Harry and Meghan in 'near catastrophic car chase'

We reported earlier that MailOnline, the Daily Mail's website, had removed images apparently taken during the alleged chase in Manhattan.

The website has since clarified: "In common with other websites, MailOnline published agency pictures of Harry and Meghan for a few hours on Wednesday morning.

"The agency pictures were captioned as showing Harry and Meghan getting into a taxi after the event and were published on that basis.

"When it was discovered that the pictures were in fact taken some time later at a different location, they were removed."

If there seems to be a difference between the official response to this incident and the account from Harry and Meghan’s side, it’s about the language.

A “near catastrophic chase” is going to make dramatic headlines, even though it isn’t actually contradicted by the NYPD saying there were no injuries, collisions or arrests. They just feel like they’re from different stories.

“Relentless pursuit” or a non-crash?

The high-octane language about the paparazzi chase has certainly grabbed attention. It is on front pages around the world. And it is likely to be interpreted in different ways by supporters and opponents, in a public that often seems obsessed by the couple.

Critics might point to New York’s mayor questioning a two-hour "high-speed" chase – but Prince Harry and Meghan’s team can say they’ve never said it was a high-speed chase. It was a “relentless pursuit” but they didn’t say it was high speed.

But this latest incident will stoke up the heat in the couple’s already complicated relationship with the tabloid press and public opinion.

Some of the pictures said to have been taken by photographers during what has been described as a chase through Manhattan have been published by certain US media.

They show the duke, duchess and her mother, Doria Ragland, in the backseat of a taxi cab, bathed in the flash of a camera.

In one photo, Prince Harry shields his face and points his phone's camera toward the window, in an apparent attempt to record the photographers following him.

The duchess looks straight ahead, while her mother stares into her lap.

It has been suggested by some commentators that several of the pictures echo images captured of Diana, Princess of Wales, in a car in Paris shortly before her death.

Prince Harry and Meghan's ordeal in Manhattan on Tuesday night came after they attended an award ceremony held by the Ms. Foundation, linked to Ms. Magazine, a feminist publication.

They left the event around 22:00 local time. The Ms. Foundation said it was "absolutely horrified at the harmful actions post-event that endangered Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex and her family".

The foundation added: "Everyone, especially the media, must do better."

Here's a little bit more from the taxi driver that picked up Prince Harry, Meghan, her mother and their security guard.

Asked if the paparazzi were being aggressive during the 10 minutes he drove the group for, Sonny Singh said "no".

"They were behind us, they stayed on top of us, that was pretty much it," he said, adding that they were just journalists "trying to get pictures" and "make a quick buck".

Asked whether he saw anyone driving on curbs or people banging on the window, he said "that must have happened earlier if they were being chased before, but not with me".

Singh said that at the end of the trip his passengers said it was "nice meeting you" and asked his name.

He said, including a tip, he was paid $50 (£40) for the short journey. The Sussexes said earlier their ordeal lasted more than two hours - so Singh's account only relates to a small part of what took place.

Over the years, Prince Harry has not shied away from making his views about the paparazzi known.

In the Netflix documentary, Harry & Meghan, the Duke of Sussex compared the photographers following his family to the "hunter versus the prey".

"To see another woman in my life, who I love, go through this feeding frenzy - that's hard," he said.

The second episode of the series begins with a moment where the couple's driver informs them that they are being followed by a "pap on a motorcycle."

The duchess appears visibly shaken during the encounter and repeatedly checks behind her.

Although the scene has been criticised by some for overdramatising the pursuit, it underscores how Prince Harry says his relationship with photographers changed after his mother's death.

In the BBC documentary Diana, 7 Days, Prince Harry compares the paparazzi to a "pack of dogs" stalking his mother, Diana, the Princess of Wales.

"Every single time she went out there'd be a pack of people waiting for her," he said, adding that the photographers would often "harass" or even spit at the Princess of Wales "to get a photograph of her lashing out."

In a statement released after the crash, a spokesperson for the Duke and Duchess said the couple understands they are public figures, but "it should never come at the cost of anyone's safety."

Clearly something worrying happened in New York involving Prince Harry and Meghan.

But the question is whether the statement issued by the Sussexes' spokesperson was an accurate reflection of what happened?

The statement, couched in vivid and perhaps rather breathless language, talks about "a near-catastrophic car chase", "a ring" of paparazzi and a "relentless pursuit" which lasted for more than two hours.

That doesn't appear to be being substantiated now from what we're hearing from the New York Police Department and the mayor of New York - though I stress that if you had been at the centre of this it would have been alarming.

A member of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's security team has described the chase in an exclusive interview with CNN

"I have never seen, experienced anything like this," Chris Sanchez said. "What we were dealing with was very chaotic."

Sanchez said the duke and duchess were chased by nearly a dozen vehicles.

He said he felt the "public were in jeopardy" at several times during the chase because the paparazzi at times jumped curbs and ran red lights.

"At one point they blocked the limousine [the large SUV that carried the couple for part of their journey] and started taking pictures until we were able to get out."

