Howie Mandel Doesn't Remember Meghan Markle, Chrissy Teigen Being 'Deal Or No Deal' Models
"Deal or No Deal" host Howie Mandel has made a shocking confession about his game show's former briefcase girls.
On Monday's episode of the "Good Guys" podcast, hosts Josh Peck and Ben Soffer dove deep into "the hilarious and insightful world of celebrity chaos with Howie's trademark wit and candor."
In one part of the interview, the hosts asked Mandel if he stayed in touch with the former "Deal or No Deal" model and briefcase girl Meghan Markle.
"No. When I heard that she was on 'Deal or No Deal,' I didn't remember her," the 68-year-old TV personality confessed, despite having Markle's photo on his office desk.
"I have a picture of her in my office... she's one of many girls standing behind me," he added.
In his defense, he said he "didn't remember a lot of [the models]" who appeared on his game show.
Mandel also implied that he does not remember working with model Chrissy Teigen as well. John Legend's wife also modeled for "Deal or No Deal."
Before Markle married into the royal family and became the Duchess of Sussex, she was a model and an actress.
Per Page Six, she had a one-year stint on "Deal or No Deal" from 2006 to 2007, appearing in 34 episodes of the show.
In October 2022, the former "Suits" actress opened up about being a briefcase girl in her "Archetypes" podcast, including the reason why she left Mandel's show.
"There was a very cookie-cutter idea of precisely what we should look like. It was solely about beauty -- and not necessarily about brains," she revealed.
"I was thankful for the job, but not for how it made me feel, which was not smart. 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 said, talking about why she quit the show.
"... 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," Markle added.
Meghan's fellow briefcase girl, Teigen, was among the models in the pilot and first season of "Deal or No Deal," per NBC.
In May 2020, the Sports Illustrated model took to Instagram to repost a throwback photo of herself on the game show and captioned it, "This feels like an alternate universe."
"I never understood when I was supposed to make the sad face. I think that's why I was gently replaced," she joked in the comments.
"Deal or No Deal" premiered on NBC in December 2005 and aired its final episode in August 2019.
