Meghan Markle Auditioned To Be a Model On ‘The Wendy Williams Show’
Before Meghan Markle was a duchess she was an actress best known for her role in Suits. And before Suits, she did smaller acting and modeling jobs to pay the bills.
One of those gigs included working as a “briefcase girl” on the hit game show Deal or No Deal.
“I would put that in the category of things I was doing while I was auditioning to try to make ends meet. I went from working in the U.S. Embassy in Argentina to ending up on ‘Deal.’ It’s run the gamut,” she told Esquire in 2013. “Definitely working on ‘Deal or No Deal’ was a learning experience, and it helped me to understand what I would rather be doing.”
When asked if she ever held the winning suitcase she replied:
“I didn’t ever have it. I don’t think I did. I was the ill-fated number 26, which, for some reason, no one would ever choose. I would end up standing up there forever in these terribly uncomfortable and inexpensive five-inch heels just waiting for someone to pick my number so I could go and sit down.”
Meghan Markle once tried to work on ‘The Wendy Williams Show’
On a recent episode of The Wendy Williams Show, Williams revealed that Markle once auditioned to be a model on the talk show.
“She came here to be one of our models,” said the host. “We do the fashion — things like that. This was before she met the man — the redhead — Harry, but Meghan knows ‘Wendy Show.’”
“Meghan wanted to work here,” she added, before mentioning that she didn’t get the gig.
Meghan Markle’s calligraphy side-job
Many actors and actresses work in the service industry prior to hitting it big. Markle paid the bills doing calligraphy while she went on auditions.
“It evolved into was my pseudo-waitressing job when I was auditioning. I didn’t wait tables. I did calligraphy for the invitations for, like, Robin Thicke and Paula Patton’s wedding. I used to do it for Dolce & Gabbana’s celebrity correspondence over the holidays. I would sit there with a little white tube sock on my hand so no hand oils got on the card, trying to pay my bills while auditioning,” she told Esquire. “I’m glad that in the land of no one seeming to appreciate a handwritten note anymore that I can try to keep that alive.”
Apparently, calligraphy is a pretty lucrative side-hustle.
“Oh, it’s super-lucrative. Because there are so few people doing it. What’s funny is I probably still have some calligraphy business cards floating out in the world and I can’t wait for someone to call me in a month or something, and say, ‘Can you do these for my son’s Bar Mitzvah?’” she said.
Meghan Markle grew up on set
Even before she tried her hand at acting, Markle was no stranger to set life.
“My dad was a lighting director and director of photography for Married… with Children. He just retired actually last year. Every day after school for 10 years, I was on the set of Married… with Children, which is a really funny and perverse place for a little girl in a Catholic school uniform to grow up. There were a lot of times my dad would say, ‘Meg, why don’t you go and help with the craft services room over there? This is just a little off-color for your 11-year-old eyes,’” she said.
Read more: How The Press Drove Meghan Markle To No Longer Play By The Rules
