(NBC) Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, took refuge at New York City police station in the middle of a “chaotic” pursuit by photographers, the couple and law enforcement sources said Wednesday.
The pair, together with Meghan’s mother, were followed by photographers after leaving a charity event in Midtown Manhattan on Tuesday night.
“This relentless pursuit, lasting over two hours, resulted in multiple near collisions involving other drivers on the road, pedestrians and two NYPD officers,” a spokesperson for the couple said in a statement.
They added that the “near catastrophic car chase” came “at the hands of a ring of highly aggressive paparazzi.”
The couple spent Tuesday night in the Upper East Side of Manhattan and didn’t want photographers to know where they were staying, law enforcement sources told NBC News.
Photographers followed the couple for 75 minutes up and down the Franklin D. Roosevelt East River Drive, the main thoroughfare of Manhattan’s East Side, sources said.
The traveling party went to the NYPD’s 19th Precinct station house, on East 67th Street between Lexington and Third Avenues, for about 15 minutes before getting into another car and leaving without being followed, sources said.
Law enforcement sources pushed back on any characterization that the incident was near catastrophic, but conceded that the couple’s ride Tuesday night was “a bit chaotic.”
Julian Phillips, the NYPD’s deputy commissioner of public information, said officers “assisted the private security team protecting the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.”
“There were numerous photographers that made their transport challenging,” Phillips said in a statement. “The Duke and Duchess of Sussex arrived at their destination and there were no reported collisions, summonses, injuries, or arrests in regard.”
While at the station, the couple’s team flagged down a taxi driven by Sonny Singh, a 37-year-old Queens resident.
They were about take off when a garbage truck pulled in front of them, blocking their departure and giving pursuing photographers enough time to converge around the party, according to Singh.
Instead of going to their ultimate destination, they simply drove around the neighborhood and ran up a $17.80 fare before Harry and Meghan exited from Singh’s cab back at the police station and got back into their car.
They paid the fare and left a $50 tip, said Singh, who was unfazed by this celebrity pickup.
“I pulled over to the side and the next you know, Prince Harry and his wife are running into my cab,” Singh told NBC News in front of 30 Rockefeller Plaza after he had dropped off an airport fare.
“I picked up (rock star) Keith Richards (once), (he) was in my cab and I had (former NYPD Commissioner) Ray Kelley in here one time as well. So I picked up a lot of people. It’s New York, you don’t know who you’re going to pick up.”
The incident came after the couple attended the Women of Vision Awards and departed New York’s Ziegfeld Ballroom at about 10 p.m., NYPD officials said. Meghan’s mom, Doria Ragland, also attended the event.
By Henry Austin, Jonathan Dienst and Gabe Gutierrez
