“I knew that if I was not careful, that I could slip right back into that.”  

CHEAT TWEET: .@Paula_Deen opens up about agoraphobia fears after her racial slur scandal – via @ETnow:http://et.tv/1v917eB

September 22, 2014 (Savannah, GA) – ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT’s Nancy O’Dell sat down with celebrity chefPaula Deen and her sons, Jamie and Bobby Deen, on September 14th at her home in Savannah, Georgia to discuss the re-launch of her career, her longtime struggle with agoraphobia and the scandal that arose last year after she admitted to using a racial slur.  While discussing the controversy, Paula opens up about how it affected her emotional state explaining, “My darkest moment was when I had to face the fact that I had hurt people.”  She goes on to say, “It got bad. I went on a 20-year ride with agoraphobia, from the time I was 20 to the time I was 40. I knew that if I was not careful, that I could slip right back into that.” 

When asked by O’Dell to describe the scandal Paula explains, “It was like a death in the family…I know that when you lose a family member that there's certain emotions you're going to go through: loneliness, sadness, self-pity certainly is one of them, desertion is one of them, fear is another one…You got to experience all of those emotions. I had to give a very heartfelt, ‘I'm sorry, I'm so sorry’ and then I had to forgive myself. When I did that, then I could get in the wagon and we could all move forward.”

Paula continuesto discuss the September 24th launch of her interactive online cooking network, titled the Paula Deen Network, telling Nancy, “It's the way of the future, had it not been for the digital world, when I was in the bottom of that belly what would I have done?”

ET’s special three part interview will begin airing tonight.

PLEASE CREDIT “ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT” AND LINK BACK TO: http://www.etonline.com/news/151490_paula_deen_struggled_with_agoraphobia/index.html

TUNE INTO “ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT” THIS EVENING, SEPTEMBER 22, 2014