Brooke Shields referred to Meghan Markle as “too precious” while interrupting her during a 2024 public event.
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According to PEOPLE, the two ladies were participating in an International Women’s Day panel discussion, “Breaking Barriers, Shaping Narratives: How Women Lead On and Off Screen” at the 2024 SXSW. Katie Couric led the panel.
During the panel, the Duchess of Sussex reflected on a letter she wrote about gender equality when she was 11 years old. She protested against Procter & Gamble’s Ivory dish soap commercial, which used the slogan “Women all over America are fighting greasy pots and pans.”
During her recent visit on the India Hicks’ podcast, Shields, who is also King Charles’ goddaughter, spoke about the panel, calling Markle’s story too “serious,” She also said she didn’t think Markle’s words really resonated with the panel’s audience.
“Katie asks the first question to Meghan, and she talks about how at a young age, she was already advocating for women,” Shields said. “She starts telling a story about how when she was 11 – and she keeps saying, ‘Well, when I was 11, I saw this commercial and they were talking about how washing dishes was for women.’ And she said, ‘I didn’t think only women wash dishes. It wasn’t fair. So I wrote to the company.”
Shields then said, “She kept saying she was 11! She wrote to the company, and they changed the text, they changed the commercial. It was just too precious, and I was like, they’re not going to want to sit here for 45 minutes and listen to anybody be precious or serious.”
Brooke Shields Reveals Why She Interrupted Meghan Markle
Brooke Shields recalled interrupting Meghan Markle during the panel. “I go, ‘Excuse me, I’m so sorry, I’ve got to interrupt you there for one minute,'” she said. “I was trying not to be rude, but I wanted to be funny because it was so serious.
She also recalled what she said on the panel. “I just want to give everybody here a context as to how we’re different,” she remembered saying. “When I was 11, I was playing a prostitute.”
Shields was referring to her role in the 1978 film Pretty Baby.
The actress added that the “place went insane” after her joke. The panel continued, but was “more relaxed” after.