2023-05-17 20:48:38
Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle were “chased” on Tuesday evening in New York by “very aggressive paparazzi”, an incident which could have been “catastrophic”, according to a spokesperson for the couple on Wednesday, even if the police played it down.
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This “pursuit”, in the middle of town, the outcome of which could have been “fatal” according to a source close to the “Sussex”, the couple being at odds with the rest of the British royal family, immediately echoes the death of the Harry’s mother, Princess Diana, in the accident of her Mercedes in August 1997 in Paris, chased by paparazzi.
In New York on Tuesday evening, the “relentless chase, which lasted almost two hours, almost caused collisions with other drivers, pedestrians and two officers of the New York police”, protested a door -speak in an email sent to AFP, the prince and his wife living in California.
The couple, first in a car with Meghan’s mother, Doria Ragland, before taking a taxi, had just left a party in New York where the Duchess of Sussex had been awarded by a philanthropic and feminist organization.
According to AFP journalists covering the gala, the prince and his wife did not walk the red carpet and entered and left the back of the room where the evening was taking place.
“Although a public figure arouses interest, this should never be done to the detriment of anyone’s safety,” warned the spokesperson, denouncing the “dissemination of these images (…) encouraging a very intrusive (private life) and dangerous practice”.
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When questioned, the New York Police (NYPD) replied that they had “provided assistance to the private security team which protects the Duke and Duchess of Sussex”.
Certainly, admitted a spokesman for the police, “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.
Similarly a taxi driver, Sukhcharn Singh, found by the Washington Post, transported the couple and a security guard for ten minutes and disputed the term “pursuit”. “I never felt unsafe, it wasn’t like a chase in a movie. They were silent and looked scared, but this is New York, a safe city,” Singh said.
But according to a source close to the couple, on the contrary, the continuation involved half a dozen vehicles “driven by individuals in a reckless and dangerous way for the procession and everyone around”.
“The chase could have been fatal,” said the source.
Harry has long blamed the press and paparazzi for causing the August 31, 1997 car crash in Paris that killed his mother, Lady Di.
In fact, New York City Mayor Eric Adams cited Diana’s resounding disappearance: “I don’t think many of us don’t remember how her mom died.”
While denouncing in front of the press a behavior of paparazzi “a little reckless and irresponsible”, the city councilor, a former police captain, questioned the probability of a “two-hour pursuit at full speed”.
“But even a ten-minute chase is extremely dangerous in New York City,” Adams said.
Harry, 38, and Meghan, 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 “Sussex” are accused of having slammed the door, then criticized the powerful and secretive royal family, and of having revealed the backstage and the dissensions to the whole world.
In “The Substitute”, a huge bookstore success written by Harry, his brother William, the heir to the throne, is presented as angry, to the point in 2019 of having abused his brother about Meghan.
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