It was just a little over a week ago, on May 16, that Meghan Markle and Prince Harry (along with her mother, Doria Ragland) reported being involved in a scary car chase when a group of paparazzi tailed the cab they were in as they left an event in New York City. After the situation was cleared up, a spokesperson called the chase “near catastrophic” and revealed some of the numerous traffic violations that supposed resulted. While everyone involved was, thankfully, ultimately alright physically, the rep has now had to respond to rumors that the chase was exaggerated.
How Has Prince Harry And Meghan Markle’s Rep Responded To Rumors They Exaggerated The Car Chase?
Obviously, the past several years have been filled with a number of extremely public and highly debated ups and downs for the Sussexes. Though they’ve grown their family and seem to be as delighted with each other as ever, public scrutiny about them leaving their royal duties behind and things like criticism over their Harry & Meghan Netflix docuseries, and largely every move they make has continued. Now, as people cast doubt on the seriousness of the car chase, their publicist, Ashley Hansen, has issued a statement to Page Six about the rumors, and said:
Respectfully, considering the duke’s family history, one would have to think nothing of the couple or anybody associated with them to believe this was any sort of PR stunt. Quite frankly, I think that’s abhorrent.
Hansen makes a good point, as everyone knows how Harry and his family were personally impacted by such an event in the past, as a very similar chase led to the death of his mother, Princess Diana, and two others in 1997. The prince has spoken a lot about how her death affected him, and even opened up, near the 20th anniversary of her death, about how, because of the custody arrangement between Diana and the now King Charles, Harry and William hadn’t seen their mother in a month prior to her death.
Why Do People Think Harry And Meghan Are Exaggerating The Car Chase?
As you might imagine, there were several other people involved in this reportedly over two-hour event aside from the couple and Meghan’s mother, with there being drivers, police assigned to their security detail, security guards, and numerous photographers also in the mix. It was just about a day after that one of the cab drivers who was charged with the Sussexes transport revealed what he experienced, and said he wouldn’t call it a “chase” and didn’t feel he was in “danger.”
He did note that the couple appeared “scared,” and said the security guard who was riding with them eventually became worried enough that they told him to take them back to where he’d picked them up, and his time driving them only lasted about 10 minutes.
Additionally, when their rep first spoke out about what happened, they noted that there were “multiple near collisions” involving two cops, pedestrians, and other drivers, but an NYPD spokesman said that “no reported collisions, summonses, injuries, or arrests” came from the chase, even after they looked into what happened. Also, that same report showed that New York’s mayor was doubtful that a two-hour chase could have happened in the city (possibly because of its notoriously grid-locked traffic).
Like with many other things, it seems that we may never know how serious the chase really was, but the most important thing is that everyone was alright afterwards.
