In case you missed it, Brooke Shields recently spoke about Meghan Markle on an episode of The India Hicks Podcast. On the episode, Brooke recalled how a story the Duchess of Sussex was telling during a SXSW panel was dragging on for too long and getting a bit too “serious.” Interestingly, the podcast episode is no longer available.
The podcast episode was just recently released.
India Hicks, who has ties to the royal family, just shared her interview with Brooke Shields. Now, less than two weeks later, the episode is nowhere to be found. India has seemingly deleted it from her website without offering an explanation, multiple outlets have reported. India is the goddaughter of King Charles.
On the episode, Brooke called Meghan ‘precious.’
In March 2024, Brooke and Meghan both spoke on an International Women’s Day panel at SXSW. Apparently, Brooke didn’t love Meghan’s approach. On the podcast, she explained that she felt inclined to interrupt Meghan to make a joke because Meghan was being too “serious.”
“She 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 how washing dishes was for women,” Brooke recalled on the podcast.
Brooke didn’t think the audience would be interested in this story. “She kept saying she was 11! She wrote to the company, they changed the text, they changed the commercial,” she 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.”
However, Meghan told the story because Katie Couric asked her to.
In reality, Meghan didn’t share this story from her childhood unprompted. Broadcaster Katie Couric, who was also on the panel, already knew Meghan’s Procter & Gamble story and asked her to share it. After Meghan explained that she wrote a letter to the company to complain about a sexist ad when she was 11, Brooke said, “This is one of the ways where we differ. When I was 11, I was playing a prostitute,” referring to her role in Pretty Baby.
On the podcast, Brooke seemed to take credit for making the panel feel “more relaxed after” she shared that joke in response to Meghan’s story. She said she was “trying not to be rude” but also “wanted to be funny because it was so serious.”
Not everyone appreciated Brooke’s comments.
According to the Daily Mail, some Meghan Markle fans thought the conversation between India and Brooke was racist and unnecessary.
“Now I need to write f— you on Brooke’s social media,” one person wrote, according to the publication. “Apparently something about Meghan triggers the b—- in some women.”
Defending Meghan, an X user wrote, “Unlike Brooke Shields and India Hicks, Meghan Sussex has been uplifting women and girls throughout her life.”
Some fans also wondered why Brooke and India even spoke about Meghan to begin with. “Now what I need to understand is why they even talked about Meghan in the first place?” one person wrote on X. “I feel like mentioning Meghan has become the only way some people can be relevant.”
While some people didn’t think Brooke’s comments about Meghan were all that serious, others said the interview served as an example of “what racism looks like.”
“It’s not only slurs,” an X user explained. “It’s calling a Black woman ‘precious’ to minimize her. It’s Brooke Shields humiliating Meghan Markle for speaking, then comparing it to Brooke playing a prostitute at 11 for laughs. That wasn’t funny.”
It’s unclear why India quietly removed the episode from her website, but there’s no evidence to suggest Meghan was directly involved.
Check out our Meghan Markle page for all the latest news about Meghan, Prince Harry, and their growing family.
