A disturbing interview with Meghan Markle and American TV host Craig Ferguson has resurfaced since her royal engagement and it’s unsettling to say the least.
Ferguson openly flirts with the actress in the interview, which first aired on The Late Late Show in 2013, asking bizarre, personal questions about her grooming regime.
WATCH: This is far from the first interview to see men ask inappropriate questions.
After opening the interview by complimenting Markle, fine, but then comments on how smooth her skin is?
“What a strangely hairless body you have,” he tells her, after pinching her arm. “You’re quite the dolphin, aren’t you? You’re absolutely hair free. Are you a competitive swimmer?”
Markle awkwardly segues and reveals she used to hang out on the set of Married… with Children when she was younger because her dad worked on the show.
“I grew up on the set every day after school for 10 years,” she says. “It’s a very perverse place for a little girl who went to Catholic school no less to grow up. I’m there in my school uniform, right…”
Markle – humanitarian, actress, UN advocate – is cut off mid-sentence by Ferguson’s lecherous growl: “Ohhhh, yeah.”
While the audience laughs, Ferguson insists that “it’s a joke, it’s a joke… erm, kind of a joke,” before asking the star what they thought of Markle “walking around in your little schoolgirl outfit”.
The video has since been lambasted online with users accusing Ferguson of oversexualising the actress at every opportunity.
Others defended the talkshow host, citing Markle’s laughter as a sign of comfort.
I don’t want to suggest I know whether Markle was comfortable or not, I don’t, but “laughing something off” should never be used to measure how relaxed someone is. Almost every woman ever has giggled nervously at least once when thrust into an emotionally distressing or awkward situation.
Markle is yet to comment on the clip.
