Paula Deen says in lawsuit questioning that she has used racial slur but doesn’t tolerate hate

SAVANNAH, Ga. – Celebrity cook Paula Deen says she has used racial slurs in the past but insists she and her brother, who are accused of racial and sexual discrimination in a lawsuit by a former manager of their restaurant, don’t tolerate hateful behaviour.

In a court deposition filed Monday in federal court, an attorney for former restaurant manager Lisa Jackson presses the 66-year-old Deen about her racial views and those of her brother, Bubba Hiers. Deen is asked if she’s ever used “the N-word.” She responds: “Yes, of course.”

Deen says she likely used the slur in the 1980s after a black man held her at gunpoint at the Georgia bank where she worked.

Deen insists she and her brother object to slurs being used in “any cruel or mean behaviour.”