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Prince Harry, his wife Meghan and her mother, were involved in a “near catastrophic car chase” involving paparazzi photographers, a spokesperson for the prince said on Wednesday (local time).
The incident happened after Meghan and Harry had attended an awards ceremony, with Meghan’s mother Doria Ragland, in New York on Tuesday.
“There were numerous photographers that made their transport challenging,” Harry’s spokesperson said in a statement.
“This relentless pursuit, lasting over two hours, resulted in multiple near collisions involving other drivers on the road, pedestrians and two NYPD (New York Police Department) officers.”
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Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, had earlier encouraged women to find inspiration to fight for equity as she accepted the Ms Foundation Women of Vision Award, with Black Voters Matter co-founder LaTosha Brown.
“It’s never too late to start,” Meghan said at the Ziegfeld Ballroom in Manhattan. “You can be the visionary of your own life… There is still so much work to be done.”
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images
Harry, Meghan and her mother Doria Ragland at an awards ceremony in New York.
Video taken by bystanders and posted on social media showed Harry and Meghan exiting Manhattan’s Ziegfeld Ballroom and getting into an SUV as crowds of pedestrians and photographers gawked.
Another video posted by TMZ showed the couple in a yellow New York City taxicab, stuck in traffic several blocks away from the ballroom, as photographers recorded them through the windows. The cab was being escorted by NYPD vehicles with flashing lights.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams told reporters he hadn’t received a full briefing about the incident yet, but he called it “reckless and irresponsible” for anyone to be chasing people in vehicles in the densely populated city, and said that “two of our officers could have been injured”.
“It’s clear that the press, the paparazzi, they want to get the right shot,” Adams said. “But public safety must always be at the forefront.”
Adams said he expected to have a full briefing later in the day. “I would find it hard to believe that there was a two-hour high speed chase,” he added.
The incident instantly drew comparisons to the death of Harry’s mother, Princess Diana, who was killed in a 1997 car crash in Paris while being chased by photographers.
“I don’t think there’s many of us who don’t recall how his mum died,” Adams said. It would be horrific to lose an innocent bystander during a chase like this and for something to have happened to them as well.”
Prince Harry is currently involved in multiple legal disputes with the British tabloid press, including allegations of phone hacking and the unlawful gathering of information.
Earlier this week, a lawyer representing Prince Harry told a London court that he should be allowed to challenge a government decision that denied him the ability to pay for police protection while in the country.
The pair stepped down from royal duties and moved to the US in 2020 – a move they said was partly due to harassment from UK tabloids.
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