Meghan Markle’s former Deal or No Deal costar has fired back at her claims that she was ‘reduced to a bimbo’ on the game show and was only valued for her ‘beauty,’ not her ‘brains.’
Real Housewives of Atlanta star Claudia Jordan – who appeared alongside Meghan, 41, on the NBC game show in the mid-2000s – posted a furious rant about the Duchess on her Instagram Stories on Tuesday, hitting out at claims that she made about the show during the latest episode of her podcast, Archetypes.
Meghan, who appeared on the second season of the NBC series for 34 episodes between 2006 and 2007, said she quit because she felt she was being ‘objectified,’ revealing that she was forced to get regular spray tans and wear a padded bra.
She claimed her time in the show made her feel ‘not smart’ because it was all about ‘looks’ – but according to Claudia, that was not the case, at least not for all of the models involved.
Meghan Markle’s former Deal or No Deal co-star Claudia Jordan (right) has fired back at her claims that she was ‘reduced to a bimbo’ on the game show
Real Housewives of Atlanta star Claudia, 49 – who appeared alongside Meghan, 41, on the show in the mid-2000s – posted a furious rant about the Duchess on her Instagram on Tuesday
Meghan, who appeared on the second season of the NBC series for 34 episodes between 2006 and 2007, said on her podcast that felt she was being ‘objectified’ on the show
However, Claudia insisted that producers worked to highlight the models with the ‘most outgoing and fun personalities’, adding that she never felt like a ‘bimbo’ while on the show
Claudia, 49, who starred in Deal or No Deal for four seasons from 2005 to 2009, slammed Meghan for her comments, explaining that the show ‘never treated them like bimbos’ and that it helped provide ‘so many opportunities’ for them.
‘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 wrote in a post shared to her Instagram Stories.
‘And Deal or No Deal never treated us like bimbos. We got so many opportunities because of that show.’
The reality star added that it’s the ‘kind of opportunity’ that ‘is what you make it.’ She added, ‘If you just show up and don’t engage – then you’ll just get your check and not get much out of it.
‘But if you show up and seize your moments, there’s no limits to what you can do with the opportunity.’
Claudia explained that she ‘enjoyed’ working on Deal or No Deal, and claimed it helped launch a major career for her.
‘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 a night, and led to me getting on Celebrity Apprentice, Celebrity Apprentice All Stars, a breast cancer awareness campaign, guest hosting Extra, getting into People magazine’s 100 Most Beautiful issue, and so much more,’ she continued.
Although Claudia insisted that she wasn’t trying to ‘attack’ Meghan, the Real Housewives star noted that Deal or No Deal gave people opportunities if they ‘seized their moments’
The Bravo-lebrity continued by listing all of the opportunities that she gained after appearing on the show, including appearances on Celebrity Apprentice and a guest hosting gig on Extra
Claudia said she wasn’t ‘attacking’ Meghan, but added that she felt a need to protect people who worked on Deal or No Deal, and make clear what the environment was really like
‘It also led to me co-hosting the 2009 Miss Universe pageant with @BillyBush in front of half a billion people. Not to shabby for a “bimbo.”‘
While the 49-year-old wanted her followers to know that she was not ‘attacking’ Meghan, she said it was important for her to defend the show, and all of the people who worked so hard to make it a success.
‘Lord knows I’ve been defending this woman in the media for years,’ she explained. ‘And I still will, but I just didn’t want any misunderstanding about the climate and environment on the Deal or no Deal set.
‘And I’m especially protective of [host] Howie Mandel, who was nothing but kind and respectful to all 26 of us.’
In the newest episode of Meghan’s podcast, which was released today and featured Paris Hilton as a guest star, the royal said she was grateful for the money she earned on Deal or No Deal as she tried to succeed as an actress – calling it ‘a short stint’ to pay the bills – but said she disliked ‘how it made her feel, which was not smart.’
‘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 explained.
Meghan (seen circled on the show in the back) had very differing opinions about the way in which briefcase girls were treated to her former co-star Claudia (seen circled in the front)
The reality star (seen holding briefcase number one) featured on Deal or No Deal between 2005 and 2009, while Meghan (seen holding 24) appeared between 2006 and 2007
‘Here, I was being valued for something quite the opposite. I ended up quitting the show. 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. That’s how it felt for me at the time, being reduced to this specific archetype, the word bimbo.’
She added that she wanted her one-year-old daughter, Lilibet, to valued first for her mind, rather than her ‘beauty,’ unlike she was on the show.
‘I want our daughter to aspire to be slightly higher,’ she stated. ‘Yeah, I want my Lili to want to be educated and want to be smart and to pride herself on those things.’
The actress claimed that she and the other women on the show were forced to ‘line up’ for various beauty treatments including ‘padding in their bras,’ attaching fake eyelashes, and ‘putting in’ hair extensions.
‘We were even given spray-tan vouchers each week because there was a very cookie cutter idea, of precisely what we should look like,’ she added. ‘It was solely about our beauty.’
The wife of Prince Harry also said that a woman ‘in charge’ of the show would tell her to ‘suck it in’ before filming began, presumably an order to hold in her stomach on camera.
Meghan claims she was ‘grateful’ to join Deal or No Deal to get money, pay the bills, secure health insurance and join a union while starting out as an actress – but quit after ‘short stint’ of 34 EPISODES
Meghan Markle said she was ‘thankful’ to work on Deal or No Deal as a suitcase girl – but was made to feel ‘not smart’.
The Duchess of Sussex said she ‘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. This brought back a lot of memories’.
She went on: ‘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.
‘While Deal or No Deal wasn’t about acting, I was 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.’
But she said she disliked feeling ‘forced to be all looks and little substance’ during her stint.
She said: ‘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.
‘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. Like I said, I was thankful for the job but not for how it made me feel, which was not smart.’
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