Meghan Markle is glad her briefcase days are behind her.
During the Oct. 18 episode of her Archetypes podcast, where she discussed the "bimbo" stereotype with guest Paris Hilton, the Duchess of Sussex reflected on her stint as a case model on Deal or No Deal.
While appearing on the second season of the game show in 2006 as she pursued her acting career, Meghan, 41, said she would think back to her time as a college intern at the U.S. Embassy in Argentina, where she said she was "being specifically valued for my brain." However, at Deal or No Deal, the royal said she felt she was "being valued for something quite the opposite."
Meghan said that the models would line up before the show for different stations, including one for bra padding, false eyelashes and hair extensions. The women were also given vouchers to get weekly spray tans.
"There was a very cookie-cutter idea of precisely what we should look like," she recalled." It was solely about beauty—and not necessarily about brains."
Meghan then shared one memory about the show, where she felt completely objectified.
"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," the Duchess continued. "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!'"
Though the former Suits actress said she was "thankful" for the job, she quit the show after one season because she hated how it made her feel, "which was not smart."
Meghan said she felt like the women on the show had more to offer than just their looks.
"I was surrounded by smart women on that stage with me, but that wasn't the focus of why we were there," she continued. "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."