What happened to Paula Deen? Her racism scandal and subsequent cancellation, explained

Content Warning: This article contains references to racist and discriminatory language. Reader discretion is advised.

Celebrity chef Paula Deen, known for her traditional, home-style Southern recipes, was virtually the face of The Food Network at the peak of her career – that is, until accusations from her employees over racial discrimination and shocking bigoted language saw her TV shows, books, and brands disappear virtually overnight.

Here’s everything you need to know about the accusations that the celebrity chef later admitted were true, and what the disgraced TV host has been up to since then.

Paula Deen’s racism was exposed through a lawsuit

Accusations of racist and discriminatory behavior by Deen were brought to light in June 2013, when Lisa Jackson, a white woman, sued Deen and her brother, Earl “Bubba” Hiers under racial and sexual discrimination. Jackson, a former employee who worked for the siblings at their Savannah, Georgia restaurant, Uncle Bubba’s Oyster House, alleged that Deen frequently made “derogatory remarks” about African-American employees.

The celebrity chef was also alleged to have planned a “true southern plantation-style wedding,” in which black male employees would serve the white guests. Deen was alleged to have requested “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,” but acknowledged the plans couldn’t go ahead, “because the media would be on me about that”.

The racial discrimination aspect was thrown out by the judge because the plaintiff was white, but the sexual discrimination accusation was said to have reached an out-of-court settlement for an undisclosed sum. However, the accusations had already been made public by that point, and to make matters worse, when asked in court about whether she had used the n-word, Deen responded “of course,” – and several times in the past, according to the TV host.

Deen’s downfall was unlike any other

After details of the lawsuit and subsequent accusations were made public, Paula Deen lost a number of deals and sponsorships she had acquired over her successful career. Deen was dropped from her book publisher, and lost contracts with Walmart, Caesars Palace, QVC, Target, and Home Depot – but perhaps none more painful than her firing by The Food Network, the same platform that had helped make her a household name.

Deen issued a tearful apology on The Today Show, where she admitted that such accusations made in the lawsuit were true, but maintained that she was not racist. However, things only got worse for the TV star, when an ex-employee, Dora Charles, told The New York Times that Deen had asked employees to “dress in an old-style Aunt Jemima outfit,” referring to the pancake syrup brand mascot that has a long history of upholding racist stereotypes about black women.

Charles also said that her former employer underpaid what she was promised when she was hired, and that she refused Deen’s request to ring a dinner bell for her white guests. “I said ‘I’m not ringing no bell,'” Charles stated in the interview. “That’s a symbol to me of what we used to do back in the day.” A few months later in April 2014, Deen closed the Uncle Bubba’s Oyster House restaurant – likely due to bad publicity and subsequent money troubles.

Deen sparked another racism controversy in 2015

Two years on from the scandal that effectively ruined her career, Paula Deen created further condemnation in July 2015, when a 2011 image of the disgraced television personality and her family was tweeted on Deen’s account, featuring her son Bobby in brownface. The image showed Paula dressed as Lucille Ball’s character from the sitcom I Love Lucy, along with Bobby, who used skin-darkening makeup to depict himself as Desi Arnaz’s role of Ricky Ricardo.

To make matters worse, the deliberate misspellings in the tweet to mock Ricardo’s accent caused further offense. “Lucyyyyyyy! You got a lot of esplainin’ to do! [sic],” the now-deleted tweet read. Deen claimed that the post was sent by an unnamed social media manager, but the move appeared to many as a sign that the disgraced TV star had learned little from the last two years of criticism towards her behavior.

Since then, Deem has kept a relatively low profile. The chef has appeared on a few TV shows and web series, but nothing compared to what her pre-scandal status afforded her, especially in terms of money and audience. Deen did appear as a guest judge on Masterchef in 2021, but her TV appearances have been restricted to mainly smaller channels, away from The Food Network.