The Food Network announced on Friday that Paula Deen’s contract would not be renewed after she admitted to using the N-word.
The announcement came only an hour after Deen posted a video apology on the web, reports the Los Angeles Times.
Deen, who is being sued by a former manager of one of her restaurants, recently admitted in a deposition that she had used the racial slur in the past.
“Yes, of course,” she said, reports Boston. She attempted to explain herself: “It’s been a long time” and defended herself with a statement.
“I want to apologize to everybody for the wrong that I've done,” Deen said in the first of two video statements, according to CNN. "I want to learn and grow from this. Inappropriate and hurtful language is totally, totally unacceptable. I've made plenty of mistakes along the way but I beg you, my children, my team, my fans, my partners, I beg for your forgiveness.”
Deen also said in the deposition that she had once planned a wedding party in which black servers were dressed in antebellum slave-style outfits.
“The whole entire waiter staff was middle-aged black men, and they had on beautiful white jackets with a black bow tie,” she explained. “I mean, it was really impressive. That restaurant represented a certain era in America…after the Civil War, during the Civil War, before the Civil War…It was not only black men, it was black women…I would say they were slaves.”
It was also revealed that the 66-year-old host of Paula’s Best Dishes allowed pornographic photos to circulate around her office as a joke.
Deen bailed on a Today Show appearance with Matt Lauer on Friday.
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