Meghan Markle was a 'suitcase girl' on Deal or No Deal. She was told to "suck it in".

In the latest episode of her podcast, Archetypes, Meghan Markle has shared details of her time working on the US version of game show Deal or No Deal.

The episode, titled 'Breaking Down The Bimbo', which guest-starred celebrity heiress Paris Hilton and comedian Iliza Shlesinger, was about exploring the stereotypical ‘bimbo’ we see in popular culture. Markle claims she was treated like a ‘bimbo’ when she worked on the game show, ultimately prompting her to quit the role.

She said she remembered her stint on the show while flipping through channels on TV recently, and coming across the programme, which has been around for decades now.

“Back in 2006, I had a short stint as a briefcase girl,” Markle told the podcast.

“Now my experience on the show – which included holding said briefcase on stage alongside 25 other women doing the same – it was for me, fascinating,” she explained.

“I had studied acting in college at Northwestern University and, like a lot of the other women standing on stage with me, acting was what I was pursuing,” she continued.

“So while Deal or No Deal wasn‘t about acting, I was still really grateful as an auditioning actress to have a job.”

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Markle went on to explain that while her TV gig could pay her bills, and secured her health insurance and regular income, she couldn’t help but notice the juxtaposition between the role and some of the things she had become more passionate about while in college.

“I had also studied international relations in college … 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 Buenos Aires and being in the motorcade with the Secretary of Treasury at the time and being valued specifically for my brain,” she shared.

“Here, I was being valued for something quite the opposite.”

She went on to share the conditions of the workplace that left her feeling treated like a ‘bimbo’.

“There were different stations for having your lashes put on, or your extensions put in, or the padding in your bra,” Markle explained.

“It was solely about our beauty. And not necessarily about brains.”

Meghan Markle during her time on Deal or No Deal. Image: NBCU.

“When I look back at that time I will never forget this one detail because moments before we‘d get on stage, there was a woman who ran the show and she would be there backstage and I can still hear her,” Markle continued.

“She couldn‘t properly pronounce my last name at the time – and I knew who she was talking to because she would go ’Mark-ell, suck. Mark-ell, suck it in.’

“I ended up quitting the show.”

Markle said she still thinks the term ‘bimbo’ has a very negative connotation attached to it.

“I don’t see that as an aspirational thing for a woman, I want our daughters to aspire to be slightly higher,” she went on.

“I want my Lili to be educated and [to] want to be smart and to pride herself on those things,” she added.

Markle speaking at the Opening Ceremony of the One Young World Summit 2022. Image: Getty.

She also admitted to having nerves around speaking to Paris Hilton, whom she said she ‘envied’ in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

“Growing up in LA, around the same age and you were just so famous, so beautiful and all the things that, especially when you are young and in the ‘90s that pop culture stuff was so influential,” Markle said.

“It was so hard for me to think about what you and I would talk about when so much of the identity, whether it was placed upon you or you adopted or embraced or used to build a career, was about not leaning in to being smart,” she explained.

“That’s why I was nervous.”

Hilton admitted to feeling nervous too, and went on to explain that her ‘bimbo’ persona was the way she coped with a traumatic experience from her teenage years, when she was sent away to the Provo Canyon School, which she has described many times as ‘extremely abusive’.

Archetypes is available now on Spotify.

Feature Image: NBCU/Getty.