Meghan Markle was a 'briefcase girl' on Deal Or No Deal — but it's her pay that's even more surprising

Appearing on a daytime television show is a stepping stone for actors hoping to achieve Hollywood stardom. One of them was Meghan Markle before she became The Duchess of Sussex and spent days driving around Los Angeles only to face rejection after auditions. This is why, when the opportunity to appear on the game show, "Deal or No Deal" knocked on her door, she was quick to accept it. Decades later, Markle shared that she wasn't fond of her stint as the "Briefcase Girl" on the show.

But the lack of job satisfaction wasn't the only issue for Markle during her time on the show, since she wasn't exactly getting a hefty paycheck. It turns out that she was getting only $800 per episode. She featured in a total of 34 episodes between 2006 and 2007. This was nothing compared to the $50,000 an episode salary that she went on to earn for her part in the hit TV show "Suits," before she got married to Prince Harry.

Breaking Down Her Role

Back in 2006, Markle, a 25-year-old graduate who studied acting at Northwestern University, was struggling to make it in the show business. After a lot of auditions, she got a stint as a 'briefcase girl' on the NBC quiz show "Deal or No Deal." Alongside 50 other 'briefcase girls', Markle's job was to bring the case that the contestant picked and reveal its contents while wearing glamorous and often revealing dresses. While being a briefcase girl didn't involve acting, Markle was happy to get a paycheck, health care, and a union card.

However, recently on her Archetypes podcast, the duchess shared a few unpleasant details of her stint on the show and her early acting career in an episode titled “Breaking Down ‘The Bimbo.’” In conversation with Paris Hilton, the California-based royal recounted how the show left her feeling 'objectified' like a 'bimbo'.

Meghan revealed that she and the other women on the show were often forced to 'line up' for various beauty treatments. They had to wear 'padding' in their bras and fake eyelashes to appear appealing on the show. "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 said on the podcast as per Glamour.

She shared that she quit the show as she knew she was "much more than what was being objectified on the stage". Markle added, "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." 

Luckily for her, she soon landed her career-defining role as 'Rachel Zane' on the show "Suits" in 2011. She was an integral member of the cast for seven years before getting married to Prince Harry.

Deal or No Deal Co-Stars Hit Back 

While Markle was speaking her heart out on the podcast, her comments did not land well with the other "Deal or No Deal" girls. Some of the models who worked alongside her on the show expressed contradicting opinions on social media. Speaking to the New York Post, Donna Feldman said that her experience was completely different. “I would say I did well for someone supposedly hired to be a ‘bimbo,'” Donna Feldman revealed.

She explained that everyone knew what they were signing up for as they were hired as a ‘briefcase beauty'. “It’s up to a woman to decide what experience will empower her or use it as an excuse to seek attention,” Feldman added.

One of the stylists on the show, Dina Cerchione wrote on Instagram, "The women gained such uh-mazing opportunities! Not only to change the lives of the contestants who came on the show for a chance at $1,000,000 but also the opportunities they gained from being seen in millions of peoples’ homes."