Howie Mandel is going to bat for Meghan Markle after the Duchess of Sussex said she was reduced to a “bimbo” while on the game show “Deal or No Deal.”
Mandel, the former host of the U.S. version of the game show, told US Weekly that Markle was just expressing her feels, not bashing the show.
“I’ve never really heard anybody complain and I don’t think Meghan is complaining,” he said. “I think Meghan just said she wanted to do more. It wasn’t fulfilling for her.”
Markle was a briefcase girl on “Deal or No Deal” in 2006 and said on the latest episode of her podcast that she quit because she was being “reduced to a bimbo.”
“I ended up quitting the show. I was so much more than what was being objectified on the stage,” she said.
Telling US Weekly that he “gets it,” Mandel said, “I felt like nothing and that’s why I’ve moved on and become a judge on ‘America’s Got Talent.’ I just needed more than to be a ‘Deal or No Deal’ host.”
Mandel said he too felt like a “bimbo” on the show.
“I don’t know why there is a big hoopla [about Meghan], except I have to say that me standing there with 26 women staring at me made me feel like a bimbo,” he said.
“I’ve never said this before — but they had this pyramid of 26 beautiful, intelligent women standing there just staring at me like I was a piece of meat,” the comedian explained. “I was in the center, just dressed up in a suit and I felt like I am more than this.”
Interestingly, Whoopi Goldberg, co-host of “The View,” took a stance against Markle over the remark.
“When you’re a performer, you take the gig,” she said, adding, “That’s TV, baby. But what did you think you were going to? You know that’s what the show was.”
“Real Housewives” star Claudia Jordan, a former briefcase girl herself, disagreed with Markle’s take.
“Deal or No Deal never treated us like bimbos. We got so many opportunities because of that show,” Jordan wrote on her Instagram story.
“For clarity – yes getting a modeling gig on a game show isn’t necessarily about your intellect, but every show the executive producers picked five models with the most outgoing and fun personalities to place mics on, who they knew would engage with the contestants,” she said.
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
Tom Tillison grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills. Tillison also contributes to BizPac Review.
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