Hollywood star Brooke Shields has opened up about an awkward moment between her and Meghan Markle. The American actress and the Duchess of Sussex both attended the Keynote: Breaking Barriers, Shaping Narratives: How Women Lead On and Off the Screen panel in March 2024 in Austin, Texas. Brooke admitted she wasn’t a fan of Meghan’s “serious” demeanour as she spoke about her childhood on stage. Speaking on India Hicks’ podcast, Brooke opened up about Meghan was asked a question about her childhood during the panel.
Brooke recalled, “Katie (Couric) asks the first question to Meghan and talks about how at a young age, she was already advocating for women, etc, etc. (Meghan) starts telling a story about how when she was 11. And she keeps saying, well, ‘when I was 11, I saw this commercial and they were talking about washing dishes and only soap for washing dishes was for women.'”
She added, “And she said, ‘I didn’t think only women wash dishes. It wasn’t fair. So I wrote to the company. And when I was 11, I wrote my first letter, and when I was 11…’ and she kept saying she was 11! She wrote to the company, they changed the text, they changed the commercial.”
The Blue Lagoon actress then interrupted Meghan and said, “So I go, ‘Excuse me, I’m so sorry. I’ve got to interrupt you there for one minute.’ I was trying not to be rude, but I wanted to be funny because it was so serious.
“I just want to give everybody here a context as to how we’re different. I said, ‘Well, when I was 11, I was playing a prostitute. The place went insane. And then luckily, it was more relaxed after that.” She referred to her role in the 1978 flick, Pretty Baby.
Sheilds then continued, “I was like, oh, I hope she doesn’t think I’m rude. I’m not being rude. It was just too precious. And I was like, they’re not going to want to sit here for 45 minutes and listen to anybody be precious or serious.”
Brooke then added, “Afterwards, she [Meghan] was kind of like, ‘oh, okay’. And I was like, ‘let’s just have some fun with it.’ I don’t know if you’ll have to cut this out.”
