Meghan, Duchess of Sussex
(Picture: PA Wire)The Duchess of Sussex has said she disliked feeling “forced to be all looks and little substance” during her stint as a “briefcase girl” on the US version of Deal or No Deal.
Meghan reflected on her time working on the gameshow in 2006 on the latest episode of her podcast, which featured a chat with Paris Hilton about the labels of “bimbo” and “dumb blonde”.
She added that she wants her daughter Lilibet to “aspire to be slightly higher”.
Speaking of her time on Deal or No Deal, the Duchess said there was a “very cookie cutter idea” of what the briefcase girls should look like, adding it was “solely about beauty and not necessarily about brains”.
Meghan said she shared the stage with 25 other women and recalled being given spray tan vouchers each week, and being told to “suck it in”.
Speaking at the start of the latest episode of Archetypes, she said: “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.”
Meghan added: “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.”
Speaking of her hopes for her one-year-old daughter Lilibet, whom she shares with husband Prince Harry, she added: “I want my Lili to want to be educated and want to be smart and to pride herself on those things.”
