Paula Deen

Paula Deen is one of the most recognisable figures in American home cooking: a Savannah restaurateur and television host who turned a small catering round delivered by her two teenage sons into a Southern-food empire of restaurants, cookbooks and Food Network shows. For more than a decade she was the smiling, butter-loving face of Southern comfort cuisine.

Her story is also one of dramatic reversal. A 2013 scandal cost Deen much of her broadcasting career and most of her corporate sponsors, forcing one of the most closely watched comebacks in the food world. In 2025 she and her sons closed the Savannah restaurant that started it all, marking the end of an era for the brand.

TL;DR

• American cook, television personality and restaurateur, born 19 January 1947 in Albany, Georgia.
• Built her career from a home catering business, The Bag Lady, into the Savannah restaurant The Lady & Sons and Food Network stardom.
• Won a Daytime Emmy in 2007 and published around fifteen cookbooks.
• Lost her Food Network contract and sponsors in 2013 after admitting past use of a racial slur in a legal deposition.
• Revealed a type 2 diabetes diagnosis in 2012 and later rebuilt an independent business; closed The Lady & Sons in 2025.

Paula Deen key facts

Paula Deen: career timeline

Early life and the birth of The Bag Lady

Family tragedy and agoraphobia

Paula Ann Hiers was born on 19 January 1947 in Albany, Georgia. Her comfortable childhood was shattered in her late teens and early twenties: her father died suddenly at 40 when she was 19, and her mother died four years later at 44. Losing both parents so young triggered severe panic attacks and years of agoraphobia.

During that difficult period, Deen has said, the kitchen became her refuge. Cooking the Southern dishes she had grown up with gave her something to control when little else felt manageable, and it planted the seed of the career that would follow.

Starting The Bag Lady

Deen had married Jimmy Deen in 1965 and the couple had two sons, Jamie, born in 1967, and Bobby, born in 1970. After the marriage ended in divorce in 1989 she needed to support her boys and, with reportedly only a couple of hundred dollars to her name, she started a home catering business she called The Bag Lady.

She cooked Southern lunches in her own kitchen and Jamie and Bobby delivered them to offices around Savannah. It was a modest operation, but it put Deen back into the world and proved there was a ready appetite for the food she knew best.

Building a Savannah restaurant empire

The Lady & Sons

By 1991 Deen had moved her cooking into a small restaurant space at a Best Western hotel on the south side of Savannah, which she named The Lady. In January 1996 she and her sons opened their own full restaurant in the historic downtown, The Lady & Sons, serving fried chicken, ribs, collard greens and other Southern staples on a bustling buffet.

Word of mouth, glowing reviews and a growing tourist trade turned it into one of Savannah’s best-known dining rooms, with visitors queueing down the block for a table. The restaurant anchored the Deen brand for almost three decades.

Paula Deen’s Family Kitchen

As her fame grew, Deen expanded beyond Savannah with a chain of larger sit-down restaurants called Paula Deen’s Family Kitchen, opened in tourist destinations such as Pigeon Forge, Myrtle Beach, Nashville and Branson. These family-style restaurants extended the brand well beyond her home city.

The 2025 closures

On 31 July 2025 the family abruptly closed both The Lady & Sons and the adjacent Chicken Box, posting that they had “retired” the restaurants with “heavy hearts and tremendous gratitude.” The closure marked the end of an era for downtown Savannah, though the family said the Family Kitchen locations would continue to operate.

Television career

Food Network shows

Deen’s television career began with guest appearances and QVC segments before the Food Network gave her a show of her own. Paula’s Home Cooking premiered in 2002 and made her a star, followed by the livelier, studio-audience format of Paula’s Party in 2006 and Paula’s Best Dishes in 2008.

Audiences responded to her warmth, her broad Georgia accent and her catchphrase “y’all” as much as to the food itself. In 2007 she won a Daytime Emmy Award as outstanding lifestyle host. Her on-screen identity was inseparable from butter: she cooked unapologetically rich food and cheerfully waved away health concerns, once quipping that she was your cook, not your doctor.

Magazine and memoir

Deen also launched a bi-monthly magazine, Cooking with Paula Deen, and published a candid 2007 memoir, It Ain’t All About the Cooking, which detailed the loss of her parents and her years of agoraphobia. Together with her television work, these cemented her as a leading popular authority on Southern home cooking.

