Paula Deen Food Network Key Art - P 2013
Food NetworkThe Food Network has decided not to renew Paula Deen‘s contract.
“Food Network will not renew Paula Deen’s contract when it expires at the end of this month,” said a network spokesperson. Deen joined the network in 1999 and currently hosts Paula’s Best Dishes and Paula’s Home Cooking.
The 66-year-old was revealed in a discrimination lawsuit deposition to have used the N-word in the past but did not condone its use currently. Deen and her brother, Bubba Heirs, are being sued by a former manager in their Georgia restaurant, Lisa T. Jackson.
STORY: Paula Deen Admits to Using N-Word in Deposition
Deen released multiple videos on Friday apologizing for hurtful language and explaining why she did not appear on a scheduled interview with Today‘s Matt Lauer.
“I want to apologize to everybody for the wrong that I’ve done,” she said in one clip. “I want to learn and grow from this. … Inappropriate hurtful language is totally, totally unacceptable. I’ve made plenty of mistakes along the way.”
In another video (below), she added: “I want people to understand that my family and I are not the kind of people that the press is wanting to say we are.”
“Your color of your skin, your religion, your sexual preference does not matter to me,” the chef elaborated. “But it’s what’s in the heart and my family and I try to live by that.”
