Brooke Shields calls out Meghan Markle's gender equality story as 'too precious'

To mark International Women's Day, Katie Couric asked the panel a question related to gender equality - and Markle answered right away. 

Markle, who shared the exact same story with Vanity Fair in 2017, referenced the time she wrote a letter to a company that promoted women washing dishes. 

"She starts telling a story about how when she was 11 - and she keeps saying, 'Well, when I was 11, I saw this commercial and they were talking about how washing dishes was for women. And she said, 'I didn't think only women wash dishes. It wasn't fair. So I wrote to the company.'"

"It was just too precious, and I was like, they're not going to want to sit here for 45 minutes and listen to anybody be precious or serious."

Shields recalled interrupting Markle during the panel.

"I go, 'Excuse me, I'm so sorry, I've got to interrupt you there for one minute.' I was trying not to be rude, but I wanted to be funny because it was so serious. 'I just want to give everybody here a context as to how we're different. When I was 11, I was playing a prostitute.'"

Shields, who earned a laugh from the audience, was referring to her role in the 1978 film, "Pretty Baby."

"The place went insane. And then luckily, it was more relaxed after that," Shields said.

The actress rose to fame at the age of 11 when she played a child prostitute in "Pretty Baby," which featured Shields in multiple nude scenes. As a 10-year-old, Shields posed naked for the Playboy publication Sugar'n'Spice.

"I was at the center of it," Shields said. "And I was promoting it and I was doing it."

"So I had this sort of community around me that was protecting me, buoying me. And so I did not become the type of statistic that Hollywood created," Shields added.

"Hollywood is predicated on eating its young."

Fox News Digital's Ashley Hume contributed to this post.