Under-fire American celebrity chef Paula Deen has been dropped by retailer Wal-Mart hours after tearfully denying on TV she was a racist.
Deen, who has styled herself as the queen of Southern cooking, has been criticised over her admission in a sworn deposition that she had used a racial slur in the past.
Speaking to NBC, the 66-year-old, who has built a multimillion-dollar business empire that includes cookbooks, restaurants, kitchen supplies and TV shows, she said she could only recall using the N-word once.
Deen, who has also been dropped by The Food Network, Smithfield Foods, Caesars Entertainment and Home Depot, told the Today programme: "The day I used that word, it was a world ago. It was 30 years ago."
She said she remembered using it when retelling a story about when she was held at gunpoint by a black robber while working in a bank in Georgia in the 1980s.
She said she never intentionally hurt anyone and it was important for her to tell "everyone out there what I believe and how I live my life".
The show's host Matt Lauer asked: "Are you a racist?" She replied: "No, I am not."
Deen has published more than a dozen cookbooks, opened two restaurants in Savannah, Georgia, launched product lines and hosted several television shows.
Deen runs a multi-million pound business empire The controversy surrounding Deen erupted last week when a deposition was released in transcript form in which she was asked if she had used the "N-word," and responded "Yes, of course".
The lawsuit, brought by an ex-employee, accuses Deen of using the slur when planning her brother's 2007 wedding, saying she wanted black waiters in white coats, shorts and bow ties for a "Southern plantation-style wedding".
Deen said she did not recall using the word "plantation" when planning the wedding and denied using the N-word to describe waiters.
In her Today show appearance, Deen told Lauer she was heartbroken by the controversy.
"I've had to hold friends in my arms while they've sobbed because they know what's been said about me is not true and I'm having to comfort them," she said.
Looking distressed and with her voice breaking, Deen said if there was someone in the audience who had never said something they wished they could take back, "please pick up that stone and throw it as hard at my head so it kills me. I want to meet you. I want to meet you".
It was an apparent reference to the Biblical passage about whether a woman guilty of adultery should be stoned - "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her".
Deen, who was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes last year, is known for her love of using butter and frying food.
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