Paula Deen, 77, Drops More Than 50 LBS, 'Focused on Living Her Healthiest Life' in Battle with Diabetes
July 9 2024, Published 1:30 p.m. ET
TV chef Paula Deen is trying out a new recipe for life after being scarred by scandal and diagnosed with diabetes, RadarOnline.com has learned.
The shamed Southerner has lost a radical amount of weight and reined in her feisty behavior in a bid to find peace after weathering career-crippling blunders, sources claimed.
"Paula would like to turn back the clock in terms of mistakes she's made, but can't," spilled an insider. "So she's focused on living her healthiest life."
"She's dropped at least 50 pounds and has maintained it by avoiding the bad carbs, butter, and grease she's known to cook with," the tipster explained.
Paula, 77, who looks dramatically different in her new YouTube cooking videos, still whips up Southern comfort meals "with biscuits and gravy, and desserts like peach cobbler, banana pudding, and chocolate pound cake," added the source. "But she'll only take a small bite to taste them. She's careful about her diet because of her diabetes."
Paula hid her type 2 diabetes diagnosis for three years before revealing it on the Today show in 2012.
The following year, she lost her Food Network gig and most of her corporate partners after she admitted to using racist slurs in the workplace.
A lawsuit filed in 2013 claimed that she used the N-word and wanted to throw her brother a "plantation-style" wedding with Black servers. The racial discrimination claims in the filing were ultimately dismissed in addition to the entire lawsuit, which also brought forward claims of sexual harassment in the workplace. Both sides reached a settlement "without any award of costs or fees to any party."
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She was forced to sell Riverbend, her sprawling Georgia estate, for $8.4 million, and moved into a smaller home with her 68-year-old hubby, Michael Groover.
As RadarOnline.com previously reported, Paula Deen's Family Kitchen in Pier Park suddenly closed last year due to an inability to pay rent and wages, leaving some former employees scrambling to find work.
"Paula lives a very calm, humbler life," blabbed the insider. "She's still busy with her restaurants and new cookbooks, and she's gaining followers on her YouTube cooking show."
"She just doesn’t have the time for petty stuff anymore," they said.