“Prince Harry, Meghan Markle & Mother Almost Fatally Chased by Paparazzi in New York”

Prince Harry, Meghan and the latter’s mother were chased last Tuesday by car in New York by paparazzi. The chase lasted two hours and was described as ‘almost fatal’ by Sussex security teams. We now know more about the exact circumstances of the facts.

The circumstances are not without evoking a tragic memory. Twenty-five years after Diana died in a car accident in Paris, Prince Harry, his wife Meghan Markle and her mother were chased through the streets of New York this week, during what their team called it an “almost catastrophic” car chase.

The “relentless chase, which lasted nearly two hours, nearly resulted in collisions with other drivers, pedestrians and two NYPD officers,” a spokesperson said in an email to the AFP.

“The public was in danger on several occasions. It could have been fatal. They were jumping sidewalks and red lights. At one point they blocked the limo (which was carrying the couple) and started taking pictures until we could get out,” he added.

In the end, no one was injured and the couple arrived safe and sound, but shaken, at the apartment where they were staying, he told CNN.

A game of cat and mouse in Manhattan

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were in New York on the evening of May 16 to attend the Women of Vision Awards, where Meghan was honored for her global advocacy for the empowerment of women and girls.

It was at the end of the event that the “dangerous” chase would have occurred. The couple’s spokesperson described “a very aggressive ring of paparazzi” chasing them around New York City for two hours. Police confirmed the main lines of the story, but simply described the situation as “difficult”.

Certainly, acknowledged a police spokesperson, “there were many photographers” Tuesday evening, “making their transport (in New York) difficult”. But Harry and Meghan “arrived at their destination and there was no collision, no one injured, no arrest or summons” by law enforcement, he said.

Chris Sanchez, who was part of the couple’s security detail, told CNN he “never saw [ou] experienced something like that” and claimed that “the public had been in danger at several times”. He also explained that the couple changed cars “more than once” during the incident.

Also for CNN, Thomas Buda, who runs a private security firm under contract to help the couple, corroborated Chris Sanchez’s account of the vehicles following them driving recklessly and the Sussexes’ car swapping. He said the couple’s convoy took “a circuitous route from 23rd Street to 96th Street – along busy Manhattan thoroughfares – before security brought the couple to the 19th Police Station on 67th Street. East. From there, the couple were transferred to a yellow taxi, but it ended up driving around the block and bringing them back to the police station.

Taxi driver Sukhcharn Singh told CNN he didn’t feel threatened by the meeting with the photographers, but Harry and Meghan looked “nervous and scared”. The couple were finally “able to take a clean break during the midnight patrol change, which effectively caused a traffic choke point, allowing security teams to move Harry and Meghan away,” CNN reports. ‘after the testimony Thomas Buda.

To answer the question of why this game of cat and mouse took place, Prince Harry’s team said the couple were staying at a private residence and did not want to compromise the security of the house. of their friend by returning to it directly after the ceremony.

Prince Harry demands the photos

This Thursday, May 18, TMZ reported that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are trying to put pressure on a photo agency that claimed their independent paparazzi weren’t “very aggressive” and didn’t nearly cause a collision.

Harry and Meghan’s legal team sent a letter to photo agency Backgrid, saying in part that they needed the ‘pursuit’ footage to enhance their security. “We hereby demand that Backgrid immediately provide us with copies of all photos, videos and/or film taken last night by the freelance photographers after the couple left their event and in the hours that followed,” is he writes, according to the words taken up by TMZ.

The site states that “Backgrid’s attorney denied the Sussexes’ claim, saying in a letter… ‘In America, as you surely know, property belongs to its owner: third parties cannot simply demand that it be given to them, as kings may perhaps do. Perhaps you should sit down with your client and advise them that those English royal prerogative rules of requiring citizens to surrender their property to the Crown were rejected by this country long ago. We support our founding fathers’.”

Backgrid indicates in the missive that they had commissioned that evening “four photographers, three in cars and one on bicycles”, and adds that they “had no intention of causing distress or harm, because their only tool was their camera.

Prince Harry, 38, and Meghan Markle, 41, left the British royal family in early 2020 to move to California due to conflict and tension, including accusations of racism, and pressure from the media.

Harry went gallantly and alone on May 6 to London for the coronation of his father Charles III. The couple are very unpopular in the UK. The tabloids are ruthless and Harry has several legal disputes with them.

The Sussexes are accused of having slammed the door, then criticized the powerful and secret royal family, and of having revealed the backstage and the dissensions to the whole world.