Paula Deen thought she was 'going to die' after being cancelled for racial slur

For all the concern over ‘cancel culture’, people who’ve experienced it seem pretty capable of bouncing back.

Celebrity chef Paula Deen, whose life is getting a documentary send-up in Cancelled: The Paul Deen Story in the forthcoming Toronto International Film Festival 2025, is one such phoenix rising from ignominious ashes.

In 2013, Deen was fired by Food Network after admitting to using a racial slur in a deposition. The corresponding lawsuit was filed by Lisa Jackon, a former manager at Deen’s Uncle Bubba’s Seafood and Oyster House, and it was thrown out by a federal judge in Georgia following a settlement.

More recently, business challenges have seen Deen shutter two of her restaurants.

Deen has authored several cookbooks (Tara Ziemba / Contributor/Getty Images)

She announced on 1 August 2025 that her flagship eatery, The Lady & Sons based in Savannah, Georgia, would be closing abruptly. The Chicken Box, located nearby, was also closed.

"Hey, y’all, my sons and I made the heartfelt decision that Thursday, July 31st, was the last day of service for The Lady & Sons and The Chicken Box,” wrote Deen in the Facebook announcement. “Thank you for all the great memories and for your loyalty over the past 36 years.

"We have endless love and gratitude for every customer who has walked through our doors. We are equally grateful to our incredible staff — past and present — whose hard work, care, and hospitality made The Lady & Sons what it was. Savannah will always be our home, and we’ll always be here to support our wonderful community."

In the wake of these closures, Deen appeared on Fox and Friends on 20 August 2025 with host Steve Doocy where the 78-year-old detailed some of the mental health struggles she has faced over the past two decades.

“I self-diagnosed myself after watching The Phil Donahue Show, with these people that couldn’t leave their house,” she said. “And I considered what I would call a functioning sometimes-agoraphobic.

“You’re so afraid someone’s going to hurt you. I had lost my daddy when he was just 40. He was the star of my life. And then my mother, my best friend, I lost her at 44, four years later. I had a 16-year-old brother to try to finish raising and I had two babies under 3.”

She said she overcame these challenges via an early-morning epiphany.

“The Serenity Prayer went through my head, and I said, ‘Girl, you are so stupid. That’s what you’re supposed to be asking God for, to be able to accept the serenity to accept the things you couldn’t change, the courage to change the things that you could, and dear lord, please give me the sense to know the difference between those two things.’”

Deen announced the abrupt closure of her flagship restaurant, The Lady & Sons, in August 2025 (Jeff Greenberg / Contributor/Getty Images)

When Doocy noted that these challenges would be covered in the upcoming documentary, Deen elaborated on her personal relationship with the film.

“My children and I were a little leery at first,” she said. “But then we decided — let me tell you something, Steve. I thought I was going to die of a broken heart. And I said I couldn’t let myself fall back into that terrible [agoraphobia]. But I had, like, 5 and a half, 6 million people come in on my Facebook and put their arms around me. And without y’all, I would not have survived.”