Prince Harry and his wife, Megan Markle, survived a near-disaster on Tuesday night in New York, as a result of a car chase “by very aggressive celebrity photo hunters,” a spokesperson for the couple said in a statement today, Wednesday.
The incident occurred on Tuesday night after Harry and Meghan attended an award ceremony in the US financial capital.
In a statement emailed to AFP, a spokesperson for the couple said Meghan’s mother, Doria Ragland, was with them in the car.
“Last night, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and Lady Ragland were subjected to a near-disastrous car chase by a highly aggressive network of paparazzi,” the statement read.
A spokesman for the couple, who resides in California, pointed out that this “intense pursuit, which lasted for about two hours, almost caused a collision with other drivers or pedestrians and two New York police officers.”
The incident brought back the facade and attention again of the murder of Princess Diana, Prince Harry’s wife, due to the similarity of the two incidents to some extent.
How did Princess Diana die?
Princess Diana, the first wife of the British Crown Prince at the time, died at the age of 36 in Paris on August 31, 1997, after a limousine carrying her and her friend Dodi Al-Fayed crashed.
Accident details
Princess Diana, in a Mercedes limousine, departed from the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Paris, with her boyfriend Dodi Al-Fayed, shortly after midnight, on the evening of August 30, 1997.
Less than 5 minutes after this picture was taken, the Mercedes “S280”, which was traveling at a speed of more than 100 kilometers per hour, collided with the thirteenth corner of the tunnel under the “Pont d’Alma” bridge near the Seine River in the French capital, Paris.
Later that night, after desperate attempts to save her, Princess Diana is pronounced dead in hospital.
Trevor Rhys-Jones, who has been working as a bodyguard for the family of businessman Mohamed Al-Fayed, since 1995, is the only person who survived the terrible accident.
“Being a public figure comes with a level of interest from the public, but it should never be at the expense of anyone’s safety,” the statement added.
“The publication of these images, given the manner in which they were obtained, encourages a highly intrusive practice that is dangerous for all concerned,” he noted.
A New York Police Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the incident.
Harry (38 years old) and his wife Megan (41 years old) attended a party for a foundation concerned with women’s issues, during which Megan received an award.
The couple withdrew from the royal family in early 2020 and moved from Britain to the United States, as part of a decision attributed in part to the media’s excessive interference in their lives.
Harry has often blamed the press for the death of his mother, Princess Diana, in a car accident in Paris in 1997 while being pursued by paparazzi.
