Chrissy Teigen is heading back to where it all started: Deal or No Deal.
Teigen was the original number-12 briefcase model when the popular game show launched in 2005. On Friday, March 21, Deal or No Deal Island host Joe Manganiello announced that Teigen will return to the series, but this time around she is replacing Howie Mandel as the show’s banker.
Teigen, who is a fan of the first season of the show, told Entertainment Weekly during filming for the show’s finale that there are several reasons why she was open to coming on board as season 2’s banker.
“My history with the show, obviously, NBC is family in our house, coming to Panama with my friends,” Teigen said.“I love the show! “I watched the first season — riveting, amazing, incredible. I’m a TV junkie. I was addicted from the first episode.”
Teigen also acknowledged her past with the show. “It was one of my first jobs in entertainment ever. And I really learned so much,” she explained. “It was my first time on a big stage and just having an [earpiece], all the little things — it’s what started everything. And I got to work with really incredible women that I saw, I really looked up to, and they were just so good at what they did.”
In fact, she added, the show really shaped her entire relationship with the entertainment industry in general.
In a 2018 interview with the Mail on Sunday, Teigen revealed that she formerly shared the Deal or No Deal stage with none other than Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex. Both women were briefcase models around the same time.
Teigen told the outlet she is “especially a fan of Meghan.”
“I was on Deal or No Deal with her and she was lovely,” Teigen said, before adding that plenty of people ask her questions about what the Duchess of Sussex is like.
“Now everyone asks me what she was like and I say, ‘Sorry, no dirt.’ She’s gorgeous,” she explained.
Teigen also previously called out Meghan’s father, Thomas Markle, for comments he made about the Duke and Duchess. “Meghan was apparently upset with me for saying that she and Harry will probably have a baby soon,” Markle told the Mail on Sunday in July 2018. “But Meghan’s been saying that herself for the past six or seven years, talking about how much she wants a family. [Prince] Harry’s been saying it too.”
Teigen was quick to defend her former castmate. “This guy … This guy sucks,” Teigen tweeted in response. “What is wrong with him? Let your daughter be happy, please. This is embarrassing.”
