Can Harry and Meghan avoid more ‘car chases’ during return to New York?

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle let it be known Thursday they are returning to New York City next Tuesday for what sounds like a very good cause.

However, for this sometimes-polarizing couple, this Big Apple trip also marks a return to the city where they suffered their biggest-ever public relations debacle. That was in May, when they were accused of exaggerating claims that they had been the targets of a “near-catastrophic” car chase through the streets of Manhattan.

In an announcement shared “exclusively” with People, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex said they are marking Mental Health Day by participating is an Archewell Foundation event. The “Mental Wellness in a Digital Age” summit will look at how families and communities can build a safer online world for children and teens.

What’s not mentioned in this announcement is whether the couple and their team will be better equipped to avoid the controversies and security issues that have surrounded their past two visits to the Big Apple and that have arguably overshadowed some of the good causes they say they support.

During their last visit to New York in May, the media soon forgot that Meghan was there to accept a Women of Vision Award from the Ms. Foundation for her advocacy to empower women and girls. The following morning, the couple put out a statement claiming that aggressive paparazzi had forced them into a dangerous pursuit through the streets of Manhattan, which lasted two hours and caused “multiple near collisions” with other drivers, pedestrians and police officers.

Within hours, major figures in New York media laughed off the notion that anyone could be involved in a car chase through congested Manhattan, while royal correspondents said the couple were trying to raise the specter of Princess Diana’s 1997 death and to create a “victim” narrative around themselves.

It became apparent that the California-based couple had inflicted serious PR damage on themselves when their claims were challenged by an extensive report by the New York Times, photographers who had been following the couple and the New York City Police Department, which quickly concluded that their claims warranted “no further investigation.”

This Sussex-related spectacle was recently mentioned in contrast to Prince William’s more dignified trip to New York City last month for the Earthshot Summit. During the trip the heir to the British throne did a friendly meet-and-greet with crowds and revealed that he had quietly gone jogging in Central Park, joining the “hordes of New Yorkers doing their morning routine.” But no one recognized him on his jog, and no one bothered him.

Following William’s jogging comments, one royal biographer described the stark difference between William’s interactions with the public and Harry and Meghan’s.

“It’s all a case of class vs. crass,” Christopher Andersen, author of “The King,” a 2022 biography of King Charles III, told Fox News Digital.

“When Harry and Meghan swept into New York last May, they flew in on a private jet and brought with them all the baggage and complaints they’d been carting around for years,” Andersen said.

In the past week, newly released public records also show that Archewell executives made a number of high-handed and potentially inappropriate demands to public officials during their September 2021 trip to New York City.

The trip seemed designed to make it look as though the Sussexes were on a royal tour, even though they stepped away from royal duties in 2020. It included a stop at a public elementary school in Harlem, where Meghan read her recently published children’s picture book “The Bench” to a crowd of second-grade students.

Documents obtained by the Daily Mail show that New York City school officials received emails from Archewell officials and a representative Meghan’s publisher, who explained how a camera crew would record the couple at P.S. 123  for an an unnamed project — which turned out to be their Netflix documentary, “Harry and Meghan.”

Archewell officials and the publisher’s rep also discussed the need for rugs and pillows to dress up the school for Meghan’s photo op. More problematically, Archewell officials demanded that school employees and the parents of students sign confidentiality agreements, which would bar them from talking to media outlets about the visit and from making any “negative, derogatory, or otherwise unfavorable statements” about the couple.

For another stop — a visit to One World Observatory with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio — emails released under Freedom of Information Act requests showed that an Archewell official dictated that four U.K. tabloids — which often are critical of the Sussexes — not be allowed to cover the event.

Recent reports about Harry and Meghan say that the couple are undergoing a major rebranding effort. The American former TV actor also appears to be preparing to launch some kind of professional comeback.

Page Six reported Thursday on the extent to which the Sussexes have tried to be seen in the company of powerful Hollywood celebrities, including Kevin Costner at his charity fundraiser at his Santa Barbara estate.

With this New York trip, it appears that the Sussexes are trying to remind the public that they’re also involved in philanthropic work through their Archewell Foundation. They could succeed in generating positive PR for Mental Health Day as long as they keep the focus on the event and aren’t caught making more high-handed demands on public entities.

According to People, the “Mental Wellness in a Digital Age” summit also will include participation by Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and parents who have experienced tragic loss connected to their social media use.

The summit will  “explore how we as a community, both globally and locally” can create “positive change” and support “one another in developing solutions to empower families and uplift our collective mental well-being,” People reported. The outlet also said that Harry and Meghan had made “building a better online world and restoring trust in information” key pillars of Archewell’s work.