Markle appeared on the show from 2006 to 2007 and was one of 25 women on stage opening briefcases as part of it.
Meghan Markle is opening up about the time she felt "forced to be all looks and little substance" during her time as a model on the NBC game show Deal or No Deal. . The show involved contestants being presented with 26 briefcases where they had to guess which held the most money. The briefcases were held by female models who were dressed identically to each other. The Suits alum appeared on the show between 2006 and 2007 and decided to quit the job because it didn't make her feel she was being appreciated for the right reasons. Now the Duchess of Sussex hopes to instill in her own daughter the value of being appreciated for more than just one's appearance.
Meghan Markle was told to "suck it in!" backstage during her time on 'Deal or no Deal.' https://t.co/eFTjrLrueV
— Elite Daily (@EliteDaily) October 18, 2022
In the latest episode of Markle's Spotify podcast, Archetypes released on October 18 Markle talks about her experience being one of 25 women on stage opening briefcases as part of the game show. According to Elle, the candid conversation came up with Paris Hilton when the two were discussing the derogatory term “bimbo." "Back in 2006, I had a short stint as a 'briefcase girl' on the U.S. version of the game show. Now, my experience on the show—which included holding said briefcase on stage, alongside 25 other women doing the same—was, for me, fascinating. I had studied acting in college, at Northwestern University. And, like a lot of the other women standing up there with me, acting was what I was pursuing. So while Deal or No Deal wasn’t about acting, I was still really grateful as an auditioning actress to have a job that could pay my bills. I had income, I was part of the union, I had health insurance, it was great. And yet… I also studied International Relations in college. And there were times when I was on set at 'Deal or No Deal' and thinking back to my time working as an intern at the U.S. Embassy in Argentina, in Buenos Aires… and being in the motorcade with the Secretary of Treasury at the time and being valued specifically for my brain. Here, I was being valued for something quite the opposite."
Long before Meghan Markle was a soon-to-be royal, she was a case model on Deal or No Deal. pic.twitter.com/IUhwbl1vjQ
— E! News (@enews) November 28, 2017
The former actress recalled having different stations for briefcase models where they were given fake eyelashes to put on, hair extensions, and padding for their bras. "We were even given spray tan vouchers each week, because there was a very cookie-cutter idea of precisely what we should look like. It was solely about beauty—and not necessarily about brains. And when I look back at that time, I will never—I will never forget this one detail—because moments before we’d get on stage with our briefcase, there was a woman who ran the show, and she would be there backstage—and I can still hear her—she couldn’t properly pronounce my last name at the time and I knew who she was talking to because she’d go, “Mark-el, suck it in. Mark-el, suck it in!” I ended up quitting the show. Like I said, I was thankful for the job, but not for how it made me feel. Which was… not smart. And by the way, I was surrounded by smart women on that stage with me. But that wasn’t the focus of why we were there. And I would end up leaving with this pit in my stomach, knowing that I was so much more than what was being objectified on the stage. I didn’t like feeling forced to be all looks and little substance. And that’s how it felt for me at the time—being reduced to this specific archetype [of bimbo.]"
According to TODAY, after her short stint on the show Markle appeared in the hit show Suits, starting in 2011, for seven seasons. She quit the show in 2018 and married Prince Harry and the two share two children, Archie Mountbatten-Windsor and Lilibet Mountbatten-Windsor. On her podcast, she added that she didn't want her daughter to dumb herself down for anything. “I want my Lili to want to be educated and want to be smart and to pride herself on those things,” she shared.
Meghan Markle Shares Her Hope for Daughter Lilibet https://t.co/uBLttxfWCX
— E! News (@enews) October 18, 2022
References:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/3dzByHY9XyTWhF21Nt0xZU
Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Photo by Tim Rooke - Pool
