Prince Harry’s highly publicized run-in with paparazzi this week in New York City triggered emotions regarding his mother’s fatal 1997 car crash.
According to The Times, the Duke of Sussex reportedly told friends the “near catastrophic car chase” that he, Meghan Markle and her mom, Doria Ragland, experienced Tuesday night was the “closest” he has ever felt to understanding how Princess Diana’s life ended trying to escape fanatic photographers.
On Wednesday, a spokesperson for the runaway royals said the “relentless pursuit” by “a ring of highly aggressive paparazzi” lasted over two hours in Manhattan after the trio left the Ms. Foundation Women of Vision Awards at the Ziegfeld Theater. The ordeal allegedly “resulted in multiple near collisions involving other drivers on the road, pedestrians and two NYPD officers.”
The NYPD confirmed that a number of photographers made the couple’s “transport challenging.” The agency for those paparazzi has denied the claims that the royals were in any danger.
Prince Harry has been vocal about the need for protection after he and Meghan stepped back from their royal duties in 2020. Since moving to America, the couple and their children have not been afforded the high-level security detail that’s granted to other members of the British monarchy.
Harry, who was 12 at the time of Princess Diana’s crash, once called the paparazzi who pursued his mother “a pack of dogs.”
In an interview for the 2017 BBC documentary “Diana, 7 Days,” he said, “Every single time she went out there’d be a pack of people waiting for her. I mean a pack of dogs. [They] followed her, chased her, harassed her, called her names, spat at her, trying to get a reaction, to get that photograph of her lashing out.”
In his bestselling memoir, “Spare,” the Duke revealed details about driving through the same tunnel in which Diana’s car crash occurred in an attempt to find closure 10 years later.
Tuesday’s ordeal has left the royal couple “shaken,” an unidentified source told People. “It was a disturbing situation … but they are glad everyone’s okay.”