Howie Mandel defends Meghan Markle's Deal or No Deal remarks: 'I don't know why there is a big hoopla'

Howie Mandel considers Meghan Markle's recent comments about Deal or No Deal an open-and-shut case.

The actor-comedian, who hosted the popular game show from 2005 to 2019, said he doesn't understand the big deal surrounding Markle's remarks about feeling objectified while starring on season 2 of the series.

"I've never really heard anybody complain, and I don't think Meghan is complaining," Mandel told US Weekly. "I think Meghan just said she wanted to do more. It wasn't fulfilling for her."

Steve Granitz/WireImage; Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Howie Mandel; Meghan Markle

The America's Got Talent judge asserted the Duchess of Sussex wasn't "maligning Deal or No Deal" by sharing her experience as one of its briefcase-opening cast members.

"I don't think there weren't ever [any] complaints from any of the women," he said. "And unlike most shows up until that point, the ladies had more to do. They weren't just pointing out gifts and opening [cases]. A lot of times they were mic'd and they had their input."

Mandel added that he understood the Suits actress feeling like she was being paraded out on display during her stint 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 said. "I was in the center, 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."

He continued, "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."

Trae Patton/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images Meghan Markle on 'Deal or No Deal'

In fact, it was feeling like "nothing" on Deal or No Deal that pushed Mandel to seek other opportunities. "That's why I've moved on and become a judge on America's Got Talent," he said. "I just needed more than to be a Deal or No Deal host."

Markle recalled being a briefcase girl on the NBC show on the Oct. 18 episode of her Archetypes With Meghan podcast. "I would end up leaving with this pit in my stomach knowing that I was so much more than what was being objectified on the stage," she said. "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."

In the aftermath of Markle's reflections, fellow Deal or No Deal model Donna Feldman said she disagreed with the actress' sentiment of feeling like a "bimbo" on set. "During my time on the show, neither myself nor anybody else I worked with was ever treated as such, in my opinion," she told Hollywood Life. "However, it's important to note that everyone has their own experience, and I can only speak from mine."

On a recent episode of The View, Whoopi Goldberg said Markle's comments might have more to do with her personal interpretation of the role than the show itself.

"The objectification might be coming from you and how you felt about how these women were being portrayed, and that's what you have to change," Goldberg said, "because we're performers."

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