Growing up, I had a very busy social life. It wasn't until I was a sophomore in high school that I asked Mama if I could come into the kitchen and have her teach me how to cook something.

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.