Meghan Markle was left “humiliated and furious,” following Hollywood star Brooke Shields’ awkward interruption of her childhood anecdote when they appeared on the same panel together in March 2024. The American actress recently recounted she wasn’t a fan of Meghan’s “serious” demeanour as she spoke about her childhood on stage. As Meghan recalled being spurred into activism as a child whens he was just 11, Brooke interjected with her own story about “playing a prostitute” at the same age.
While the interaction went down well with the crowd at the time, a source has claimed Meghan was far from amused. Speaking to journalist Rob Shuter for his Substack they intimated the Duchess took it as “a hit job” towards her. “She was visibly rattled,” they said. “It wasn’t a joke to her; that anecdote (from her childhood) is sacred. This was a hit job, plain and simple,” they said. “And Meghan doesn’t forget, or forgive, being laughed at.”
Express.co.uk has contacted representatives for Meghan Markle for comment.
Brooke recently opened up about the incident, which happened when both women were on the SXSW Keynote: Breaking Barriers, Shaping Narratives: How Women Lead On and Off the Screen panel in March 2024 in Austin, Texas.
Speaking on India Hicks’ podcast the former child star admitted she wasn’t a fan of Meghan’s “serious” demeanour as she spoke about her childhood on stage.
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.'”
“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 star said she then interrupted Meghan. “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 was referring to her controversial role in the 1978 movie, Pretty Baby.
“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 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.”
