Paula Deen Loses Wal-Mart, Restaurant Business Ties
Paula Deen, the 66-year-old restaurateur and cooking show host, recently lost her business deals with Caesars Entertainment Corporation and Wal-Mart one week after racist accusations arose from her former restaurant employees.
In a testimony from Deen's deposition on May 17, the Food Network host admitted to using the N-word in the past, which resulted in Food Network and Smithfield Foods severing ties with the cooking show host. Now some of Deen's other business partners have followed suit.
Caesars Entertainment Corporation houses Paula Deen's restaurant in four Indiana, Illinois, North Carolina and Mississippi, announced their reasoning for severing ties with the cook Wednesday.
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"While we appreciate Paula's sincere apologies for statements she made in her past that she recently disclosed during a deposition given in response to a lawsuit, after thoughtful consideration of their impact, we have mutually decided that it is in the best interests of both parties to part ways at this time," Jan Jones Blackhurst, executive vice president of communications and government affairs for Caesars Entertainment, said in a PEOPLE magazine report.
While Wal-Mart sells Deen's eyeglasses, food products and cookware, the retail chain also announced that they were no longer interested in working with the cook.
"We are ending our relationship with Paula Deen Enterprises and we will not place new orders beyond those already committed," a Wal-Mart spokesperson told PEOPLE in a statement Wednesday. "We will work with suppliers to address existing inventories and agreements."
Deen made $18 million from her multiple business ventures in 2012. The cook appeared on the TODAY Show recently and said she did not feel she should have been fired.
"Would I have fired me? No. Knowing me? No," she said on TODAY.
Sources told PEOPLE that the cook is upset about the loss of her recent business ventures.
"She isn't upset about the loss of money," a source told PEOPLE. "She's really upset about her reputation."