The 2013 controversy

In 2013 Deen’s career was upended by a lawsuit brought by a former manager of her Savannah restaurants, alleging workplace harassment and discrimination. In a sworn deposition, Deen acknowledged having used a racial slur in the past.

When excerpts became public the fallout was swift: the Food Network announced it would not renew her contract, and a string of major partners — including Smithfield Foods, Walmart, Target, QVC, Home Depot and the drug company Novo Nordisk — ended their relationships with her. The lawsuit itself was dismissed later that year, but the damage to her broadcasting career was lasting. Deen issued public apologies and has spoken since about trying to rebuild trust.

Diabetes and a lighter approach

In 2012 Deen revealed that she had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes three years earlier. The disclosure drew criticism because it coincided with her becoming a paid spokeswoman for Novo Nordisk and its injectable medication Victoza, even as she continued to promote very rich food.

In response, Deen and her family publicly adopted healthier habits; she reported losing around 40 pounds, and her sons and husband lost weight too. She began publishing lighter titles, including reduced-fat and air-fryer cookbooks that offered slimmed-down versions of her classics.

Comeback and later ventures

Rather than retire after 2013, Deen rebuilt an independent business. She launched the subscription-based Paula Deen Network to stream her cooking directly to fans, and continued to expand the Family Kitchen restaurants.

In 2015 she returned to mainstream television as a contestant on the twenty-first season of Dancing with the Stars, partnered with professional dancer Louis van Amstel and finishing in the middle of the field. Her brand proved durable enough to outlast the scandal that once threatened to end it.

Restaurants

Awards and honours

Watch Paula Deen

See Paula in action in this video.

Signature dishes

Paula Deen’s cooking is classic Deep South comfort food, delivered without apology. Her best-loved dishes include crispy Southern fried chicken, sour-cream pound cake, and the gooey butter cakes she helped popularise nationwide. Biscuits, casseroles, shrimp and grits, and holiday spreads groaning with butter and cream round out the repertoire — food built on generosity and nostalgia rather than restraint.

Cookbooks

Paula is the author of books including The Lady & Sons Savannah Country Cookbook, Paula Deen & Friends, It Ain’t All About the Cooking, The Deen Family Cookbook, Paula Deen’s Southern Cooking Bible.

Personal life

Deen married Michael Groover, a Savannah harbour and tugboat captain, in 2004, and the couple live in the area. Her sons Jamie and Bobby Deen followed her into food and television, hosting the travel-cooking series Road Tasted and appearing frequently alongside their mother. Deen has often credited her family, and Savannah itself, as the foundation of everything she built.

Paula in context

Paula Deen is one of many chefs and food personalities profiled on Pickup Table 4, alongside Bobby Flay and Ina Garten.

Follow Paula Deen

Paula Deen — official · Instagram

Paula Deen FAQ

Who is Paula Deen?
Paula Deen is an American cook, television personality and restaurateur from Savannah, Georgia, known for her rich Southern comfort cooking and Food Network shows such as Paula’s Home Cooking. She built her career from a home catering business called The Bag Lady into a national brand.

What happened to Paula Deen’s restaurant The Lady & Sons?
Paula Deen and her sons closed The Lady & Sons and the adjacent Chicken Box in Savannah on 31 July 2025, saying they had retired the restaurants after nearly 30 years. Her separate Paula Deen’s Family Kitchen locations remained open.

Why was Paula Deen dropped by the Food Network in 2013?
In 2013, during a deposition for an employment lawsuit, Deen acknowledged using a racial slur in the past. The Food Network chose not to renew her contract and several sponsors ended their partnerships. The underlying lawsuit was later dismissed.

Does Paula Deen have diabetes?
Yes. Deen revealed in 2012 that she had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and became a paid ambassador for the drug company Novo Nordisk. She and her family later adopted lighter eating habits and she published reduced-fat cookbooks.

Who is Paula Deen married to?
Paula Deen has been married to Michael Groover, a former Savannah tugboat captain, since 2004. She has two sons, Jamie and Bobby Deen, from her first marriage to Jimmy Deen.

Sources and further reading

This profile draws on reputable references including Wikipedia, Paula Deen’s official site, Encyclopaedia Britannica, CBS News (2025 closure).