Paula Deen reveals ham gift to Ellen DeGeneres in new documentary

A new documentary about Paula Deen revisits a noted moment on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in which the celebrity chef handed Ellen DeGeneres a ham, a gift Deen now says was a misstep given DeGeneres’s longtime vegan lifestyle. Canceled: The Paula Deen Story, directed by Billy Corben, includes a clip in which Deen enters the set bearing the ham while Ellen is introduced as the "queen of Southern cooking." Deen tells the camera that she brought the ham for her "favorite ham," and Ellen thanks her for the gesture, prompting Deen to quip, "Isn't that sweet?" The moment, captured on camera for the documentary, illustrates the cultural chasm that has long accompanied Deen’s public arc.

In the clip, Deen adds, "Listen, and he's so heavy, he's your pig to keep up with now!" a line aimed at the ham as a lighthearted prop. The moment was later reframed by Deen as a miscalculation once she learned Ellen’s dietary choices did not include meat. Deen says Ellen "took it and laid it down, and didn't say a word" after receiving the gift. Ellen DeGeneres’s team has since clarified to Entertainment Weekly that Ellen is vegan, not merely a vegetarian, complicating Deen’s recollection and underscoring the sensitivities around public miscommunications.

The documentary, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this month, follows Deen’s career from a kitchen-based catering venture to an 11-year run on the Food Network. It also revisits her firing from the network in 2013 after she admitted under oath to using a racial slur during a deposition in a lawsuit filed by Lisa Jackson, a former manager at one of Deen’s restaurants. Jackson alleged sexual harassment and racially charged language by Bubba Hiers, Deen’s brother and co-owner of Uncle Bubba’s Seafood and Oyster House; the suit was eventually dismissed after a settlement, but the public fallout profoundly shaped Deen’s professional life.

The film places Deen’s career in a broader arc, showing how the deposition and the ensuing backlash upended corporate deals with major retailers and sponsors. It notes that within 24 hours of the deposition’s public airing, Deen said she had lost opportunities with the Food Network, Walmart and Target, among others. Deen has described her departure from the Food Network as a turning point and has spoken in various interviews about her perspective on the events, including in a Hollywood Reporter feature that featured comments from her sons and business partners, Bobby and Jamie Deen. In that interview, Bobby described his family as having survived the scandal, saying, "Our family is intact. We’re alive." He stressed that the family’s businesses had endured and continued to grow in the years since.

Deen has continued to defend her legacy in recent conversations, insisting that she "lost it all" following the lawsuit deposition but maintaining that she did not regret the essential truth of her experiences. In the same breath, she has faulted others for taking the narrative and running with it, telling The Hollywood Reporter that the dispute damaged her personally and professionally. Her son Jamie pushed back on some of her characterizations, clarifying that no one forced an apology in the way it was delivered, while acknowledging the heavy toll the episode took on the family.

The documentary also delves into Ellen DeGeneres’s own arc, including the eventual end of her daytime show in 2022 amid a wave of reports about a toxic workplace culture. The timing of Deen’s film and Ellen’s retirement from the daytime stage has drawn renewed attention to how two prominent figures navigated intense criticism, fame and shifting public expectations about accountability and reconciliation. The project also captures Deen’s reflections on her son’s reactions to the documentary and to the public conversation around her past conduct, offering a window into how a public figure seeks to tell her side after years of controversy.

As the film progresses, Deen’s narrative remains defiant at points, particularly around the N-word controversy that arose from deposition testimony in 2013. She has stated in interviews that she regrets how the situation was handled legally and publicly, and she has attributed much of the fallout to how the story was portrayed following the deposition. Deen has also emphasized how she was raised, describing a parenting approach her father instilled that discouraged mean or cruel behavior, and she has expressed disappointment with how some aspects of the story have been told. The documentary’s timing and details invite viewers to weigh Deen’s personal reflections against a broader history of a celebrity chef who rose to prominence, faced a swift and enduring backlash, and continues to work in a landscape shaped by public scrutiny.

Civil and legal histories aside, Canceled: The Paula Deen Story presents Deen as she frames her own evolution through triumphs, missteps, and a willingness to tell her side of events. The film’s TIFF debut positions it as a point of renewed conversation about how public figures manage legacy, accountability and the complexities of a career that has spanned catering, publishing and television. For audiences following Culture & Entertainment, the documentary offers a case study in how cultural moments—whether a ham on a talk show or a deposition in a civil suit—linger in the public imagination and color the interpretation of a person’s broader life and work.