Comedian and game show host Howie Mandel has revealed he has “no memory” of Meghan Markle’s time as a briefcase model on Deal or No Deal.
Prior to meeting Prince Harry, Markle worked as an actress in several movies and television shows before booking her most famous role as Rachel Zane on Suits. From 2006 to 2007, Markle appeared as a “briefcase model” on the American game show Deal or No Deal, which Mandel hosted until 2019.
During an appearance on TalkTV’s Piers Morgan: Uncensored last week, Piers Morgan asked Mandel to retell some memories of his former co-star as a suitcase girl.
“I’m going to be totally honest with you,” Mandel replied. “I had absolutely no memory of her. I did not remember until she was dating Harry and people started saying, ‘What can you tell us about Meghan?’ and I would say, ‘Who is Meghan?’”
“I didn’t know,” he added. “I didn’t remember. I did not know her and I don’t remember her to this day. But maybe that’s the beauty of it.”
Mandel and Morgan had served as judges together during seasons five and six of America’s Got Talent, until Morgan left the talent show in 2011.
While speaking to Mandel, host Morgan added that he was “temporarily cancelled” by Markle last year. In March 2021, Morgan quit Good Morning Britain after attracting widespread criticism for remarks he made about the Duchess of Sussex following Meghan and Prince Harry’s interview with Oprah Winfrey. At the time, the 57-year-old had repeatedly claimed that he “didn’t believe a word” Markle said about having suicidal thoughts during her time as a senior royal.
In September, the presenter announced that he had signed a deal with Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News Media to launch a new current events channel, TalkTV.
Piers Morgan has continuously taken aim at Markle, most recently when he criticised the duchess for writing her new children’s book,The Bench, which is set to be released in June. The book aims to capture “the warmth, joy and comfort of the relationship between fathers and sons from all walks of life,” Markle said in a statement. However, in a MailOnline column published on 4 May, Morgan accused Markle of hypocrisy given her difficult relationship with her own father.
“Lest we forget,” he wrote, “Ms Markle has ruthlessly disowned her father Thomas and refuses to have anything to do with him despite the fact they now live just 70 miles from each other. She is also reported to have disowned every other Markle, none of whom were invited to her wedding. This doesn’t seem like someone overly keen to operate ‘an inclusive lens’ to me. In fact, it seems a singularly EX-clusive lens.”
It was reported in April 2021 that Markle was assembling a legal team to respond to Piers Morgan’s numerous claims about her.
