Meghan Markle's Deal or No Deal co-star hits back at Duchess' claims she was treated like a 'bimbo'

A former briefcase girl on Deal or No Deal has hit back at Meghan Markle's claims that the quiz show reduced the cast to 'bimbos'.

Claudia Jordan, who worked alongside the Duchess in 2006-207, defended the show on Instagram saying: "For clarity - yes getting a modeling gig on a game show isn't necessarily about your intellect, but every show the executive producers picked five models with the most outgoing and fun personalities to place mics on, who they knew would engage with the contestants.

"And Deal or No Deal never treated us like bimbos. We got so many opportunities because of that show."

Ms Jordan added: "This isn't an attack on Meghan cause Lord knows I've been defending this woman in the media for years and I still will but I just didn't want any misunderstanding about the climate and environment on the Deal or No Deal set."

She said there were "no limits" to what briefcase girls could do with opportunity on the programme, saying it had been a "step ladder" that paid her bills and paved the way for more television roles including Celebrity Apprentice and reality show Real Housewives of Atlanta. She also co-hosted the 2009 Miss Universe pageant in front of half a billion people.

"Not too shabby for a 'bimbo'!" she said.

The US-based royal had told Paris Hilton on her most recent episode of Archetypes that she 'appreciated the money she earned for her short stint' on the show, but added that it made her feel 'not smart'.

"There were times when I was on set at Deal or No Deal and thinking back to my time working as an intern at the US Embassy in Argentina, Buenos Aires, and being in the motorcade with the secretary of treasury at the time and being valued specifically for my brain," she said.

"Here, I was being valued for something quite the opposite. I ended up quitting the show. I was so much more than what was being objectified on the stage. I didn't like feeling forced to be all looks and little substance. That's how it felt for me at the time, being reduced to this specific archetype, the word bimbo."

She added that for daughter Lilibet, "I want our daughter to aspire to be slightly higher...I want my Lili to want to be educated and want to be smart and to pride herself on those things."

Meghan alleged that she and other stars had to line up for beauty treatments such as padding their bras or putting in hair extensions, and that a woman in charge of the show told her to suck in her stomach prior to filming.

"We were even given spray-tan vouchers each week because there was a very cookie cutter idea of precisely what we should look like," she added. "It was solely about our beauty."