(NewsNation) — Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan the Duchess of Sussex, and her mother, Doria Raglan, were pursued by photographers after a charity event in New York on Tuesday night.
The couple’s office described the incident as potentially dangerous, saying that the chase “resulted in multiple near collisions involving other drivers on the road, pedestrians and two NYPD officers.” It called the incident “near catastrophic.”
Taxi driver Sukhcharn Singh joined “On Balance With Leland Vittert” to discuss picking up the Duke and Duchess of Sussex on the night of the incident.
Singh said his cab was hailed at the 19th Precinct on 67th Street.
“Three people hopped out of a black car and hopped into my cab,” he said. “I just had them in my cab for 15 minutes. We just went a couple of blocks.”
Singh said, “Then all of a sudden all the paparazzi just came out of the car and just started taking pictures.”
Singh previously told the Washington Post he returned the couple to the police station he had picked them up from at a security guard’s request.
“I don’t think I would call it a chase,” Singh said, adding that two vehicles had followed them and come next to the car, taking pictures and filming.
“There was no banging,” he said. “But they were standing in front of the cab, but when the security guy got out of the car, they moved.”
According to the couple’s spokesperson, the incident involved “a ring of highly aggressive paparazzi” in half a dozen cars with blacked-out windows, driving dangerously and putting the lives of the couple in danger.
“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,” a statement from the couple said.
The couple were shaken by the incident but otherwise unharmed.
The New York City police department confirmed the incident but said no injuries, collision or arrests took place.
The NYPD, which said it had assisted a private security team protecting them, made the incident sound less serious.
“There were numerous photographers that made their transport challenging,” Julian Phillips, the NYPD’s chief spokesperson, said in a statement.
According to royal commentator Hilary Fordwhich, the pair’s spokespeople “turned a challenging trip, they’ve turned it into something catastrophic.”
The pair said the chase lasted more than two hours.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams said he had received a briefing that two NYPD officers could have been injured in the incident.
Adams said he found it hard to believe there would have been a two-hour high-speed chase.
“If it’s 10 minutes, a 10-minute chase is extremely dangerous in New York City,” Adams said.
The incident drew comparisons to the 1997 fatal car crash of Harry’s mother, Princess Diana.
Harry has blamed an overly aggressive press for the death of his mother and has also accused the media of hounding Meghan.
Harry is currently suing three British tabloid publishers over alleged phone hacking and other unlawful snooping. Meghan won an invasion of privacy case in 2021 against the publisher of the Daily Mail.
The New York incident occurred a day after an alleged stalker was reportedly arrested near the couple’s home in Montecito, California.
Singh told NewsNation’s Leland Vittert the couple did tip him well and said thank you after exiting his cab.
“You know, it was a 15-minute cab ride,” he said. “They gave me $50 It was $17.80 on the meter. So 15 minutes worth of work, $50. Hey, you can’t beat it.”
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.