Paula Deen Dropped from Food Network After Video Statement Apologizing for Racial Slur [VIDEO]
Paula Deen, the self-proclaimed queen of Southern cooking, will be let go from the Food Network after coming under fire for a racism scandal.
The celebrity chef was fired by Food Network on Friday, according to TMZ.
Officials at the channel elected not to renew her contract, which expires at the end of the month.
Earlier today, Deen released a video statement giving her mea culpa for using racial slurs.
"I want to apologize to everybody for the wrong that I've done," Deen said. "I want to learn and grow from this. Inappropriate, hurtful language is totally, totally unacceptable."
Deen's choice of words became a public scandal earlier in the week, when the star admitted during a discrimination trial that she had "of course" used the N-word in the past.
In a longer video posted later in the afternoon, Ms. Deen, appearing more composed, said: "I've spent the best part of 24 years to help myself and others. Your color of your skin, your religion, your sexual preference does not matter."
Earlier on Friday, Ms. Deen failed to appear on Today for a scheduled exclusive interview Friday morning with Matt Lauer, citing exhaustion.
She had agreed to the interview, extensively promoted by NBC News on Thursday night, to address the uproar generated this week by her statements in her deposition.
The lawsuit against her was filed in March 2012 by Lisa T. Jackson, the general manager of Uncle Bubba's Oyster House, a restaurant that Ms. Deen owned with her brother, Earl (Bubba) Hiers. Ms. Jackson, who is white, said that her father was Sicilian, with dark skin, and that she had suffered prejudice as a result.
In the deposition, Ms. Deen said that she had used a racial slur in the past, though not in the restaurant, and that she and her family did not tolerate prejudice. "Bubba and I, neither one of us, care what the color of your skin is" or what gender a person is, she said. "It's what's in your heart and in your head that matters to us."
She also stated that "most jokes" are about Jews, gay people, black people and "rednecks."
"I can't, myself, determine what offends another person," she said.
