Paula Deen is opening up about her past troubles in the new Canceled: The Paula Deen Story documentary.
Keep reading to get more details…
The 78-year-old chef and former Food Network host was caught up in controversy dating back to 2013 for racial and sexual discrimination, being sued by the general manager of the restaurant she owned with her brother.
In a deposition in the case, it was revealed she used a derogatory term in the 1980s and after it went public, she hired a crisis management team. Now, she opens up about being “forced” to make an apology when insisting she did nothing wrong, and she’s hoping to clear her name.
“They told me I had to sit down and film an apology to the country,” she says. “I said, ‘I didn’t do anything wrong. I was involved in a deposition, and I told the truth.’ They said, ‘You did do something wrong.’”
The apology video was not received well and Paula had to make another video, all while she was still in a state of shock – “They said, ‘It was not heartfelt at all. Do it again.’”
Before the video was to be released, it was supposed to be approved by her agent, but it was not, and as the video became available publicly, Paula found out she was fired from the Food Network.
In the doc, Paula is still insisting she didn’t do anything wrong and says she was just doing what she was told to under oath.
“I could have lied,” she said. “But I chose not to.”
Paula says she never spoke out of line at any of her restaurants, in response to the initial inflammatory comment she allegedly made in the lawsuit, which was settled and the plaintiff did not receive any monetary compensation.
“When they lay me down, I do not want my tombstone to say, ‘Here lies the body of a racist,’” she said.
Since then, she never returned to Food Network and never gained back any endorsements she lost. Last month, her first restaurant, The Lady and Sons, closed down for good.
Source: justjared.com