A recent podcast episode featuring Brooke Shields, in which she commented on Meghan Markle’s storytelling style as too “precious,” has been taken down just one week after its release.

Shields appeared on a now-deleted episode of India Hicks’ podcast, where the two discussed their shared experience on a South by Southwest (SXSW) panel in March 2024. Though it was initially available earlier this month, the episode has since been removed from Hicks’ website. A link to the podcast now leads to a “page not found” notice, according to several reports.

Reflecting on the SXSW Panel with Meghan

During the episode, Shields recalled appearing on the SXSW panel titled “Breaking Barriers, Shaping Narratives: How Women Lead On and Off the Screen,” moderated by Katie Couric. Meghan Markle was among the panelists and opened the discussion with a personal anecdote.

Shields remembered Markle recounting her story of writing a letter to a company at age 11, protesting a dish soap ad that implied only women wash dishes. Shields commented on the podcast that Markle’s story felt “too serious” for the setting.

“Katie asks the first question to Meghan and she talks about how at a young age, she was already advocating for women,” Shields said. “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.’ And she said, ‘I didn’t think only women wash dishes. It wasn’t fair. So I wrote to the company.’”

“She kept saying she was 11!” Shields continued. “She wrote to the company, they changed the text, they changed the commercial. 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.”

Lightening the Mood

Shields explained that she decided to break the seriousness of the moment with humor.

“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,” she recalled.

She then turned to the audience with a joke: “I just want to give everybody here a context as to how we’re different. When I was 11, I was playing a prostitute,” referencing her role in the 1978 film Pretty Baby. Shields said the crowd “went insane” and that the tone of the panel became “more relaxed” after that moment.

Meghan’s Ongoing Advocacy for Social Justice

Markle has frequently shared the dish soap story as a pivotal moment in her early advocacy journey. The original Procter & Gamble ad said, “Women all over America are fighting greasy pots and pans,” which was later changed to “People all over America” following her letter.

In adulthood, Meghan has continued her work in social justice and gender equality. She co-founded the nonprofit Archewell, supports organizations like Smart Works, which helps women reenter the workforce, and regularly speaks out on issues such as racial justice and maternal health.