‘It’s insulting’: Meghan Markle’s Australian co-star hits out at ‘bimbo’ Duchess

Former Miss Indy Lisa Gleave hit out at the Deal or No Deal co-star she once thought ‘quiet but very sweet’, after the Duchess of Sussex said briefcase girls were ‘bimbos’.

Australian “briefcase girl #3” slammed Meghan Markle for “insulting” comments against Deal or No Deal and its “bimbo” co-stars.

Lisa Gleave and Meghan Markle on 'Deal or No Deal'. Picture: Supplied

Los Angeles-based model Lisa Gleave, a former Miss Indy in her hometown of the Gold Coast, became the fourth briefcase girl to speak out against the Duchess for claiming she was “reduced to a bimbo” on the hit show.

“I didn’t like the comment that she made,” Ms Gleave told The Times. “She was not treated like one [a bimbo]. She may have felt that way because of who she was, or who she was trying to be. But she was not treated like one.”

The Duchess of Sussex unleashed a firestorm of blowback after this week’s podcast, Archetypes, in which she told guest Paris Hilton that she was objectified and “treated like a bimbo” during her 34-episode run as briefcase girl #24 in 2006 and 2007.

Briefcase girls Claudia Jordan, Patricia Kara, and Donna Feldman have all publicly rejected Ms Markle’s claims as a “disgrace” as Hollywood turned on the former actress, with Whoopi Goldberg exclaiming: “That’s TV, baby!”

Ms Gleave, who has previously spoken warmly about her “quiet but very sweet” co-star, changed her tone after the Duchess belittled the show and doors it opened for its actors.

“The game show that we were on, Deal or No Deal, was all about beauty and glamour. And if she didn’t want to put herself in that position, then why did she?” Ms Gleave said.

“I personally never felt objectified, even though we were in beautiful outfits,” she added.

Lisa Gleave as Miss Indy at the 1997 Gold Coast IndyCar race. Picture Supplied

“We had a great styling team, we had a great make-up and hair crew. The whole crew on set were amazing, Howie [Mandel, the host] was wonderful. So it was just an amazing, exhilarating experience for me.”

Ms Gleave worked on the US version of the show between 2005 —2009, overlapping with Ms Markle and other US co-stars who have since spoken out against suggestions they weren’t as “intelligent or as smart or knowledgeable”.

Now: Meghan Markle as she appears for her Spotify podcast, Archetypes. Picture: Supplied

Then: Meghan Markle as she appeared in Deal of No Deal: Getty Images

Ms Kara, who starred on the NBC show from 2005 to 2009, told Inside Edition that she never felt objectified or made to feel like a bimbo, adding: “There was no bra station!”

Ms Markle said on her podcast that producers had a “cookie cutter” approach to how the briefcase girls should look, with backstage beauty “stations” for hair, eyelashes and bra padding.

“I didn’t like feeling forced to be all looks,” Ms Markle said on the podcast. “And little substance. And that’s how it felt for me at the time being reduced to this specific archetype, the word ‘bimbo’.

Originally published as ‘It’s insulting’: Meghan Markle’s Australian co-star hits out at ‘bimbo’ Duchess