NEW YORK: Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle were involved in a “near catastrophic car chase” involving paparazzi in New York, a spokesperson for the couple said on Wednesday.

The pair were uninjured in the incident on Tuesday night, which came almost 26 years after the Paris car crash that killed Harry’s mother, Princess Diana, which Harry blames on paparazzi.

The New York chase occurred after Harry, 38, and Meghan, 41, attended an awards ceremony in America’s financial capital with Meghan’s mother Doria Ragland.

“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,” the 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 officers,” the spokesperson added.

A source close to the couple said Meghan and Harry were pursued by half a dozen blacked-out vehicles with “unidentified people driving recklessly and endangering the convoy and everyone around them.”

“The chase could have been fatal,” the source added, claiming a number of possible traffic violations including driving on the sidewalk, running red lights and reversing down a one-way street, were committed.

A spokesperson for the New York Police Department said “numerous photographers” had made the couple’s journey “challenging.” “The Duke and Duchess of Sussex arrived at their destination and there were no reported collisions, summonses, injuries, or arrests in regard,” deputy commissioner Julian Phillips said.

Harry has long had a difficult relationship with the media. He blames press intrusion for causing the death of his mother in a car crash in a tunnel in Paris in 1997 while she was being pursued by paparazzi.

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In a US television interview earlier this year, he recalled seeing the final photos of her and realising that the last thing she saw before she died was photographers taking her picture.

Harry and Meghan, an American former TV actress, sensationally quit royal family duties in early 2020 and moved from Britain to the United States, in part because of intense media scrutiny.

Published in Dawn, May 18th, 2023