New York City taxi driver Sukhcharn Singh, who drove Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, and Markle’s mother Doria Ragland around Manhattan Tuesday night, he never felt like he was in danger. However, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex both “looked very nervous.” Markle and Harry’s office said the two were involved in a “near catastrophic car chase” caused by “highly aggressive” paparazzi trailing them after Markle accepted an award from the Ms. Foundation for Women at the Ziegfeld Ballroom.
After Harry and Markle left the awards ceremony at about 10 p.m., they circled Midtown for over an hour with their private security and NYPD officers, law enforcement sources told CBS News. They were worried about the paparazzi learning where they were staying. At one point, their black SUV stopped so Harry, Markle and Ragland could get into Singh’s taxi.
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“Meghan was scared, Harry was nervous,” Singh told CBS News. “Paparazzi just came out of nowhere, taking pictures, standing in front of the cab and all that.” The driver said the couple asked him to drop them off at a police station after about 10 to 15 minutes in his cab. They got into a different car to finally get back to their hotel.
In another interview with The Washington Post, Singh said a black Honda Accord and a gray Honda CR-V were trailing them during Harry and Meghan’s trip in his taxi. “They kept following us and were coming next to the car,” Singh said. “They took pictures as we stopped and were filming us.”
Singh didn’t think he was being chased when the royal couple was in his taxi. “I never felt like I was in danger. It wasn’t like a car chase in a movie,” Singh said. “They were quiet and seemed scared but it’s New York – it’s safe.”
Harry and Meghan described the incident as a “near catastrophic car chase,” adding that the “relentless pursuit” from photographers lasted two hours. There were “multiple near-collisions” during the incident, they claimed.
“While being a public figure comes with a level of interest from the public, it should never come at the cost of anyone’s safety,” they said in a statement. “Dissemination of these images, given the ways in which they were obtained, encourages a highly intrusive practice that is dangerous to all involved.”
In its statement, the New York City Police Department said there were “numerous photographers” who made Harry and Markle’s “transport challenging.” Police said there were “no reported collisions, summonses, injuries, or arrests” in connection to the incident.
Harry’s mother, Princess Diana, died in a car crash in Paris in 1997, as paparazzi were chasing her vehicle. Harry has mentioned in the past that he is concerned about something like that happening to his own family. “My biggest concern was history repeating itself,” he told Oprah Winfrey in 2021. “And when I’m talking about history repeating itself, I’m talking about my, my mother.”
