Meghan Markle & Prince Harry Hounded By Paparazzi In ‘Near Catastrophic’ Car Chase After Attending NYC Event

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Update 2:00 pm EST: The NYPD confirmed that Harry and Megan were caught in a pursuit. “On Tuesday evening, May 16, the NYPD assisted the private security team protecting the Duke and Duchess of Sussex,” the police said in a statement to HollywoodLife. “There were numerous photographers that made their transport challenging. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex arrived at their destination and there were no reported collisions, summonses, injuries, or arrests in regard.”

New York City’s Mayor Eric Adams addressed the chase in a Wednesday press conference, per Page Six. “I don’t think there are many of us who don’t recall how [Harry’s] mom died. It would be horrific to lose innocent bystanders during a chase like this and [for] something to have happened to them as well,” he said. “It’s clear that the paparazzi want to get the right shot, they want to get the right story, but public safety must always be at the forefront.”

After the pursuit, Harry, Meghan, and her mother were brought to the 19th Precinct, where they stayed for 15 minutes, per NBC News. The trio, with help from the police, were reportedly brought to a taxi which took them to their Upper East Side destination without issue.

Original: More than twenty-five years after Prince Diana died in a car crash after being chased by French paparazzi, Prince Harry says he and his wife, Meghan Markle, were in a “near catastrophic car chase” in New York City. A spokesperson for Harry, 38, told CNN that he and Meghan, 41, and Meghan’s mother, Doria Ragland, were chased by paparazzi after attending the Women of Vision Awards, held at the city’s Ziegfeld Ballroom. “Last night, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex and Ms. Ragland were involved in a near catastrophic car chase at the hands of a ring of highly aggressive paparazzi,” reads the statement.

“This relentless pursuit, lasting over two hours, resulted in multiple near collisions involving other drivers on the road, pedestrians, and two NYPD officers,” the statement continued. Harry and Meghan acknowledged, in the statement, that “being a public figure comes with a level of interest from the public, it should never come at the cost of anyone’s safety. Dissemination of these images, given the ways in which they were obtained, encourages a highly intrusive practice that is dangerous to all in involved.”

Harry and Meghan were in NYC to attend the Ms. Foundation for Women’s 2023 Women of Vision Awards, according to Variety. The event honored Meghan, grantee partners Wanda Irving of Dr. Shalon’s Maternal Action Project, and Kimberly Inez McGuire of URGE. Activists LaTosha Brown, Olivia Julianna, and Rebekah Bruesehoff were also honored “for their impact on the gender justice movement.”

This reported “near catastrophic” chase could have mimicked the heartbreaking tragedy that killed Harry’s mother. Princess Diana died on Aug. 31, 1997, while in Paris. The former wife of King Charles III died along with her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed, and their driver, Henri Paul. Paul was driving at high speeds to evade the photographers, and he lost control of the vehicle in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel. The car crashed first into a wall of the tunnel, then into a support pillar. Dodi and Paul were killed instantly, while Diana was still alive when emergency services arrived. She was transported to a nearby hospital, where she succumbed to her injuries, dying at the all-too-young age of 36.

The paparazzi remained at the scene of the accident and photographed Diana in her final moments, per Today. That left a chilling effect on young Harry, and it’s a resentment he carries with him to this very day. “I think one of the hardest things to come to terms with is the fact that the people that chased her into the tunnel were the same people that were taking photographs of her while she was still dying on the back seat of the car,” Harry explained in the 2017 BBC Documentary,  Diana, 7 Days.

“[Prince] William and I know that. We’ve been told that numerous times by people that know that was the case,” said Harry, who blames the paparazzi for the crash. “Those people that caused the accident, instead of helping, were taking photographs of her dying.”