Prince Harry and Meghan pursued by ‘reckless’ photographers
Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, were pursued by photographers in cars after a charity event in New York in an incident that the mayor and the couple’s office described as potentially dangerous and that instantly drew comparisons to the 1997 fatal car crash of Harry’s mother, Princess Diana.
The NYPD did not provide immediate comment to describe or corroborate the royals’ statement about the incident.
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.”
Harry and Meghan’s office said in a statement that the chase “resulted in multiple near collisions involving other drivers on the road, pedestrians and two NYPD officers.” The office called the incident “near catastrophic.”
“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 statement from the couple said.
Harry, the younger son of King Charles III, and the former actress Meghan Markle married at Windsor Castle in 2018 but stepped down as working royals in 2020, citing what they described as the unbearable intrusions and racist attitudes of the British media.
Harry’s fury at the media has been building for years. He blames an overly aggressive press for the death of his mother, and also accuses the media of hounding Meghan.
He has made it his mission to reform the press and is currently suing three British tabloid publishers over alleged phone hacking and other unlawful snooping. In 2021 Meghan won an invasion of privacy case against the publisher of the
Mail.
Security for Harry and Meghan has been an issue since the British government stripped them of protection when they moved to California in 2020 and it figures in three of his legal cases against the government and tabloid press.
The chase occurred the same day a lawyer for Harry argued in a London court that he should be able to challenge a government decision denying him the right to pay police for his own security in the UK.
Harry has argued his safety was “compromised due to the absence of police protection” during a short visit to the UK in July 2021, when his car was chased by photographers as he left a charity event.
The couple have said they funded their own security after former President Donald Trump said the US government wouldn’t pay to protect them.