SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Former Food Network star Paula Deen announced Friday the abrupt closure of the Savannah restaurant that launched her to fame with its menu of fried chicken, banana pudding and other indulgent Southern dishes.
Deen ran The Lady & Sons restaurant with her two sons, Jamie and Bobby Deen, for nearly three decades. Loyal fans visiting Savannah continued to line up for Deen's buffet long after the Food Network canceled her show, “Paula's Home Cooking,” in 2013.
But 78-year-old Deen said Friday that The Lady & Sons closed for good along with The Chicken Box, which sold takeout lunches behind the main restaurant. A statement posted on Deen's website and social media accounts didn't say why the restaurants had shut down.
“Hey, y’all, my sons and I made the heartfelt decision that Thursday, July 31st, was the last day of service for The Lady & Sons and The Chicken Box,” Deen's statement said.
“Thank you for all the great memories and for your loyalty over the past 36 years,” she said. “We have endless love and gratitude for every customer who has walked through our doors.”
Deen said her four restaurants outside Savannah will remain open. They're located in Nashville and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee; Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; and Branson, Missouri.
Windows at The Lady & Sons were covered with brown paper Friday. Signs posted at the front entrance read: “It is with heavy hearts and tremendous gratitude that we announce that we have retired and closed.”
Adrienne Morton and her family, visiting Savannah from Cincinatti, had made dinner reservations at Deen's restaurant for 5:45 p.m. Friday.
Morton said she received a text message Friday morning saying her reservation had been canceled.
“I thought this must be a mistake or maybe they planned to close and we don’t live here and just weren’t up to speed, but no," Morton said. “We wish them the best. Hopefully everything turns out."
Martin Rowe works in a downtown office across the street from Deen's restaurant. He said business seemed to be going strong up until it closed.
“Nobody knew anything was wrong,” Rowe said. “I walk by there two or three times a week at lunch, and it was always packed.”
Deen was divorced and nearly broke when she moved to Savannah with her boys in 1989 and started a catering business called The Bag Lady. She opened her first restaurant a few years later at a local Best Western hotel, then started The Lady & Sons in downtown Savannah in 1996.
The restaurant soon had lines out the door and served roughly 1,100 diners per day at the height of Deen's popularity. A USA Today food critic awarded The Lady & Sons his “meal of the year” in 1999.
Deen moved her Savannah restaurant to a larger building nearby the year after The Food Network debuted “Paula's Home Cooking” in 2002. Filmed mostly in her home kitchen, Deen taped more than 200 episodes over the next decade.
The Food Network canceled Deen's show in 2013 amid fallout from a lawsuit by a former employee. A transcript of Deen answering questions under oath in a legal deposition became public that included Deen's awkward responses to questions about race.
Asked if she had ever used the N-word, Deen said, “Yes, of course,” though she added: “It’s been a very long time.”
Deen returned to television on ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars,” on chef Gordon Ramsay’s Fox show “MasterChef: Legends,” and on Fox Nation, which began streaming “At Home With Paula Deen” in 2020. She also posts cooking videos to a YouTube channel that has more than 520,000 subscribers.
The sign outside Paula Deen's restaurant The Lady Sons is shown in Savannah, Ga. on Friday, Aug. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Russ Bynum)
A man on a bicycle stops to read a sign posted at the entrance to Paula Deen's restaurant The Lady Sons in Savannah, Ga., on Friday, Aug. 1, 2025, hours after Deen announced the eatery that launched her to Food Network fame had closed. (AP Photo/Russ Bynum)
People stroll past Paula Deen's restaurant The Lady Sons in Savannah, Ga., on Friday, Aug. 1, 2025, after Deen announced the eatery that launched her to Food Network fame had closed. (AP Photo/Russ Bynum)
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni won his seventh term with 71.65% of the vote, according to official results Saturday, in an election marred by internet shutdown and fraud claims by his youthful challenger, who rejected the outcome and called for peaceful protests.
The musician-turned-politician best known as Bobi Wine took 24.72% of the vote, the final results showed. Wine, whose real name is Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, has condemned what he described as an unfair electoral process and alleged abductions of his polling agents. He said he had rejected the “fake results” and urged Ugandans to peacefully protest until the “rightful results are announced.”
Wine said he had to escape to avoid arrest by security forces who stormed his house Friday night. His party said earlier he was forcefully taken away in an army helicopter but police denied it.
Police spokesperson Kituuma Rusoke said Wine was “not under arrest” and was free to leave his house, but there was “controlled access” for others trying to go into the property to prevent people from using the premises to incite violence.
Electoral officials face questions about the failure of biometric voter identification machines on Thursday, which caused delays in the start of voting in urban areas — including the capital, Kampala — that are opposition strongholds.
After the machines failed, in a blow to pro-democracy activists who have long demanded their use to curb rigging, polling officials used manual registers of voters. The failure of the machines is likely to be the basis for any legal challenges to the official result.
Museveni said he agreed with the electoral commission’s plan to revert to paper voter registration records after the biometric machines failed, but Wine alleged fraud, claiming that there was “massive ballot stuffing” and that his party’s polling agents were abducted to give an unfair advantage to the ruling party.
The head of the observer mission for the African Union, former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, told journalists Saturday that the mission did not find “any evidence of ballot stuffing” in the polling stations the team observed. He however urged the electoral commission to test biometric machines in advance to prevent the failures and delays witnessed on election day.
Museveni, 81, has stayed in power over the years by rewriting the rules. The last legal obstacle to his rule – term and age limits – have been removed from the constitution, and some of Museveni’s possible rivals jailed or sidelined. He has not said when he will retire.
Yusuf Serunkuma, an academic and columnist for the local Observer newspaper, told The Associated Press on Saturday that Wine “didn’t stand a chance” against the authoritarian Museveni. “He has quite successfully emasculated the opposition,” Serunkuma said of Museveni. “You would have to credit him for that.”
Even with Wine’s courageous challenge, Museveni faced “one of the weakest oppositions” in recent times, in part because opposition figures are not united while Museveni is the undisputed leader of his party and enjoys authority over the armed forces, Serunkuma said.
The security forces were a constant presence throughout the election campaign, and Wine said authorities followed him and harassed his supporters, using tear gas against them. He campaigned in a flak jacket and helmet due to his security fears.
Uganda has not witnessed a peaceful transfer of presidential power since independence from British colonial rule six decades ago.
Veteran opposition figure Kizza Besigye, a four-time presidential candidate, remains in prison after he was charged with treason in February 2025.
A traffic police officer sits in front of campaign posters of President Yoweri Museveni, the National Resistance Movement (NRM) presidential candidate, during the general election, in Kampala, Uganda, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)
FILE - Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni speaks during the 60th Independence Anniversary Celebrations, in Kololo, Uganda, Sunday Oct. 9, 2022. (AP Photo/Hajarah Nalwadda, file)
Uganda's security forces patrol a street during protests following the announcement of the preliminary results in Kampala, Uganda, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)
A Ugandan police officer makes a gesture behind a burning fire amid protests following the announcement of the preliminary results in Kampala, Uganda, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)
Girls run during protests following the preliminary results in Kampala, Uganda, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)
