Celebrity chef Paula Deen got an unexpected shout-out at Melania Trump’s 113th Annual First Lady’s Luncheon.
The event is a historic, bipartisan presidential tradition hosted annually by the Congressional Club since 1912 to honor the First Lady of the United States. The 55-year-old First Lady and the Second Lady, Usha Vance, hosted congressional spouses, administration officials, and leaders to support charities at the Washington Hilton.
At the beginning of the event, the 79-year-old chef was called out and then applauded by fellow attendees. Deen stood up, but did not face the cameras as she applauded along with the assembly.
Deen’s appearance comes thirteen years after the former Food Network star and her brother, Bubba Hiers, were sued by Lisa Jackson, a former manager of the siblings’ restaurant, Uncle Bubba’s Seafood and Oyster House.
Jackson alleged sexual harassment and a workplace that saw racial slurs dropped numerous times. That establishment closed in 2014.
In a deposition that was part of the lawsuit, Deen admitted that she had used racial epithets in the past and tolerated racial jokes in the workplace.
Her Food Network shows were subsequently canceled, but her career continued, with the doors to her own restaurant, The Lady and Sons, remaining open.
In August 2025, Deen opened up about the documentary, Canceled: The Paula Deen Story, during an interview on Fox & Friends.
“My children and I were a little leery at first,” she said of the documentary to Fox & Friends host Steve Doocy at her Savannah, Georgia home.
“But then we decided — let me tell you something, Steve. I thought I was going to die of a broken heart.”
She continued, “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.”
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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.the-express.com ’
