Hours after a controversial photograph appeared on television chef Paula Deen's Twitter account, Deen took action by firing her social media manager and apologizing to her fans.

In the picture, Deen is featured alongside her son, Bobby, and both are dressed in costume as Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.

Bobby, who is forty five years old, is wearing make up to darken in skin.

After an extreme backlash from the Twitter community, the photograph was deleted. Deen's representative discussed the incident in a statement to PEOPLE magazine.

"Paula Deen's Social Media Manager posted a picture this morning of Paula and Bobby Deen dressed in costume as Lucy and Ricky, from I Love Lucy, " said the cook's representatives. "This photograph is from a Halloween episode of Paula's Best Dishes that aired in 2011. Paula immediately had this picture taken down as soon as she saw the post and apologizes to all who were offended. As such, Paula Deen Ventures has terminated their relationship with this Social Media Manager."

Deen has been struggling to rebuild her brand ever since she faced a scandal last year that could have potentially ended her career, and did cause a great deal of damage to it.

The sixty eight year old television personality also admitted to using the N-word "a very long time ago," in a civil deposition case in 2013.

After the deposition went public, Deen was dropped by the Food Network and lost several of her sponsors.

She went on to attempt to restart her business with the help of a seventy five million dollar deal with the private investment firm, Najafi Companies.