Paula Deen returned to NBC’s TODAY this morning one year after her infamous interview meltdown where she apologized for using a racial slurs.
In 2013, Deen lost her Food Network cooking show, and much of her multi-million culinary empire, when a court deposition revealed the celebrity chef used the “N-word” and other racial slurs some 30 years ago. A federal judge eventually threw out the lawsuit, but Deen’s career took a severe blow.
When asked by Lauer about the lessons thats she’s learned over the past year, Deen said, “Words are so powerful. They can hurt. They can make people happy. Well, my words hurt people. They disappointed people, and frankly, I disappointed myself. And for that, I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry for the hurt that I caused people because it went deep.”
Deen went on to explain that when she looks back, she doesn’t even recognize her old self.
“I didn’t recognize that woman. That was a woman in trauma, I would say in shock, trying to understand what had happened,” Deen told Matt, referring to their 2013 conversation. “I probably should not have been here. I probably should have been at home, maybe even under the care of a doctor.”
Deen, who was joined by her two sons Jamie and Bobby, later revealed that she recently started a new subscription-based online channel, The Paula Deen Network, that will air her old cooking shows as well as 100 new shows which she filmed over the past year.
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