14 DAY TRIAL // Paula Deen had one heck of a 2013: she admitted in court that she once referred to a man with the N-word and this spiraled into a scandal with racist connotations, which cost her multiple sponsors and almost her business empire as well.
The good news is that the celebrity chef is set to be making her comeback, after receiving a very generous cash infusion from an investment firm, so if you ever wasted a minute worrying about Ms. Deen, now you don’t have to anymore.
“A recently formed new company, Paula Deen Ventures, said it has received an investment of between $75 million [€54.8 Million] and $100 million [€73.1 million] from Najafi Cos., a private-equity company led by Jahm Najafi, who owns BMG Music Service and the Book-of-the-Month Club,” MSN reports.
The comeback will also see Ms. Deen branch out.
“Phoenix-based Najafi Cos. said the cash infusion will be used to help Deen establish new deals and move away from a pure licensing model, in which she sells her likeness and expertise to others. Instead, she hopes to take more ownership and control in partnerships with retailers and other companies,” the same media outlet informs.
As noted above, 2013 nearly drove Paula Deen’s business empire into the ground. During her testimony in an ongoing trial, the chef admitted to using the N-word when speaking to a third party about a man who had robbed a bank she was in.
From that to being accused of racism was but a step and, each new day, new details to support the theory that she was a racist emerged in the press.
As the scandal grabbed headlines from around the world, sponsors started dropping Paula and, by the time she finally addressed the furor on NBC’s The Today Show, she was already bleeding serious money. In said interview, Ms. Deen cried her eyes out and tried to convince Matt Lauer and America that she was not racist – and should not be labeled one just for using the N-word once.
She wasn’t exactly very convincing.