Chase Scene or Normal Night in New York City: What Happened to Harry and Meghan

There is no doubt: when Prince Harry (38) and his wife Meghan Markle (41) left a gala in the New York borough of Manhattan on Tuesday evening, the photographers were already waiting for them shortly before 10 p.m. local time. However, in the crowd at the rear of the Ziegfield Ballroom, the paparazzi were apparently unable to photograph the glamorous couple as requested.

So the photographers followed the convoy of cars that transported Harry and Meghan through the streets of Manhattan. This hunt lasted two hours. There were wild, dangerous scenes. There was talk of excessive speeds – 130 kilometers per hour! – and avoidance maneuvers on sidewalks! All this could have ended “catastrophically”, the couple’s publicists subsequently announced. They brought back memories of Harry’s mother’s death. Princess Diana was killed in a car accident in Paris in 1997, reportedly on the run from paparazzi.

However, the New York Post tabloid says: This version of events is not true. The British ex-royals were actually followed by a “considerable” number of photographers who probably also wanted to know exactly where Harry and Meghan stayed in Manhattan.

But there can be no question of wild scenes that could have ended fatally in the street jungle of America’s largest city. Some eyewitnesses even said it was the security guards who acted irresponsibly and blocked traffic without permission. Photo agency Backgrid USA said in a statement that the incident is under internal investigation.

A taxi driver who had played a supporting role throughout the episode also spoke. After failing to shake off the paparazzi, Harry and Meghan boarded a cab near a Central Park police station around 11 p.m.

As the taxi driver Sukhcharn Singh later told several American newspapers, he got stuck in traffic shortly after starting his journey. “And suddenly paparazzi appeared out of nowhere and took pictures,” he said. Then a passenger, likely Meghan Markle’s mother, accompanying the couple exclaimed, “My God!” Harry was nervous and his wife was scared. But he was not afraid, Singh said. “You didn’t grow up in New York,” he said of his celebrity passengers.

When Singh also failed to shake off the paparazzi, he drove back to the police station after about 10 minutes at the request of Harry’s guards. The New York City Police Department eventually decided to escort the famous couple to their temporary home nearby.

In a statement, the New York City Police Department said the situation was “challenging” Tuesday night. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex arrived at their destination and there were no “clashes, summonses, injuries or arrests”. (aargauerzeitung.ch)