Buckingham Palace stay silent on Prince Harry and Meghan’s car chase

Prince Harry’s fears of “history repeating itself” have gained renewed attention after he and Meghan Markle were allegedly involved in a “near catastrophic car chase” with paparazzi.

The Independent’s Meredith Clark reports:

Buckingham Palace has refused to comment on reports that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were involved in a “near catastrophic car chase” involving the paparazzi.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex revealed today they were subjected to a “relentless pursuit” by photographers after an event in New York on Tuesday evening. The royal couple, who were with Meghan’s mother, Doria Ragland, said that “highly aggressive paparazzi” chased them for two hours that resulted “in multiple near collisions”.

Buckingham Palace told The Independent that it would not be commenting on the incident.

When the spokesperson was asked if King Charles planned to get in contact with his son, the spokesperson repeated that the Palace will not be commenting.

The taxi driver that picked up the Sussexes from the New York City Police Department’s 19th precinct, where they had gone to in an attempt to lose paparazzi, told the Washington Post he didn’t feel threatened. The driver said Meghan and Harry’s security asked him to drive back to the station out of concern their location would be shared with more people.

“I don’t think I would call it a chase,” Sukhcharn Singh told the Post. “I never felt like I was in danger. It wasn’t like a car chase in a movie. They were quiet and seemed scared but it’s New York—it’s safe.”

The NYPD told The Independent in a statement that the department assisted the couple’s “challenging” transport, but no collisions, summonses, injuries, or arrests were reported. Meanwhile, Mr Sanchez told CNN that Prince Harry and Meghan were left frightened and exhausted by the time they arrived to safety.

Chris Sanchez, a member of the Sussexes security team, told CNN in an exclusive interview on Wednesday that he “had never” come close to the chaos he experienced on Tuesday night.

“What we were dealing with was very chaotic. There were about a dozen vehicles: cars, scooters and bicycles,” Mr Sanchez said. “The public [was] in jeopardy at several points. It could have been fatal. They were jumping curbs and red lights. At one point they blocked the limousine and started taking pictures until we were able to get out.”

“[I] was concerned about [Prince Harry and his wife] but more about the public because they [the paparazzi] were being so erratic,” Mr Sanchez added. “People were on sidewalks and crossing streets and the [paparazzi] were crossing red lights. We did everything by the letter of law.”

Photos of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle taken on the night they were chased by paparazzi in New York City briefly appeared on British tabloid websites before they were taken down amid reports that the pursuit led to “near collisions.”

The spokesperson for the Sussexes condemned the “dangerous” way images of the couple and Ms Ragland leaving the event were obtained.

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

According to royal biographer Omid Scobie and online reports, some pictures of the couple taken around the time of the chase were briefly featured on DailyMail.com and The Daily Express but have since been removed. It is unknown whether the photos in question were taken by the paparazzi accused of pursuing Meghan and Harry on the packed streets of Manhattan. The Independent has reached out to the Mail and the Express for comment.

Prince Harry’s mother, Princess Diana, died in 1997 from injuries sustained in a car crash after trying to flee paparazzi who were following her vehicle.

The duke, who was 12 years old when his mother died, spoke about his concern of history repeating itself in his AppleTV+ docuseries The Me You Can’t See, in which he drew parallels between the treatment of his mother and the scrutiny he and Meghan faced.

“It’s incredibly triggering to potentially lose another woman in my life, but the list is growing. And it all comes back to the same people, the same business model, the same industry,” Harry said.

In the docuseries, Harry also reflected on the inquest into Diana’s death, which concluded she was unlawfully killed due to “gross negligence” of her driver, Henri Paul, who had been drinking, and the paparazzi who were following her car at the time of the crash.

According to the duke, he was “so angry” that there was “no justice at all” after the inquest. “Nothing came from that. The same people who chased her into the tunnel photographed her dying in the backseat of that car,” he recalled.

The royal has also spoken about the trauma of his mother’s death in his revealing memoir Spare. Prince Harry said in the book he’s retraced the route his mother’s driver took in Paris on the night she died.

“I’d thought driving the tunnel would bring an end, or brief cessation, to the pain, the decade of unrelenting pain. Instead, it brought on the start of Pain, Part Deux,” he wrote.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams has told reporters that it is “reckless and irresponsible” for anyone to chase people in vehicles in the densely populated city following claims Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were involved in a “near catastrophic” pursuit by paparazzi photographers.

The Independent’s Oliver O’Connell has more:

“A relentless pursuit. Two hours. The son and his wife in the car. It is a succession of coincidences and details that will make the blood of every right-thinking person boil,” Samuel Fishwick writes.