Where’s Paula Deen Now, 10 Years After a Scandal Got Her Canceled?
Ten years ago, when talk of “getting canceled” applied to TV shows more than TV stars, Paula Deen lost her long-running employment with Food Network. On June 21, 2013, the cable channel announced it would not renew Deen’s contract, following the news that the chef and restauranteur admitted to using racial epithets in the past.
In a court deposition, Deen said she had used the N-word before. (“Yes, of course,” she said when a lawyer asked, per TMZ.)
In a TODAY appearance after the deposition went public, Deen claimed she wasn’t racist. But the damage was done: Within days, Deen had lost deals, contracts, and partnerships with Walmart, Target, Home Depot, QVC, Sears, JCPenney, Caesars Entertainment Corporation, Smithfield Foods, and Ballantine books.
In the decade since, Deen has continued working, though not on Food Network, as her official website attests. The year after that scandal, for instance, she embarked on a national tour, titled Paula Deen Live! She also launched the Paula Deen Network on her website after buying back her Food Network shows, according to The Guardian.
And in 2015, she launched a podcast called What’s Cooking with Paula Deen, a radio show called Get Cooking with Paula Deen, and a mobile game called Paula Deen’s Recipe Quest.
She also returned to TV on Dancing With the Stars in 2015, coming in ninth place alongside pro partner Louis Van Amstel.
In 2016, Deen launched two more shows, Positively Paula, a cooking show that aired in syndication, and Sweet Home Savannah, a live show that was available on the cable channel then known as EVINE.
More recently, Deen has hosted a Fox Nation show, At Home With Paula Deen, made multiple appearances on the Fox News morning show Fox and Friends, and guest-judged an episode of the Fox cooking competition show Masterchef.
Along the way, Deen has been keeping up her magazine, Cooking With Paula Deen, and releasing more cookbooks, including Paula Deen Cuts the Fat: 250 Favorite Recipes All Lightened Up, At the Southern Table with Paula Deen, and Paula Deen’s Southern Baking: 125 Favorite Recipes from My Savannah Kitchen.
And she has also opened restaurants in Alabama, Florida, Missouri, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas, though some of those locations have since closed.
Unfortunately, Deen’s last decade has not been without controversy. In 2015, more than two years after her N-word scandal, an image posted to her social media accounts showed her dressed up as Lucy from I Love Lucy and her son Bobby wearing skin-darkening makeup as part of his Ricky costume.
In a statement to The New York Times, a rep for the TV star blamed a social media manager for sharing the image and said that Deen “apologizes to all who were offended.”