It is unusual for security staff to speak publicly about incidents, particularly so soon after they have taken place. CNN did not say whether Sanchez was authorised to talk by the Sussexes.

There are now details from the taxi driver who says he picked up Harry, Meghan and her mother in Manhattan last night, for a journey which he said lasted 10 minutes before they reverted to their own security vehicles.

Speaking to the Washington Post, Sukhcharn Singh said: “I don’t think I would call it a chase."

"I never felt like I was in danger. It wasn’t like a car chase in a movie. They were quiet and seemed scared but it’s New York - it’s safe,” the newspaper quoted him as saying.

Singh said he picked up the couple, an older black woman and one security guard at about 11pm from outside a Manhattan police station.

He said a security guard waved him down outside the station and asked: “Do you want a fare?”, before they got into his yellow cab.

The driver said they were pursued by two cars. “They kept following us and were coming next to the car. They took pictures as we stopped and were filming us.”

He said security guard was concerned about the photographers and thought the couple were too exposed and didn't want their location shared, so he asked Singh to go back to the police station.

If you haven't seen it already, here's the scene as Prince Harry, Meghan and her mother Doria Ragland left the Manhattan event last night.

The Ziegfeld Ballroom is close to Central Park, among the dense grid network of streets that form Manhattan.

We understand the couple did not drive directly home in order to avoid revealing the location of where they were staying.

After being followed by paparazzi for some time, the three left their SUV and got into a taxi cab - and as you can see from this map, it's not far away from where they started out.

The nature of a chase in this area has been called into question - the Mayor, in a press briefing, appeared to say that two hours was possible, but not at high speed.

(Just to be clear, the statement from the family's spokesperson does not claim it took place at high speed.)

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More details are emerging of what seem to be chaotic scenes as Prince Harry and Meghan tried to avoid being followed back to where they were staying in New York.

The couple, along with Meghan’s mother, tried to get away from photographers by going into a Manhattan police station.

There was then a plan to use a New York taxi, with a cab flagged down and Harry and Meghan getting inside.

But in the end that was spotted, and they reverted to their own security vehicles.

ReutersCopyright: Reuters

A chase by paparazzi is one of the rawest and most sensitive situations for Prince Harry.

As New York’s mayor observed, it’s going to bring back memories of the death in a car crash of his mother Princess Diana, when she was being pursued by photographers.

This is also inevitably going to be seen as another chapter in his battle against the intrusions of the tabloid press.

There were no arrests or injuries, but it shows the long-running tensions between Prince Harry, Meghan and the media.

And it sets the scene for an even more dramatic showdown when Prince Harry gives evidence in court in person next month, in a hacking case in London.

Ken Wharfe was a bodyguard for both Prince Harry and his brother William, the Prince of Wales. He also served as their mother, Princess Diana’s, personal protection officer.

He says it’s highly unlikely that it was a two-hour “near-catastrophic car chase” and that it remains unclear what is meant by the phrase used by Prince Harry’s spokesperson.

Wharfe adds that while the paparazzi can be a “nuisance”, as he experienced during his time working with Princess Diana, they “don’t go out to kill people”.

He also questioned the decision by private security to try and speed off to escape the paparazzi, saying that this doesn’t resolve the issue.

“It seems to me there’s a breakdown in security, there’s a breakdown in liaison perhaps with the New York Police Department.”

Prince Harry and Meghan stepped down as working royals in 2020, after moving to California.

Though they have previously dismissed privacy concerns as one of the reasons for their decision to step back from royal life, they have spoken out about the effects of press intrusion on their lives on many occasions.

• In an ITV documentary in 2019, Meghan said adjusting to royal life had been hard as she was not prepared for the intensity of the tabloid media scrutiny
• That same year, the Duchess of Sussex sued the Mail on Sunday over a claim that it unlawfully published a private letter to her father - a claim she later won. At the time of the legal action, an unrestrained Harry said: "I lost my mother and now I watch my wife falling victim to the same powerful forces"
• Harry's hatred of the tabloid press also loomed large in a Netflix documentary series released in late-2022

• His anger at the press also came up in his autobiography Spare, released in January this year, in which he blamed the press for chasing his mother relentlessly, including in the events leading to her death in Paris in 1997
• He is currently among high-profile figures accusing Mirror Group Newspapers of various illicit practices including phone hacking

We've just received a statement from the New York Police Department.

It says:" The NYPD assisted the private security team protecting the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. There were numerous photographers that made their transport challenging.

"The Duke and Duchess of Sussex arrived at their destination and there were no reported collisions, summonses, injuries, or arrests in regard."

If the chase was 10 minutes long, it would have been "extremely dangerous" in New York City, Eric Adams says.

"We have a lot of traffic, a lot of movement. A lot of people are using our streets. Any type of high speed chase that involves something of that nature is inappropriate," he said.

He added that police do it "under limited circumstances" but "to do it because you want to get the right shot can turn out to be a place where people can be harmed in a real way".