms around me and without y’all, I would not have survived.”
Deen opened up to Doocy earlier in the interview about her agoraphobia condition. She said, “I self-diagnosed myself after watching “The Phil Donahue Show,” with these people that couldn’t leave their house. And I considered what I would call a functioning sometimes-agoraphobic.”
She described it as feeling “so afraid someone’s going to hurt you.” The 78-year-old talked about losing her father in her early 20s and how her mother passed away four years later. Being parentless, it was her responsibility to raise her 16-year-old brother and her two children Bobby and Jamie Deen who, at the time, were younger than 3 years old.
After 20 years of dealing with that she “woke up” and something changed.
She said, “I got up out of bed and I walked over and cut on the light and the Serenity Prayer went through my head, and I said, ‘Girl, you are so stupid. That’s what you’re supposed to be asking God for, to be able to accept the serenity to accept the things you couldn’t change, the courage to change the things that you could, and dear Lord, please give me the sense to know the difference between those two things.’”
Fans reacted to Deen’s interview.
One person on New York Post said, “All that hate is catching up to her.. Sorry..not sorry!”
Another wrote, “There is no room in the world today for racism. She was queen of the hill and her racial insults help cause her decline. Nobody to blame but herself.”
Someone on Page Six’s Facebook post said, “That doesn’t erase what she did and said,” referring to the accusations of bigotry that derailed Deen’s career.
On New York Post’s Facebook post another mocked Deen and said, “Racism & all that butter, it’ll give you a ‘broken heart’ all right.”
As for her documentary, it will address the scandal from over a decade ago when she was fired from the network after admitting to using the N-word several times in a 2013 deposition.
The deposition was part of a lawsuit that was not only against Deen. It also named her brother Earl “Bubba” Heirs, and corporate entities, and it was filed by the former manager of Deen and Heirs’ restaurant called Uncle Bubba’s Seafood and Oyster House.
The former manager Lisa Jackson sued for discrimination, as well as gender-based harassment.
In the deposition, it was revealed that Jackson, who had been working for Deen’s family for years, was in charge of the food and serving arrangements at Heirs’ wedding in 2007.
Deen said she wanted “a true Southern-style wedding” for her brother and Jackson asked what type of uniforms the servers should wear.
In a transcript from the deposition, Deen said, “Well what I would really like is a bunch of little n—–s to wear long-sleeve white shirts, black shorts and black bow ties, you know in the Shirley Temple days, they used to tap dance around.” Paula Deen laughed and said “Now that would be a true Southern wedding, wouldn’t it? But we can’t do that because the media would be on me about that.”
Among the racial discrimination claims, Jackson said black employees at the restaurant were forced to use the back entrance and prohibited from using the front. Heirs would also drop the N-word at work and make racist remarks to employees.
In the complaint, Jackson claimed she was “subjected to violent behavior by Heirs.” She also said he would comment on her legs and ask for her to bring younger pictures of herself at work. Additionally, he often watched pornography at work.
In Aug. 2013, a Georgia federal judge dismissed the racial discrimination claims because Jackson was a white individual herself. However, he left the harassment claims unresolved.
Later that same month, the lawsuit was settled with no award of cost or fees.
By April 2014, Uncle Bubba’s closed down.
Great Job J. Jones & the Team @ Atlanta Black Star Source link for sharing this story.
