Howie Mandel has hosted hundreds of episodes of the hit game show Deal or No Deal, where each episode 26 models hold a briefcase containing an amount of money ranging from $.01 to $1,000,000. The cycle of beautiful faces from season to season was ongoing—so don’t get too upset at Mandel if he doesn’t remember one of the show’s most famous models, one Meghan Markle.
Meghan held case No. 24 for 34 episodes, ranging from 2006 to 2007, as she was beginning her career in Hollywood and pre-Suits fame. Mandel confessed on a recent episode of “Good Guys” podcast that he doesn’t remember Meghan from her time on the show, but, interestingly, has a photo of her on his desk. (We’ll explain.)
When asked whether he stayed in touch with Meghan, Mandel responded with a “No.” He added “When I heard that she was on Deal or No Deal, I didn’t remember her,” he continued. Of the photo of her on his desk, let’s clarify, it’s not just Meghan: “I have a picture of her in my office,” Mandel said. “She’s one of the many girls standing behind me.”
But, listen, it’s not personal, and Meghan isn’t even the only celebrity Mandel has forgotten appeared on the show. He said he “didn’t remember a lot of [the models],” and added “Chrissy Teigen was also a Deal or No Deal model,” implying he couldn’t remember her, either.
Mandel first admitted that he couldn’t remember Meghan during an interview with E! ahead of her 2018 wedding to Prince Harry. “To be honest, I don’t even remember her. I don’t. I’d like to say I do and if she’s watching—and she’s not, right?” he joked, addressing the camera and adding “I don’t remember you. I’ve seen a lot of pictures, and I don’t.” (To his credit, maybe Mandel was too busy doing his job and not creepily ogling the beautiful women like Meghan that stood in front of him every day? Let’s hope?)
Meghan has admitted the gig wasn’t her favorite, and that she quit her job as a so-called “briefcase girl” because she felt she was being “reduced to a bimbo.” On an episode of her podcast, “Archetypes,” Meghan said “I ended up quitting the show. 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: the word ‘bimbo.’”
Meghan recalled that she and her co-stars would “line up” to receive beauty treatments like false lashes, hair extensions, padding for their bras, and spray tan vouchers because the show’s producers had a “cookie-cutter idea” of how the models should look.
“I was grateful for the job, but not about how it made me feel, which was not smart,” Meghan said. “By the way, I was surrounded by smart women—but that wasn’t the focus. It was solely about beauty and not necessarily about brains.”
Of daughter Princess Lilibet, Meghan said she hopes that Lili will “aspire to be slightly higher.”
