It’s the new definition of a well-worn phrase a meeting of the minds.
Meghan Markle and Paris Hilton’s brains are in question in Markle’s latest episode of her Spotify podcast “Archetypes.” The hotel heiress told the duchess she built her “Barbie persona” as a coping mechanism.
“I just started building this fantasy life, this kind of Barbie doll character to not think about the pain and to just think about unicorns, butterflies, and Barbie dolls,” she explained. “That was the only thing that kept me going.”
Hilton has long been vocal about the abuse she suffered as a teenager at Utah’s Provo Canyon School. The reality said the treatment was so “traumatizing” that she suffered nightmares and insomnia for years.
In the early 2000s, Hilton landed her reality show “The Simple Life” alongside her best friend Nicole Richie. That was when she dove deep into the persona.
“The producers just said we want Nicole to be the troublemaker and Paris, we want you to be the rich dumb blonde and that’s when I started like really playing into that character,” she explained.
“During that time it was encouraged to be dumb and bubbly. I look at it now and I’m like, ‘I think it’s so much cooler to be smart and intelligent,'” Hilton said.
Markle could relate.
The Los Angeles native recalled her time on “Deal or No Deal” saying she felt “reduced to a bimbo.” She told a story about a woman who ran the show and would be backstage and yell at Markle to “suck it in.”
“To paint the picture, before the tapings of the show, all the girls, we would line up and there were different stations for having your lashes put on or your extensions put in or the padding in your bra,” she recounted. “We were even given spray tan vouchers each week because there was a very cookie-cutter idea about what we should look like. It was solely about beauty.”
Markle said she was thankful for the job, but not how it made her feel.
When it comes to her 1-year-old daughter Lilibet, Markle wants more for her.
“I want our daughters to aspire to be slightly higher. Yeah, I want my Lili to want to be educated and want to be smart and to pride herself on those things,” she said.