Harry and Meghan in ‘Near-Catastrophic’ Two-Hour Car Chase With Paparazzi in New York City
CNN News Central anchor John Berman didn’t hide his shock Wednesday morning reading a news report that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Harry and Meghan, were “involved in a near-catastrophic car chase involving paparazzi in New York.”
Berman came back from a commercial break to report the news with a statement from the Sussexes spokesperson, and said that the incident had happened last night in New York City.
“I’m just going to read this,” said Berman. “They say Prince Harry and Meghan were involved in a near-catastrophic car chase involving paparazzi in New York. A near-catastrophic car chase involving paparazzi in New York. This happened last night here in New York City. That’s all the information we have right now.”
“Hopefully the fact that it was ‘near-catastrophic’ does mean, in fact, that this morning they are okay,” said Berman, mentioning the tragic way Harry’s mother, Princess Diana, died after a high-speed car chase in Paris, also involving paparazzi.
In a later segment, Berman reported the additional information that Meghan’s mother, Doria Ragland, had been in the car as well.
The statement from the Sussex’s spokesperson said that 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,” said Berman, a “relentless pursuit lasting over two hours” that “resulted in multiple near collisions involving other drivers on the road, pedestrians, and two NYPD officers.”
“While being a public figure comes with a level of interest from the public, it should never come at the cost of anyone’s safety,” the statement continued, and “dissemination of these images, given the ways in which they were obtained, encourages a highly intrusive practice that is dangerous to all involved.”
Berman noted that the statement implied that the royals were safe, “which is the first thing we wanted to know for sure.”
CNN senior royal correspondent Max Foster added that Harry and Meghan were “pretty shaken, very shaken,” about the incident, which happened around midnight last night in a “long pursuit” with “several cars in blacked-out windows” that were “driving recklessly and endangering the convoy and everyone around them.”
The royals were “very traumatized by this” but “they are okay, thankfully,” said Foster.
Harry and Meghan were in New York City because she was being honored by the Ms. Foundation’s Women of Vision Awards.
Watch above via CNN.
This is a breaking news story and has been updated.
