Ever since hearing about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s “near catastrophic car chase” on Tuesday night in New York City, surely many people’s minds immediately went to Harry’s mother, Princess Diana, and the last night of her life (and, let’s be honest, copious nights before)—relentlessly chased by paparazzi until, finally, the chase ended for good in a tunnel in Paris, France. Diana died as a result of injuries sustained in a car accident on August 31, 1997, at just 36 years old. Harry, her younger son, was only 12, two weeks shy of his thirteenth birthday.
No doubt this incident this week triggered memories of his mother, and People reports that Harry told friends that the car chase—which he was involved in with Meghan and Meghan’s mother, Doria Ragland—brought him closer to understanding how his mother died, nearly 26 years ago.
Harry, according to The Times, told friends that the chase was the “closest I have ever felt” to understanding what happened that late August night in the City of Lights. In his memoir, Spare—released this past January to much fanfare—Harry recalled driving through the Alma Tunnel, where Diana lost her life after the Mercedes she was a passenger in impacted the tunnel’s thirteenth pillar.
Diana’s accident happened as she and Dodi Fayed traveled from the Ritz Paris to Fayed’s apartment. Harry and Meghan’s chase occurred after the couple left an event honoring Meghan in Manhattan and were driving to a private residence, where they were staying for the evening, People reports.
