Harry and Meghan to share paparazzi footage with NYPD as critics say they exaggerated ‘near-castrophic care chase’: report

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, facing accusations that they exaggerated their tense experience with paparazzi Tuesday night for publicity and sympathy, will reportedly let New York City police see video footage Harry recorded during their experience, in order to bolster their claim that they were involved in “a near-catastrophic” two-hour car chase.

These accusations against the Duke and Duchess of Sussex came in the aftermath of their statement early Wednesday that they were “relentlessly” pursued through the streets of New York City by “a ring of highly aggressive photographers,” who they say caused “multiple near collisions” with other drivers, pedestrians and two NYPD officers.

The accusations grew on social media and on major news outlets’ stories about the incident after New York police officials downplayed the danger, saying they received no 911 calls or reports of injuries and collisions, and Mayor Eric Adams expressed doubt that a two-hour car chase could occur on the usually congested streets of New York City.

The celebrity photo agency Backgrid USA also hit back at the Sussexes, saying in a statement that four freelance photographers who followed the couple in cars and on a bicycle Tuesday night had no intention to cause harm and behaved legally and professionally as they covered the couple’s “newsworthy” visit to New York City.

Backgrid further turned the tables on the couple by saying that one of the four SUVs in the couple’s security escort drove in a manner “that could be perceived as reckless.” The agency said it has video, showing the SUV being pulled over by the police, and insisted that photographers never believed the couple were “in immediate danger at any point” and reported “no near-collisions or near-crashes during this incident.”

Now “under pressure” over the wording of their claims, Newsweek reported  that Harry and Meghan’s team would turn over the video Harry recorded during their ordeal to the NYPD. At one point during the two hours, Harry and Meghan’s security team briefly moved the couple and her mother, Gloria Ragland, from their SUV into a taxi cab, presumably to shake off paparazzi. Harry was photographed in the back of the taxi, recording the paparazzi.

Entertainment Tonight reported that police will examine “all video evidence” to determine what happened after Harry, Meghan and Meghan’s mother, Doria Ragland, left the Ziegfeld Ballroom in Midtown. The trio were there to attend the Women of Vision Awards, at which Meghan was among the honorees. Newsweek said the couple want to “push for accountability” over an experience that reminded many of the 1997 car crash that killed Harry’s mother, Princess Diana, when she was being pursued by paparazzi in Paris. Harry has said he believes the paparazzi caused the crash that killed his mother, while her death is seen as the lasting trauma that has heightened his fears for his family’s security and propelled his three separate legal battles against U.K. tabloids.

But critics of the Sussexes, including conservative TV host Megyn Kelly, say they’ve become known for tipping off the paparazzi themselves to get in the news and question whether the couple exaggerated claims about the danger Tuesday to raise the specter of Diana’s death. An anonymous photographer familiar with the market for celebrity photos in New York told The Guardian that the claims could be designed to play into the Diana “narrative,” given how popular she was in the United States. New York Post columnist Miranda Devine wrote that the Sussexes were clearly looking for attention: “The Harkles are suffering relevance deprivation syndrome and a bad case of jealousy after Princess Kate and Prince William shone at the Coronation.”

Harry and Meghan certainly got attention. Their story, of a chaotic and dangerous pursuit through Midtown Manhattan, “ricocheted all over the world,” making headlines on both sides of the Atlantic, the New York Times said. However, the idea of a “French Connection”-style pursuit through busy Midtown Manhattan struck many New Yorkers as implausible, with pundits and people saying on TV and online that traffic is usually gridlocked and any motorist running red lights or driving on sidewalks would have prompted 911 calls and be subject to arrest.

Mayor Adams was among the doubters about a pursuit going on for two hours, though he and others expressed concern over the couple being swarmed by paparazzi, which Adams said could be “a bit reckless and irresponsible” as photographers try to “get the right shot.”

The situation, which the New York Times described as “complicated,” began shortly before 10 p.m. when Harry, Meghan and Meghan’s mother left the Ziegfeld Ballroom. The trio were met with crowds of photographers outside as they got into a waiting SUV to head back to friend’s home on the Upper East Side where they were staying, according to the New York Times and other outlets. A marked NYPD car accompanied them

But from this moment on, accounts from the Sussexes, officials and media outlets differ on how much the couple were at risk. The Times said they were driven around for about an hour, traveling up the FDR Drive at one point, but they could not shake the paparazzi. The police then escorted the trio to the 19th police precinct on the Upper East Side, an official told the Times. Around 11 p.m., one of their security guards hailed a cab outside the police precinct, according to Sukhcharn Singh, the taxi’s driver.

Singh gave various interviews Wednesday. According to the New York Times, Singh said they traveled about a block when they got stuck behind a garbage truck. He said “paparazzi came out of nowhere and just started snapping pictures.” He heard one of the women from the back say “‘Oh, my God.’” When the truck moved, Singh said he started to drive around the neighborhood, during which they were pursued by two vehicles.