Meghan branded 'too precious and serious' by Brooke Shields after speech on gender equality
2 June 2025, 18:40 | Updated: 2 June 2025, 18:49
Brooke Shields has revealed she interrupted the Duchess of Sussex during a panel in front of thousands because Meghan was being 'too precious'.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
Brooke Shields and Meghan Markle had appeared on stage together during an International Women’s Day panel in Austin, Texas, back in March 2022.
The Hollywood actress, 60, opened up about the moment on the latest episode of India Hicks’ podcast, MailOnline reports.
Brooke described how the discussion took a turn early on after Meghan began answering the opening question from host Katie Couric.
"Katie asks the first question to Meghan and talks about how at a young age, she was already advocating for women, etcetera, etcetera," Brooke recalled.
Read More: Meghan reveals profound impact of major ‘mum moment’ with Prince Archie
She went on to say Meghan started retelling an anecdote about writing to a company at age 11 to protest a gender stereotype in an advert.
“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!” Shields said.
According to Brooke, the speech became overly serious, and she decided to break the tension in the room
She said it was getting "too precious," adding that the atmosphere needed a moment of lightness.
Brooke said: "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."
Brooke's referenced her breakout role, aged 11, that saw her playing a child sex worker in Pretty Baby.
The film, released in 1978, sparked major controversy.
In Austin, the moment seemed to break the tension, as the crowd laughed.
"I was like, oh, I hope she doesn't think I'm rude. I'm not being rude," Brooke admitted.
India Hicks, daughter of Lady Pamela Mountbatten, a former lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth II, and the late designer David Hicks, backed Brooke’s decision to ease the tension on stage.
“I think it’s genius,” she said.
Reflecting, Brooke said: "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."
Despite the crowd’s laughter, Brooke acknowledged the exchange might not have gone down quite as well with Meghan.
“This was in front of [thousands of people]. I mean, it was crazy,” she said. “And then afterwards, she was kind of like, oh, okay. And I was like, let's just have some fun with it.”
Brooke added: “I don't know if you'll have to cut this out.”
Meghan had been sharing a story she has referenced on numerous occasions about how, at age 11, she challenged a 'sexist' advertisement from Procter & Gamble.
The ad, for Ivory dish soap, included the line: “Mothers around America are fighting greasy pots and pans.” Meghan reportedly wrote to the company asking them to change the wording to “people all over America” - and they did.
She later spoke about the moment in a 1993 interview on Nick News, saying she was “furious” at the advert.
Meghan had agreed to revisit the story on stage, a example of her early advocacy that she has shared at various speaking events over the years
Meghan recalled the moment that she says first sparked her interest in advocating for gender equality, telling the audience: “I was 11 years old, about 11 years old, and I had seen a commercial on TV for a dishwashing liquid, and the boys in my class at the time... you know it said, 'Women all over America are fighting greasy pots and pans,' and the boys said, 'Yeah that's where women belong, in the kitchen.’”
She continued: “And at 11, I just found that infuriating, and [so] I ended up writing lots of letters, I put pen to paper, and they ended up changing the commercial to 'people all over America'.”
Reflecting on the experience, the Duchess of Sussex added: “It's funny looking back at it now because it was before social media that had such a reach.
“I was just an 11-year-old with a pen and paper, but it just goes to show that if you know there's something wrong and you're using your voice to advocate in the direction of what is right, that can really land and resonate, and make a huge change for a lot of people.
“So, your voice is not small, it just needs to be heard.”
The anecdote is one Meghan has shared on multiple occasions, often crediting it as the moment that set her on a lifelong path of speaking out against inequality.
However, the story has also drawn scrutiny. Reports have previously noted that when Meghan referenced the incident in her 2017 Vanity Fair cover interview, it was ultimately removed from the piece after it reportedly failed the magazine’s fact-checking process.
"I don't think it is right for kids to grow up thinking that mom does everything," she told Nick News in 1993.
"If you see something that you don't like or offended by on television or any other place, write letters and send them to the right people and you can really make a difference, not just for yourself but for lots of other people."
Meghan also sent letters to civil rights lawyer Gloria Allred, then-first lady Hillary Clinton, and Nick News anchor Linda Ellerbee as a child.
