Meghan Markle Just Made A Rare Public Appearance In A Strapless Green Jumpsuit Amid Backlash

Meghan Markle was spotted over the weekend in a chic green jumpsuit and wide-brimmed brown hat while shopping with a friend. The Duchess of Sussex, 41, perused around the Pierre La Fond food boutique in the town of Montecito, California, where she lives with her husband Prince Harry, 38, and their children: 3-year-old son Archie Harrison, and 1-year-old daughter Lilibet Diana.

The Suits star’s strapless jumpsuit is by Malia Mills, and she added an olive-colored knit Ralph Lauren sweater over it. Markle stepped out in brown open-toed sandals, and accessorized her sunny day get-up with a brown bucket bag, a ‘Panama’ hat by Cuyana, and shielded her eyes from the sun with black Valentino sunglasses. To dazzle up her minimal, classy look, she wore a silver charm necklace and matching watch. The former royal wore her long black hair into a ponytail braid.

Markle’s stylish outing comes just a week after the retired actress made headlines with her latest Archetypes podcast episode. While speaking to her guest Paris Hilton, Markle confessed that she felt “objectified” and “reduced to a bimbo” while starring as one of the iconic ‘briefcase girls’ during her brief stint on Deal or No Deal.

Markle reflected on her time on the game show (and garnered some backlash soon after from critics and fellow former ‘briefcase girls’), and admitted that she quit the show in 2006 after “feeling forced to be all looks and little substance.” While the mom of two stressed that she was “really grateful” at the time to have a job that could pay her bills, she still had qualms with the expectations of her role and on-stage wardrobe.

“I ended up quitting the show,” she said on the podcast, “I was so much more than what was being objectified on the stage.” She also 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: the word ‘bimbo.’ I was grateful for the job, but not about how it made me feel, which was not smart.”

Markle then went on, claiming that her role was “solely about beauty and not necessarily about brains,” and remembered that a woman kept telling her to “suck it in.” Markle, who later famously joined the cast of Suits in 2011, also briefly talked about some of her co-stars on the game show, “By the way, I was surrounded by smart women… but that wasn’t the focus.”

Markle’s podcast episode description from Spotify reads, “In this candid and eye opening episode, Meghan breaks down the labels of “Bimbo” and “Dumb Blonde” and explores why brains and beauty in a woman have been historically pitted against each other. To delve deep, Meghan connects with Paris Hilton in a surprising and revealing conversation, as Paris opens up about the trope that defined her, how she at times played into it, and how she is now coming into her own.”