25 May 2023 , 10:16
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Deal or No Deal boss Lucas Green has slammed claims made by Meghan Markle that the show reduced its briefcase girls to the role of "a bimbo".
The Duchess of Sussex appeared on the long-running NBC game show between 2006 and 2007 and said she felt "objectified on the stage".
Meghan explained how the women were told to wear false eyelashes and hair extensions. She said they were also given spray-tan vouchers to fit "a very cookie-cutter idea of precisely what we should look like."
The 41-year-old claimed: "It was solely about beauty and not necessarily about brains."
Lucas, chief content officer at entertainment company Banjay, disagreed with Meghan's claims and said Deal or No Deal is always "modernising".
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Meghan Markle said she felt 'objectified' on the show (NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)
She was a briefcase girl between 2006 and 2007 (NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images)"We are constantly evolving the format so that it isn't the same show it was fifteen plus years ago.
"A lot of work goes into modernising our formats to ensure they represent our values as a company and wider society.
"The UK version for example, will continue to use members of the public from all walks of life to open the boxes [instead of models]," Lucas told Variety.
Speaking about her time on Deal or No Deal during her Archetypes podcast, Meghan said she was grateful for the job giving her a leg up in her acting career.
Meghan (top left) said she was 'reduced to a bimbo' (NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)
There was a lot of pressure to look a certain way (NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)However, she quit the role over pressure to look a certain way.
Meghan revealed how one of the women who worked on the show would tell her to "suck it in" every time she went on stage and that she felt it was "all looks and little substance".
She recalled to guest Paris Hilton: "I ended up quitting the show. Like I said, I was thankful for the job but not for how it made me feel, which was not smart.
Howie Mandel defended the Duchess (NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images)"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 and 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."
Former Deal or No Deal host Howie Mandel previously defended Meghan's comments.
"I don’t know why there is a big hoopla, except I have to say that me standing there with 26 women staring at me made me feel like a bimbo," he said.
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"I get it because — 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," he told Us Weekly.