Meghan Markle got the next best thing! Long before she became engaged to a Prince, Markle was a suitcase model on Deal or No Deal, working alongside host Howie Mandel. The America’s Got Talent judge recently stopped by Us Weekly to talk about how Markle went from TV star to royalty. Watch the video above!
The former Suits star appeared on the NBC show in 2006 and 2007, and the host is jokingly taking credit for Markle’s newfound fame, telling Us Weekly, “I think she’s a duchess because of me.”
“It is kind of crazy, but I find that once you work with me, the sky’s the limit,” Mandel, 62, quipped to Us. “I think because I’m a happily married, taken man. So if you can’t have Howie, what’s the next best thing? Harry. Howie? Harry. Can’t have Howie. Harry.”
While Markle, 36, and Prince Harry, 33, are set to tie the knot on Saturday, May 19, they did not extend an invitation to the comedian, which probably came as a surprise since he claims to know the Suits actress quite well.
“She’s very regal. She hates cinnamon. She has an allergy to synthetics, to a cotton blend. The two things I remember is she had a collection of masking tape in all different colors,” Mandel, who recently partnered with the Take Cholesterol to Heart campaign, jokingly told Us. “She loved horseback riding. She was a bit of a fashionista, but was somewhat colorblind and off on her colors, but loved patterns. She could speak with a Greek accent on command. She could make something with her tongue where she could make it sound like a bell ringing with her tongue.”
He continued with his jokes: “And she did have a lazy eye. She did have a lazy eye. But she knew how to turn her head in a certain direction that you wouldn’t notice that her eye was lazy. She smelled like flowers and a certain flower that is indigenous to the southwest corner of Arizona.”
All kidding aside (sort of) Mandel has been married to wife Terry Mandel for nearly 40 years, and shared some advice for the soon-to-be newlyweds.
“The secret to our long marriage is the fact that I’m here in New York and she’s in L.A.,” Mandel explained to Us of his own union. “The fact that I’m not around is refreshing. But even though we’ve been married for 40 years, I think we’ve spent two months together.”
