Prince Harry and Meghan Markle experienced ‘near catastrophic’ car chase in New York

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were in a “near catastrophic car chase” while in New York City this week, a spokesperson for Harry told Sky News.

The pair were travelling in a taxi with Meghan’s mother, Doria Ragland, on Tuesday night after attending the Ms. Foundation for Women’s annual gala, the outlet reported. Meghan received a Woman of Vision award for her work fighting for gender equality.

“Last night, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and Ms Ragland were involved in a near catastrophic car chase at the hands of a ring of highly aggressive paparazzi,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “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 car chase would be scary for anyone, but especially for Harry, whose mother, Princess Diana, died in a car crash after a paparazzi chase in 1997. He opened up about his views of the paparazzi’s role in the crash in a 2017 BBC documentary. “I think one of the hardest things to come to terms with is the fact that the people that chased her into the tunnel were the same people that were taking photographs of her while she was still dying in the back seat of the car,” Harry said at the time.

In 2021, he expanded on how public scrutiny and paparazzi stalking took its toll when he was growing up — and how he took those fears into his future dreams of having a family. “The biggest issue for me was that being born into it, you inherit the risk. You inherit every element of it without a choice. And because of the way the U.K. media are, they feel an ownership over you,” he told Dax Shepard and Monica Padman on their Armchair Expert podcast.

“I was in my early twenties, and I was thinking, ‘I don’t want this job, I don’t want to be here. I don’t want to be doing this. Look what it did to my mom [the late Princess Diana], how am I ever going to settle down and have a wife and family when I know that it’s going to happen again?’”

Meanwhile, at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Montecito, California home on Tuesday morning, police arrested 29-year-old Kevin Garcia Valdovinos on a misdemeanour stalking charge. The man was allegedly seen near the property around 2 a.m., TMZ reported. He has since been released on bail.

This story was originally published by Teen Vogue.