Is Paula Deen Returning to Food Network Following Racial Slur Controversy?

Paula Deen lost her Food Network show many years ago, after controversial allegations that she used racial slurs in the workplace, but not there is speculation that she could be returning to the cooking channel. Gossip Cop reports that sources close to the situation are saying Deen feels like she has enough of an audience to merit getting her Food Network show back. “Paula never felt the public turned against her,” the source told the National Inquirer. “She still gets mobbed by fans when she is out in public.”

The insider claims that Deen is “trying to show the big networks that there is a big base of supporters out there who would love to see her back on TV.” Regarding the racial slur controversy, the source said, “It’s been an uphill financial battle for Paula ever since. But she truly believes the tide has turned.” A recent guest appearance on MasterChef: Legends seems to have sparked the interest, the source claims, allegedly leading Deen to work on heading back to Food Network. “She’s burning up the phone lines to network execs to reinstate her,” the source concluded.

Notably, Gossip Cop encourages its readers to take this report with a grain of salt, as it were. The outlet cites missteps by the National Inquirer in the past, regarding reports of controversial figures leaving and then returning to our TV sets. Gossip Cop also notes that Deen hasn’t really gone away since her racial slur controversy, pointing to various other big projects she has done in recent years.

The controversy around Deen was sparked in 2013, when she was sued by Lisa Jackson, the former manager of Uncle Bubba’s Seafood and Oyster House, for racial and sexual discrimination. Deen and her late brother, Bubba Hiers, owned the restaurant together. Jackson alleged that Deen has used racial slurs, such as the “N-word,” which Deen later confessed to in a deposition.

She specifically recalled using it about a Black man who she claimed was the perpetrator of an alleged bank robbery she was victim of some years back but stated that she did not recall using it since. “I’m sure I have, but it’s been a very long time,” she said, per a CNN transcript. “Maybe in repeating something that was said to me… probably a conversation between Blacks. I don’t – I don’t know. But that’s just not a word that we use as time has gone on. Things have changed since the ’60s in the South.” The situation led to Deen losing many business-related relationships, as well as her place on the Food Network.