Britain’s Prince Harry, Meghan Markle and her mother were involved in a “near catastrophic car chase” involving paparazzi, a spokesperson for the couple has said.
The incident happened after Harry and his wife had attended an awards ceremony in New York on Tuesday evening.
“Highly aggressive paparazzi” pursued the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and Doria Ragland, the spokesperson said in a statement on Wednesday.
“This relentless pursuit, lasting over two hours, resulted in multiple near collisions involving other drivers on the road, pedestrians and two NYPD [New York Police Department] officers,” the statement said.
“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.
The NYPD did not provide immediate comment to describe or corroborate the 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 gave up their royal titles and duties in January 2020 and moved to California as private citizens in part to avoid aggressive British press intrusions they have said.
The couple have launched several legal cases against British newspaper publishers, alleging invasions of privacy among other charges.
The publisher of The Mirror tabloid newspaper apologized to Harry and other claimants at the beginning of a trial last week in London that alleged unlawful information gathering.
Harry is also pursuing claims against two other British media companies and is seeking to overturn a decision by the British government to take away his specialist police protection when he is in Britain.
The prince has said he blames the media for the death of this mother, Princess Diana, who was killed in a car crash in Paris in 1997 while being chased by photographers.
