Brooke Shields' attempt to amuse Meghan Markle backfires

Brooke Shields revealed she tried to amuse Meghan Markle during a panel at the SXSW Conference in March 2024 but her attempt backfired.

The Mother of the Bride star shared that she interrupted the Duchess of Sussex during the talk because the conversation felt too serious.

Recalling the incident, the actor said Meghan was telling her well-known story about writing to Procter & Gamble at age 11 to protest a sexist dish soap ad.

Speaking on India Hicks’ podcast, she added that the moment was becoming too heavy and decided to lighten the mood by joking, “When I was 11, I was playing a prostitute,” referring to her role in the film Pretty Baby.

The audience laughed, but Shields said Meghan didn’t seem too pleased with the interruption.

"It was just too precious," she said of Meghan’s story, adding that she was worried the audience wouldn't want to "sit here for 45 minutes and listen to anybody be precious or serious."

"Katie asks the first question to Meghan and talks about how at a young age, she was already advocating for women, etcetera, etcetera," Shields recalled, referring to host host Katie Couric.

As Meghan Markle shared her familiar story about writing to a soap company at age 11 to protest a sexist ad, Shields said Meghan repeatedly mentioned her age.

On this, the actor felt it was becoming too serious and decided to interrupt her mid-speech, saying, “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 added.

"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.”

But Meghan seemingly did not take it that well. "And then afterwards, she was kind of like, oh, okay. And I was like, let's just have some fun with it," Shields said.