Host Howie Mandel defends Meghan Markle’s controversial Deal or No Deal comments

Former US Deal or No Deal host Howie Mandel has defended Meghan Markle after she said felt she was reduced to a “bimbo” on the show.

Howie Mandel doesn’t understand why Meghan Markle got so much backlash for saying she was reduced to a “bimbo” while on the US game show Deal or No Deal.

The former game show host defended the Duchess of Sussex, saying she wasn’t bashing the show, but rather expressing how it made her feel.

“I’ve never really heard anybody complain and I don’t think Meghan is complaining,” the 66-year-old told Us Weekly in an article published on Thursday, Page Six reports.

“I think Meghan just said she wanted to do more. It wasn’t fulfilling for her.

“So 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 added.

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Howie Mandel defended Meghan Markle’s comments about Deal or No Deal. Picture: Leon Bennett/Getty Images

Mandel hosted the show for four years. Picture: YouTube/Access

The TV personality — who previously revealed he didn’t remember Markle on the game show — went on to say he could understand where the 41-year-old was coming from after having similar feelings during his four years on the show.

“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 continued. “I was in the centre, just dressed up in a suit and I felt like I am more than this. And they would just look at me and I had to do nothing.”

Although Mandel says he felt like “nothing” while on the iconic game show, he assured it “was a great workplace environment”.

Meghan Markle modelled on US game show Deal or No Deal from 2006 to 2007. Picture: Paul Drinkwater/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

Meghan says she was treated like a “bimbo”. Picture: Supplied

Markle got into hot water earlier this month after saying on her podcast, Archetypes, that she quit the now-defunct game show because she was “so much more than what was being objectified on the stage”.

“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’,” she said.

Following her controversial comments, social media users, former employees from the show and even Whoopi Goldberg spoke out against her claims.

The co-host of The View rejected Markle’s claims, saying that taking jobs seemingly beneath you is just part of show business.

“When you’re a performer, you take the gig,” she said on the talk show.

“You take the gig. Sometimes, you’re in a Bozo suit, sometimes you got a big nose, and this is just the way it is.”

This article originally appeared in Page Six and was reproduced with permission