White admitted, in Chatham County Superior Court last week, that she repeatedly stole jewelry from the home of Food Network celebrity chef Deen and her husband Michael Groover during her nine months of employment, according to Savannah Morning News.
White, 47, was charged with theft on May 5, upon trying to pawn a pair of $18,000 earrings at a pawnshop in Savannah.
Authorities said that Deen reported $100,000 worth of jewelry went missing from her home between Aug. 1, 2009 and May 1, 2010.
"We thought of Mary like family," Groover told Judge Michael Karpf, according to the Morning News. "We loved Mary."
Groover said when he told Deen of the theft, she "cried and said 'Oh no, not my Mary.' … Nobody but Mary knows everything she stole from us."
Although disappointed, Deen is not going to let the theft bother her, a source told E! Online.
"She'll be at home for Christmas doing all the cooking. All the family will be there. Her son Jamie and his wife Brooke are having their second baby and Michael's daughter is having a baby, too."
White will be required to pay $6,000 to Deen and her husband. As part of her probation, she needs to disclose her conviction to any future employer, the Morning News reported.
