Claudia Jordan Responds To Meghan Markle’s Criticism About How Models Were ‘Valued’ For Their Beauty & Not Their Brains While On ‘Deal or No Deal’: It Was A Step On The Ladder I’ve Been Ascending On For 25 Years

Claudia Jordan Responds To Meghan Markle’s Criticism About How Models Were ‘Valued’ For Their Beauty & Not Their Brains While On ‘Deal or No Deal’: It Was A Step On The Ladder I’ve Been Ascending On For 25 Years

Deal or No Deal apparently didn’t think Meghan Markle was very smart, or at least that’s the way they made her feel.

In an introduction to the episode’s theme, “The Bimbo,” the Duchess of Sussex made the remarks on her Archetypes podcast.

Meghan Markle said,

“I had also studied international relations in college, and there were times I was on set at Deal or No Deal and thinking back to my time working as an intern at the U.S. Embassy in Argentina in Buenos Aires and being in the motorcade with the security of treasury at the time and being valued specifically for my brain. Here, I was being valued for something quite the opposite.”

She continued,

“There was a very cookie-cutter idea of precisely what we should look like. It was solely about beauty — and not necessarily about brains.”

She added,

“When I look back at that time, I’ll never forget this one detail — because moments before we’d get on stage, there was a woman who ran the show and she’d 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’d go, ‘Markle, suck it in! Markle, suck it in!'”

Meghan Markle then noted,

“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. 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 being 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.”

She added,

“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. So while Deal or No Deal wasn’t about acting, I was still really grateful as an auditioning actress to have a job that could pay my bills.”

She recalled the “Briefcase Girls” preparation line and how they would line up to get their lashes done and sometimes have their bras padded. They were also given spray tan coupons.

Since then, Claudia Jordan has commented, making it clear that her own professional choices do not reflect Meghan Markle’s feelings regarding the program.

She said,

“For clarity — yes getting a MODELING GIG on a game show isn’t necessarily about your intellect BUT every show the executive producers picked 5 models with the most outgoing and fun personalities to place mics on who they KNEW would engage with the contestants.”

Claudia Jordan added,

“It was a step on the ladder I’ve been ascending on for 25 years that paid all my bills, put me in front of 13 million+ people/ night, and led to me getting … On Celebrity Apprentice, Celebrity apprentice All stars, Breast cancer awareness campaign, guest hosting Extra, getting into People Magazine’s 100 most Beautiful issue and SO MUCH more.”

[VIA]