“Paula Deen Breaks Her Silence: The Real Story Behind Her 2013 N‑Word Controversy”

The rise and fall of Paula Deen’s tele­vi­sion career is explored in the new doc­u­men­tary “Can­celed: The Paula Deen Sto­ry.” At 78, Deen went from a local busi­ness own­er in Savan­nah, Geor­gia, to a Food Net­work star cel­e­brat­ed for her South­ern-style cook­ing. How­ev­er, her grow­ing food empire came crash­ing down fol­low­ing a racial slur scan­dal.

The net­work can­celed Paula Deen’s con­tracts after one of her for­mer employ­ees, Lisa Jack­son, sued her for racial dis­crim­i­na­tion in 2013. Dur­ing a depo­si­tion for the law­suit, the Geor­gia-born cook­book author admit­ted to hav­ing used the N‑word in the past. Her acknowl­edg­ment not only ignit­ed pub­lic out­rage but also led to the loss of major retail deals with Wal­mart, Tar­get, and oth­er com­pa­nies.

A judge lat­er dis­missed Jackson’s claims, not­ing that as a white woman, she had no stand­ing to sue over alleged anti-Black dis­crim­i­na­tion. Both par­ties sub­se­quent­ly agreed to dis­miss the case, fuel­ing spec­u­la­tion that Deen reached a set­tle­ment with her for­mer Savan­nah restau­rant gen­er­al man­ag­er.

The new doc­u­men­tary “Can­celed: The Paula Deen Sto­ry”, which pre­miered at the Toron­to Inter­na­tion­al Film Fes­ti­val on Sep­tem­ber 6, chron­i­cles her dra­mat­ic rise and fall. For the film, The Hol­ly­wood Reporter spoke with Deen, who dis­cussed her career and per­son­al strug­gles along­side her adult sons, Jamie and Bob­by Deen.

“This was some­thing that ate at my gut every day. I would have been fine had the whole sto­ry been told — had the real sto­ry been told,” Deen told the pub­li­ca­tion. She con­tin­ued, “They took this woman [the plain­tiff], who is a known liar, they took her word and ran with it, and no one ever inves­ti­gat­ed fur­ther. I wasn’t going to be hap­py until the world saw the truth.”

Deen’s attempts at redemp­tion have been fraught with con­tra­dic­tions. As the N‑word scan­dal threat­ened to destroy her pub­lic image, the Day­time Emmy Award win­ner issued a for­mal apol­o­gy in 2013, which she now hints may have been insin­cere.

“I want to apol­o­gize to every­body for the wrong that I’ve done. I want to learn and grow from this,” she said in a video post­ed online in June 2013. “Inap­pro­pri­ate, hurt­ful lan­guage is total­ly, total­ly unac­cept­able.”

She added, “I’ve made plen­ty of mis­takes along the way, but I beg you — my chil­dren, my team, my fans, my part­ners — please for­give me for the mis­takes that I’ve made.”

The doc­u­men­tary paints a com­plex por­trait of Deen: a beloved chef whose career sky­rock­et­ed thanks to her South­ern-style cook­ing and warm tele­vi­sion per­sona, yet who faced a dra­mat­ic pub­lic reck­on­ing over issues of race, account­abil­i­ty, and the con­se­quences of long-hid­den words. For many, it’s a cau­tion­ary tale of fame, for­give­ness, and the high stakes of pub­lic life.

Deen now appears to be admit­ting that her pub­lic apol­o­gy was not entire­ly vol­un­tary, claim­ing she was pres­sured into mak­ing the state­ments by her han­dlers. She told The Hol­ly­wood Reporter, “They made me. They brought me to New York. These two men, I couldn’t tell you who they were.”

Her son, Jamie, inter­ject­ed, “Let’s straight­en this out. Nobody made you apol­o­gize. The para­me­ters they set, the team you had up here…” But Deen cut him off, say­ing, “It was two men, and it was a big, tall build­ing in Man­hat­tan.”

“They took me upstairs, intro­duced me to these two men, and told me, ‘You need to put out an apol­o­gy.’ And I said, ‘What am I apol­o­giz­ing for? What am I sup­posed to be sor­ry about? I told the truth [at the depo­si­tion],’” Deen recalled.

She con­tin­ued, “They weren’t sup­posed to release it until my team had approved it. I couldn’t even approve walk­ing across the street. I was bro­ken. Total­ly bro­ken. So, I tried to make anoth­er one. And they said, ‘I guess that’s the best we’re going to get from you.’ Because I didn’t know what I was sup­posed to be apol­o­giz­ing for—being truth­ful while the oth­er side had lied?”

Deen’s attempt­ed come­back amid the con­tro­ver­sy has sparked heat­ed debates online. On Face­book, some fans of the for­mer Paula’s Home Cook­ing host expressed a desire to move on, while crit­ics remained unwill­ing to for­give.

“[A] bet­ter name would have been… ‘Con­se­quences of My Own Actions: The Paula Deen Sto­ry,’ lol,” one user joked about Bil­ly Corben’s doc­u­men­tary Can­celed.

One for­mer sup­port­er admit­ted that the 2013 N‑word rev­e­la­tion had been a deal­break­er, writ­ing, “I was one of her biggest fans until that hap­pened.”

In con­trast, a devot­ed fan defend­ed her, com­ment­ing, “Get over it! She has paid the price for her past. Now it’s time to for­give.”