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News headlines are packed with the news that Prince Harry, Meghan Markle and her mother were involved in a “near catastrophic car chase” involving “relentless” paparazzi in New York on Tuesday night.

The evening began with everyone throwing their opinions around about Meghan’s dazzling gold dress as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex attended an awards ceremony – the Ms Foundation Women of Vision Awards – along with Meghan’s mother, Doria Ragland.

They were then immediately bombarded by paparazzi upon leaving, a spokesperson for the couple said, alleging that they had experienced a “near catastrophic car chase”, per the BBC.

In a statement, their spokesperson said the “relentless pursuit” lasted for more than two hours and resulted in “multiple near collisions”.

…It followed claims the chase involved half a dozen cars, with reckless driving including going through red lights, driving on the pavement, carrying out blocking moves, and reversing down a one-way street – as well as taking photographs while driving.

The NYPD confirmed the situation but neutralised it a bit by saying that numerous photographers “made their transport challenging”.

Obviously, the photographers involved reported “feeling that the couple was not in immediate danger at any point” according to the entertainment picture agency Backgrid, who issued a statement.

Apparently, it got so bad that the Sussexes tried to take shelter from the paparazzi by going to a Manhattan police station, which is when they alighted in a New York taxi:

Cab driver Sukhcharn Singh, who goes by the name Sonny, told BBC News he picked up the four passengers on 67th Street between Lexington Avenue and 3rd Avenue.

However, Sonny, who only witnessed one part of the drama, did not characterise his drive as a dangerous chase by the paparazzi:

“I don’t think that’s true, I think that’s all exaggerated and stuff like that. Don’t read too much into that,” Mr Singh said of the statement. He later added “that must have happened before” they got in his taxi.

“New York City’s the safest place to be,” he continued. “There’s police stations, cops on every corner, there’s no reason to be afraid in New York.”

The paparazzi were not being aggressive during his drive, he said. “They were behind us. I mean, they stayed on top of us, that was pretty much it, it was nothing more. They kept their distance.”

Hear it from Sonny himself:

 

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Of course, Piers Morgan – who has an apparently notoriously close relationship with Queen Camilla who Harry alleges might leak private information for the media to spin, and who vehemently hates Meghan (perhaps in a careful ploy to villainise her and ‘other’ her from the palace) – got hold of Mr Singh to probably push the narrative that Meghan and Harry are more prone to exaggeration and the media is not out to get them.

It’s good that despite the persistent questioning from Piers, the taxi driver remains somewhat neutral about what Meghan and Harry might have gone through outside of the 10-minute taxi drive with him.

Plus, the other commenter who seems to have picked up the right-wing bat from Tucker Carlson – read about her beef with our Benoni babe, Charlize Theron – is also keen to completely dismiss Meghan and Harry’s take:

 

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If Piers and Megyn didn’t rub their muggy hands all over this story, I might have believed that Meghan and Harry were not in danger. But now I can’t help but think they are at some kind of risk.

[source:bbc]