BY MALLORY PERRYMAN

ANCHOR ANA COMPAIN-ROMERO

Does the queen of butter-baked fatty foods have diabetes?

That’s the rumor making the rounds after iPad news outlet The Daily ran this story: “Paula’s big fat secret”.

“Paula Deen — the queen of high-calorie, Southern cooking — is about to come clean and confess that she can’t eat her own dishes anymore because she has diabetes.”

The Daily says the Food Network star has been trying to keep the news under wraps-- and until the iPad outlet picked up the story-- the rumor only appeared in one other publication-- the National Enquirer, last spring.

But if Deen has diabetes-- why would she publicly own up to it? The Huffington Post may have the answer.

“According to the rumors … Deen has signed a deal to endorse a diabetes medication from major pharmaceuticals company Novartis. Leave it up to Deen to turn what could have been a career-wrecking scandal into a financial windfall.”

The rumor quickly became a trending topic on Twitter-- with most users pointing out the obvious irony of the scoop-- which The San Fransisco Chronicle explains...

“It’s impossible to ignore the heavy amounts of butter, cream, cheese and carbs in Deen’s decadent cooking, and she’s been asked repeatedly about the health effects. It hasn’t been a major concern for Deen, who quickly dismisses critiques...”

And those critiques have often been biting. Last year, Fox News reports fellow chef Anthony Bourdain infamously blasted his colleague:

“He told TV Guide, quote, ‘The worst most possible dangerous person to America is clearly Paula Deen...”

After that-- a Gothamist blogger says-- Deen can take whatever her critics dish out-- and besides,

“...she seems to already have made moves to correct her image: Her son Bobby Deen just kicked off a show on the Cooking Network called Not My Mama's Meals in which he cooks up lighter versions of his mother's infamous recipes.”

So far-- neither Deen or the drug company have commented on the rumor.