Well, if that don’t beat all! The woman who toppled the Paula Deen empire has dropped all charges against the former Food Network chef and her brother Bubba Hiers.
Deen and her former employee Lisa Jackson hammered out a private agreement that paved the way to drop the case “without any award of costs or fees to any party.”
The kitchen maven vowed, “Moving forward, my team and I will be working to review the workplace environment issues that were raised in this matter and will retool all of my business operations. I look forward to getting back to doing what I love.”
Ex-employee Jackson stated, “During a very difficult period in my life, the Deen family gave me hope and the opportunity to work to build a brighter future for my family and me. I assumed that all of my complaints about the workplace environment were getting to Paula Deen, but I learned during this matter that this was not the case.”
“The Paula Deen I have known for more than eight years is a woman of compassion and kindness and will never tolerate discrimination or racism of any kind toward anyone. I now know that the workplace environment issues that I raised are being reviewed and will in the future no longer be an issue.”
“I wish Ms. Deen and her family the best in all of their future endeavors and I am very pleased that this matter has been resolved and can now be put behind us.”
Now it is up to the Food Network and the rest of Paula’s former sponsors to decided whether the Southern cook has effectively resolved the issues that caused them all such angst.
Paula tweeted after settling with Jackson late Friday afternoon, “God bless y’all, and thank you for your support!”
Photo: WENN