Lifestyle

Papa John admits he didn’t actually eat 40 pizzas in 30 days

Papa John may have gone from pizza pie-er to liar.

The former honcho is now backpedaling on claims he made in November that he “had over 40 pizzas in … 30 days” from his namesake company.

In an interview with H3 Podcast, John Schnatter, 58, appeared to change his tune when it came to his slice record.

“I didn’t say I’d eaten 40 pizzas in 30 days, I said that I had 40 pizzas in 30 days,” he told hosts Ethan and Hila Klein.

This is, in fact, true, he insists.

“When I said I had a pizza, this means I’m inspecting,” continued Schnatter. “I’m not eating every pizza, I may be eating parts of pizzas.”

Former Papa Johns Pizza Founder John Schnatter
Papa Johns Pizza founder John SchnatterWireImage

The disgraced former leader says he currently only eats about eight or nine slices a week, though when he was still with his company, he was eating closer to 12 or 15. This means at most he was eating only 1½ pizzas per week, or six a month, which is far from 40.

Schnatter was recorded using the n-word on a conference call and then resigned as company chairman in July 2018. The call, which was specifically designed as a role-playing exercise to prevent public relations disasters, had Schnatter complaining that KFC’s Colonel Sanders never faced public backlash.

“Colonel Sanders called blacks ‘n—-rs,’ ” Schnatter said. Sanders’ family has denied the disgraced pizza guy’s allegations.

The year prior, he caught flak for critiquing the national anthem protests in the NFL.

In his now-famous November 2019 interview, the pie professional dished on his former company’s status without him. “It’s not the same product. It just doesn’t taste as good,” he said. “The way they’re making the pizza is just not fundamental to what makes a Papa John’s pizza.”