Paula Deen said she "lost it all" after a 2013 deposition in which she admitted to using the N-word, during a tense interview with The Hollywood Reporter that followed the Toronto International Film Festival premiere of a documentary about her career.
Deen, 78, was joined in the interview by her sons and business partners, Bobby and Jamie Deen. The conversation — which reporters described as contentious at times — revisited the lawsuit brought by Lisa Jackson in 2013 and the subsequent cancellation of several of Deen's business relationships after excerpts of the deposition became public. Deen said within "24 hours" she had lost deals with the Food Network, Walmart and Target and that the fallout "ate at my gut every day."
Bobby Deen pushed back on his mother's characterization, saying the family had "not lost it all" and describing their business as having "thrived and survived this whole time." He said the family and their enterprises endured and that many supporters and detractors had already formed their opinions. At one point Bobby, speaking softly but audibly, told his mother, "They're also not your friends."
The documentary, Canceled: The Paula Deen Story, directed by Billy Corben, premiered Saturday at TIFF. Deen said she wanted the film to tell what she called "the real story," and accused Jackson of being "a known liar," saying that journalists and others "took her word and ran with it." Bobby said he had been hesitant about revisiting the controversy, calling it "a terrible idea" at first because so much time had passed.
The legal dispute began in 2013 when Jackson sued Deen, alleging sexual discrimination and accusing the chef of making offensive remarks about Black people at a family restaurant. A judge later dismissed Jackson's racial discrimination claims on the grounds that Jackson, who is white, lacked standing to sue over the treatment of Black employees; the judge allowed Jackson's sexual discrimination claim to proceed before both parties requested dismissal. Neither Deen nor Jackson has publicly confirmed whether the case was settled.
In the 2013 deposition, Deen acknowledged having used the N-word in recounting a story about a robbery in the 1980s and conceded she had used the slur on other occasions. In the recent interview, she offered a less specific timeline, saying the word "had been out of our vocabulary now for a long time" and recalling that her father had warned her as a teenager never to be "mean or rude to anyone." She also said the term "always kind of made me shiver." The comments in Toronto did not alter what she had told the court in 2013.
Deen said she regretted not hiring an attorney who would have objected more forcefully during her deposition and expressed regret that she had not settled the lawsuit earlier. Her son Jamie told the interviewer that "nobody made" her apologize in the way she did at the time.
At the Toronto screening and subsequent interview, Deen said she has since regained much of her business footprint and highlighted personal relationships she described as enduring. She also said she did not recall consulting many of her Black friends during the controversy, while asserting she has "many Black friends that I love very much." The family members' exchanges sometimes grew uncomfortable as they clashed over whether the documentary would help or hurt Deen's reputation.
The film's premiere brought renewed public attention to a controversy that upended Deen's television career more than a decade ago. The dispute and its fallout remain a defining episode in her public life, prompting discussions about accountability, race, and the consequences of public testimony. Representatives for Deen did not immediately respond to requests for additional comment after the interview.