Ten years ago, when talk of “being canceled” applied to TV shows more than TV stars, Paula Deen lost her longtime job at the Food Network. On June 21, 2013, the cable channel announced that it would not renew Deen’s contract following news that the chef and restaurateur admitted to using racial epithets in the past.
In a court deposition, Deen said he had used the N-word before. (“Yes, of course,” she said when asked by a lawyer, per TMZ.)
One TODAY appearance after the statement became public, Deen maintained that she was not racist. But the damage was done: Within days, Deen 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 to work, though not at the Food Network, as it were her official website to test. A year after that scandal, for example, she embarked on a national tour called Paula Deen Live! She also launched the Paula Deen Network on her website after buying her Food Network shows, according to the Guardian.
And in 2015, she launched a podcast called What’s Cooking with Paula Deena radio show called Cook with Paula Deenand a mobile game called Paula Deen’s Recipe Search.
He also returned to television Dancing with the stars in 2015, finishing ninth alongside professional partner Louis Van Amstel.
In 2016, Deen released two more shows, Positive Paulaa cooking show that aired in syndication and Sweet Home Savannaha live show that was available on the cable channel then known as EVINE.
More recently, Deen hosted a Fox Nation show, At Home with Paula Deenmade several appearances on the Fox News morning show The fox and friendsand rated an episode of the Fox cooking show Chef.
Along the way, Deen kept his journal, Cooking with Paula Deenand releasing several cookbooks including Paula Deen Cuts Fat: 250 Favorite Recipes, All Bright, At the Southern Table with Paula Deenand Paula Deen’s Southern Baking: 125 Favorite Recipes From My Savannah Kitchen.
And it 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 was not without controversy. In 2015, more than two years after her N-word scandal, a picture posted on her social media accounts showed her dressed 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 Timesa rep for the TV star blamed a social media manager for sharing the image and said Deen “apologies to anyone who was offended.”