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Meghan Markle hated being ‘reduced to bimbo’ on Deal or No Deal & wants Lilibet to ‘aspire higher’
MEGHAN Markle today revealed she quit Deal or No Deal after being made to feel like a "bimbo" and wants her daughter to "aspire higher" in the latest episode of her Spotify podcast.
The Duchess of Sussex said she was told to "suck it in" by a woman who helped run the US version of the hit game show in 2006.
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The order left her feeling "objectified" and "not smart", the duchess told the latest episode of her Archetypes podcast as she discussed the "dumb blonde" trope.
Meghan held briefcase number 24 during her time as a model on the US version of Deal or No Deal in 2006 - years before she met Prince Harry.
In her latest Spotify episode - titled Breaking Down 'The Bimbo' with Paris Hilton' - Meghan said: "The other night I was flipping through the channels on TV.
"This, by the way, is a rarity when you have two children under the age of four - but I saw an episode of a game show called Deal or No Deal.
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"This brought back a lot of memories.
"Back in 2006, I had a short stint as a briefcase girl on the US version of the game show.
"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.
"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.
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"So while Deal or No, Deal wasn't about acting, I still really grateful as an auditioning actress to have a job.
"That could pay my bills. I had income, I was part of the Union, I had health insurance, it was great.
"And yet, 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.
"Here. I was being valued for something quite the opposite."
Meghan goes on to "paint the picture" of what working on the show was like - mostly involving pre-show hair dos, makeup and bra padding.
She added: "When I look back at that time I will never 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.
"She couldn't properly pronounce my last name at the time - and I knew who she was talking to because she would go 'Markle suck'.
"Markle suck it in. 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, the word 'bimbo'."
The duchess also discussed the trope of the "dumb blonde".
Meghan told how her guest Paris Hilton was able to "cut herself in" on the stereotype of being a "dumb blonde" to make a living off it.
But her guest, journalist Clare Malone, stressed that "not everyone who gets called the dumb blonde gets to cut themselves in on the deal".
Meghan goes on to reveal that she hopes her and Harry's daughter Lilibet will "aspire slightly higher" than a "bimbo".
She tells Paris: "I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on this idea because when I hear the word bimbo, I have a very negative connotation to it.
"I don't see that as an aspirational thing for a woman, I want our daughters to aspire to be slightly higher.
"I want my Lili to want to be educated and want to be smart and to pride herself on those things."
In her last podcast, Meghan slammed Hollywood blockbusters for “toxic stereotyping” of Asian women.
She took swipes at Austin Powers — famously a James Bond spoof — and Kill Bill, whose Lucy Liu assassin has been lauded as a powerful female role model.
In her first podcast since the Queen’s death, the Duchess of Sussex, 41, claimed the films promoted the “incredibly dangerous” image of a stereotypical “Dragon Lady” to movie fans.
She said: “Movies like Austin Powers and Kill Bill presented these characters of Asian women as oftentimes over-sexualized or aggressive. And it’s not just those two examples, there’s so many more.”
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Meghan added: “The Dragon Lady, the East Asian temptress whose mysterious foreign allure is scripted as both tantalising and deadly. This has seeped into a lot of our entertainment.
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“But this toxic stereotyping of women of Asian descent, it doesn’t just end once the credits roll.”
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