I really didn't have an interest in being in the kitchen until after I was married, when I was 18. It didn't take me long to realize that Mama was not going to show up at my house every day and cook.

Her parents died before Paula Deen was 23 and an early marriage ended in divorce. You tell them to have chocolate cake and meatloaf for lunch. In 1989 Paula Deen divorced her husband Jimmy Deen to whom Paula Deen had been married since 1965.

Deen resides in Savannah Georgia where Paula Deen owns and operates The Lady & Sons restaurant with her sons Jamie and Bobby Deen. She has publiPaula Deend fourteen cookbooks.