Before she became a member of the British royal family, Meghan Markle was an aspiring actress who appeared on the popular game show Deal or No Deal as one of the “briefcase girls.” Markle has remained tight-lipped about her days on the show, but on the latest episode of her podcast, the duchess revealed why she ultimately left the gig behind.
Markle’s Time As A ‘Briefcase Girl’
On a recent episode of Archetypes, Markle sat down with Paris Hilton to talk about the “bimbo” trope, and how her time on Deal or No Deal left her feeling “objectified.” Markle held briefcases on the game show while pursuing her dreams of becoming an actress.
Markle admitted that working as a “briefcase girl” was a lucrative job for her at the time. “I had income, I was part of the Union, I had health insurance, it was great,” she said. However, the negatives soon outweighed the positives.
Markle: ‘I Was Thankful For The Job But Not For How It Made Me Feel’
The former actress said the show had a “very cookie cutter idea” of what their briefcase girls should look like, and that it was “solely about beauty and not necessarily about brains.” Markle also recalled that she and the other “briefcase girls” were given spray tan vouchers each week, and that she was once told to “suck it in” by one of the showrunners.
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“I ended up quitting the show,” Markle explained. “Like I said, I was thankful for the job but not for how it made me feel, which was not smart.” The Duchess of Sussex was quick to point out that she was “surrounded by smart women on that stage.”
“But that wasn’t the focus of why we were there,” she continued. “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.”
Markle also compared her time on Deal or No Deal with other work experiences, saying, “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 US 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.”
It was great to hear about Markle’s time on Deal or No Deal, but it’s even better to see how far she’s come from those days. Her work as a humanitarian is something she personally finds fulfillment from, which is all we can hope for anyone.