Paula Deen Returns to ‘Today’ Show After N-Word Fiasco to Apologize and Make Some Money

The disgraced Food Network host says she was “in shock” during her tearful appearance last year

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Paula Deen lathered the “Today” Show audience Tuesday in apologies, and then sprinkled on some fresh promotion.

A year after suffering a tearful breakdown on the program during the height of her racism scandal — Deen had admitted to using the N-word during a deposition for a discrimination lawsuit — pop culture’s foremost embodiment of southern cooking pleaded insanity.

Also read: Paula Deen Launching Online Cooking Network

“I looked at none of it, I didn’t recognize that woman,” Deen told Matt Lauer of her appearance last year, flying out the gate with a prepared explanation. “That was a woman in trauma; in, I would say shock, trying to understand what had happened.  And, the cold hard fact is I probably should not have been here — I probably should have been at home, maybe even under the care of a doctor.”

Deen admitted that she eventually understood why she was dropped by the Food Network and promotional partners such as QVC and Smithfield Hams, though she says it took a while to grapple with the rejection, given that she had last used racist language 30 years ago.

Also read: Paula Deen Compares Her Struggles to ‘That Black’ Openly Gay NFL Prospect Michael Sam

For the record, the former employee of her brother’s Savannah, Ga. restaurant who sued Deen claimed that the celebrity chef had used the N-word as late as 2007, which the chef denied.

On the bright side, Deen and her sons said that they had a lot of great friends who helped support them through the ordeal, and of course, now they’re back with a brand new streaming network chock-full of old episodes of her Food Network programs and other new bites of buttery content, all backed by a $75 million investment.

Also important: Don’t bother writing mean things in the comments section here, because Deen doesn’t have time to read the haters.

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