Taking issue with her perspective. Whoopi Goldberg still had some questions after Meghan Markle‘s candid comments about working on Deal or No Deal.
During a new episode of The View, which aired on Wednesday, October 19, the comedian questioned Markle’s claims that she felt “objectified” while working as a briefcase girl on the NBC series.
“On that show, you basically had a suitcase and they wanted to know: ‘Is this the deal you want, or is this not the deal you want?’” the Sister Act actress, 66, said to her cohosts. “I don’t know that the people who are sitting there are thinking about you like that. They’re thinking, ‘I want the money.’”
Goldberg noted that women who worked on other competition shows didn’t appear to take issue with their job. “[Wheel of Fortune hostess] Vanna White is always in something interesting and beautiful, and she’s been doing this,” she continued. “The objectification might be coming from you and how you felt about how these women were being portrayed, and that’s what you have to change — because we’re performers. When you’re a performer, you take the gig.”
The New York City native found it difficult to see the Duchess of Sussex’s perspective because of her own history in Hollywood.
“We’re not journalists, we’re actors. You left, and that was your prerogative. But I feel bad because I don’t think people were looking at these girls like this, I think people wanted the money,” Goldberg concluded. “That’s TV, baby. But what did you think you were going to? You know that’s what the show was.”
The Academy Award winner’s insight comes after Markle, 41, discussed her conflicting feelings with the former gig.
“Now, my experience on the show – which included holding said briefcase on stage, alongside 25 other women doing the same – was … for me, fascinating,” the former actress recalled on the Tuesday, October 18, episode of her “Archetypes” podcast. “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 U.S. Embassy in Argentina, in 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.”
The California native recalled having to “line up” backstage to get glammed up for the game show.
“There were different stations for having your lashes put on or extensions put in, or the padding in your bra,” Markle explained to guest Paris Hilton, adding that the girls were given “spray tan vouchers” so that they would all fit in. “When I look back at that time, I’ll never forget this one detail. … There was a woman who ran the show and she’d be there backstage and I can still hear her … she’d go, ‘Markle, suck it in! Markle, suck it in!’”
The Bench author ultimately felt unfulfilled by the job — even though it allowed her to pay her bills. “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,” she added. “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.”
Shortly after the podcast episode went live, Claudia Jordan, who worked on the series too, showed her support for the game show.
“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,” the Real Housewives of Atlanta alum, 49, wrote via her Instagram Stories on Tuesday, referring to her own experience. “And Deal or No Deal never treated us like bimbos. We got so many opportunities because of that show.”
