Brooke Shields is shedding light on a moment that caught the attention of many at the 2024 SXSW festival—a panel discussion featuring herself, Meghan Markle, and journalist Katie Couric. In a new podcast interview, Shields explained why she felt compelled to interrupt the Duchess of Sussex mid-conversation, admitting she feared the tone of the talk was becoming “too precious” for the audience.
Speaking on India Hicks’s podcast, Shields recounted how the panel kicked off with Couric asking Markle about her advocacy work. Markle began telling the well-known story of how, at age 11, she wrote to Procter & Gamble about a sexist dish soap commercial that stated, “Women all over America are fighting greasy pots and pans.” After Markle’s letter campaign, the company changed the slogan to the more inclusive “People all over America.”
While many admire the anecdote as an early sign of Markle’s passion for gender equality, Shields said she was concerned it wasn’t striking the right tone for the crowd.
“She starts telling a story about how when she was 11—and she keeps saying, ‘Well, when I was 11…,’” Shields said. “I was like, they’re not going to want to sit here for 45 minutes and listen to anybody be precious or serious.”
Trying to lighten the mood, Shields decided to chime in—though she said she was careful not to come off as rude.
“I go, ‘Excuse me, I’m so sorry, I’ve got to interrupt you there for one minute,’” Shields recalled. “I was trying not to be rude, but I wanted to be funny because it was so serious.”
Her way of shifting the tone? A cheeky reference to her controversial role in the 1978 film Pretty Baby.
“I just want to give everybody here a context as to how we’re different,” she said at the time. “When I was 11, I was playing a prostitute.”
According to Shields, the audience erupted with laughter. “The place went insane,” she said on the podcast. “The room just felt more relaxed after that.”
Shields’s comment was clearly meant to draw a contrast between her early life in the entertainment industry and Markle’s childhood experience with activism. While Markle has often been praised for her efforts to promote gender equality from a young age, Shields wanted to inject some levity into what she felt was a very earnest conversation.
Despite the interruption, there doesn’t appear to be any lingering tension between the women. Shields didn’t express any animosity, and her tone throughout the podcast remained light and respectful.
This isn’t the first time Markle’s dish soap story has made headlines. The anecdote has long been a foundational part of her public narrative—especially since becoming a royal and launching her Archetypes podcast, which focused on deconstructing the labels placed on women.
India Hicks, the podcast host and goddaughter of King Charles III, didn’t appear to take offense either, nor did she comment negatively on the interruption. The conversation focused more on how panel discussions are received by live audiences and the importance of keeping things engaging.
Shields, who’s known for blending humor and vulnerability in interviews, made it clear that her intent was to keep the energy of the event lively, not to undercut Markle’s advocacy.
In the end, both women brought their own powerful stories to the stage—Markle’s rooted in activism, and Shields’s steeped in pop culture history. And while their paths have been wildly different, their SXSW interaction highlighted the blend of seriousness and humor that panels like these often need.
For many in the audience, it was a memorable moment—and for Shields, it was a calculated move to keep things balanced. “I was just trying to read the room,” she said.