NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: A New York City cab driver who drove Prince Harry and Meghan Markle through the paparazzi ordeal, claimed the couple looked nervous during the chase, which he believed was not "near catastrophic." The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were chased by paparazzi after they left an awards event with Meghan's mother Doria Ragland in New York on Tuesday night, May 16.
The former royal couple’s spokesperson described the ordeal as a ‘near catastrophic car chase’ but Sukhcharn Singh, who witnessed one part of the drama, did not characterize his drive as a dangerous one. Singh, who goes by the name Sonny, noted that he picked up Harry and Meghan from a local police precinct in Midtown Manhattan. "I was on 67th Street and then the security guard hailed me. Next thing you know, Prince Harry and his wife were hopping into my cab," he told BBC, adding "As we went a block, we got blocked by a garbage truck and all of a sudden paparazzi came and started taking pictures.”
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'I think that's all exaggerated'
The cabbie said the couple was about to give him the destination location when the chase started. "They were just about to give me the location of where they were going to go, but then they told me to circle back to the precinct,” he continued. Singh also added that Meghan and Harry looked really nervous when the paparazzi started chasing them. "They looked nervous, I think they were being chased the whole day or something. They were pretty nervous, but the security guard, he was on it,” he noted further. According to Singh, the paparazzi were not being aggressive during his drive.
“I think that's all exaggerated and stuff like that. Don't read too much into that. 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,” the cabbie stated. He continued by noting that Harry and Meghan seemed scared but he personally "never felt in danger".
“I don’t think I would call it a chase. They kept following us and were coming next to the car. They took pictures as we stopped and were filming us,” he told Washington Post, adding "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."
Was the car chase 'near-fatal'?
Singh’s claims came after it was revealed that the chase could have been fatal as the couple was followed by around 12 paparazzi, one of whom hit another car while another almost ran over an NYPD officer. Things became "intense," according to TMZ when the pursuit carried Harry, Meghan, and her mother to FDR Drive on Manhattan's east side, where their SUV reached speeds of up to 80 mph in a bid to shake the paparazzi. Citing many accounts, BBC reported that the chase featured "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."
