Harry and Meghan’s paparazzi car chase is ‘almost disastrous’, says spokesperson

LONDON (Reuters) – Prince Harry, his wife Meghan and her mother were involved in a “near-disastrous car chase” involving paparazzi after they attended an award ceremony in New York, a spokesman for the British prince said on Wednesday.

The incident happened after they left the Dame for Women Foundation on Tuesday night where Meghan was being honored for her work.

“Last night, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and Lady Ragland were involved in a near-disastrous car chase by a highly aggressive paparazzi gang,” the couple’s spokesperson said in a statement.

“This relentless chase, which lasted for more than two hours, resulted in numerous near-misses involving two other drivers on the road, a pedestrian and two New York Police Department (NYPD) officers.”

The prince has long spoken out about his anger at an intrusive journalist who blamed him for the death of his mother Princess Diana, who was killed when her limousine crashed as she was driving away from a paparazzi chase in Paris in 1997.

The couple’s spokesperson said the chase could be fatal and involved paparazzi driving on the sidewalk, running red lights and driving while taking pictures.

Pictures that have emerged on social media show Harry, Meghan and her mother sitting in the back of a taxi in New York.

The spokesperson said this was “a small snapshot of the advocacy and decoys required to end harassment.”

“While being a public figure comes with a level of interest from the public, it should never come at the expense of anyone’s safety,” the spokesperson said. “The publication of these images, given the ways in which they were obtained, encourages a highly intrusive practice that is dangerous for all involved.”

Harry and Meghan stepped down from their royal roles in 2020 and moved to the US in part due to what they described as intense media harassment.

The prince is currently involved in several cases before the courts in London, where he has accused papers of using illegal methods to target him and his family.

He is also seeking to overturn a decision by the British government to withdraw his specialized police protection while in Britain.

(Reporting by Mike Holden, written by William James

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