Disgraced Papa John’s founder slammed for complaining that his $6m home was flooded by Hurricane Ian

OAN

Billionaire Papa John’s founder John Schnatter has been ridiculed for claiming he “lost a home” during Hurricane Ian.

Mr Schnatter, who was forced to step down from the pizza empire in 2018 for using a racial slur, told fringe cable network OAN in an interview that his $6m condominium in Naples had suffered flood damage in the devastating hurricane that has claimed more than 100 lives.

“Of course, you’re currently in Utah, but we’re seeing the images of your home in Naples,” OAN anchor Stella Inger Escobedo said in a clip that has gone viral online. “It appears it is completely under water.”

Mr Schnatter, who has a net wealth of $1m according to Forbes, is also a property mogul who is thought to own more than 20 properties through his companies.

As viewers were shown pictures of the damage at his Naples home, Mr Schnatter said the flooding “gives you a little bit of perspective… (about) how devastating this storm is.”

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He told OAN he wasn’t worried about himself because he had “the resources and the team and institutional knowledge” to survive the natural disaster.

“You just can’t imagine how bad this is and my heart goes out to the folks in Florida,” Mr Schnatter said. “Yeah, I lost a home, but they’ve lost everything.”

Papa John’s founder John Schnatter complained his $6m Naples condo had been ‘lost’ in Hurricane Ian (OAN)

John Schnatter said he had ‘lost a home’ in Hurricane Ian, prompting widespread ridicule (OAN)

On Twitter, users slammed Mr Schnatter for claiming to empathise with those who had lost everything in the hurricane.

“Waaaaaa he lost a house so in the end he will buy up the neighbors houses and build another tacky mansion,” wrote one. 

Another Twitter user said: “I’m not worried because I have 600 million and can afford proper insurance. OAN is ridiculous.”

Social media users also poked fun at OAN for misspelling hurricane in the chyron, instead spelling it “hurrican”.

Mr Schnatter resigned from Papa John’s in 2018 after he used the n-word during a media training call. Mr Schnatter allegedly said: “Colonel Sanders called blacks [the n-word],” and then complained the KFC founder never faced a public backlash.

The company issued a statement at the time to say it “condemns racism and any insensitive language, no matter the situation or setting”.