There isn’t a denying that Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan Markle are relentlessly hounded by the paparazzi. You want solely to scroll your social media feeds, go to any information web site or just Google their names to be bombarded with pictures and movies of the couple, typically hooked up to scathing tales and commentary about them and their household drama.
However with regards to the latest story of Harry and Meghan’s ‘close to catastrophic’ paparazzi chase because the couple and Meghan Markle’s mom Doria Ragland had been leaving New York’s Ziegfeld Ballroom following the Girls of Imaginative and prescient awards, some are feeling a bit skeptical that the scene was fairly as harrowing because the Duke and Duchess are making out.
Was Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s automobile chase faked?
Veteran PR skilled Molly McPherson has identified holes in Harry and Meghan’s paparazzi chase story. There is not any doubt that some form of incident with the paparazzi occurred in New York Metropolis—eyewitnesses have confirmed that it did. However McPherson, a public relations skilled and communications professor who specializes within the area of PR referred to as disaster communication, has discovered sure particulars of the story to be suspicious.
McPherson is emphatic that her examination of the Duke and Duchess’s story just isn’t motivated by any want to criticize the couple. However to her educated eye, the selection of phrases used and the absence of key corroborating particulars muddy the water of the story.
PR supervisor McPherson finds it unusual that Harry and Meghan’s paparazzi chase story doesn’t appear to have a supply from the New York Police Division.
McPherson says that in the first place she dismissed her personal suspicious response to the story. However then she acquired a name from a former colleague, a New York Metropolis journalist, who appeared to share her confusion. “One of many first questions he requested in regards to the assertion is, was there an NYPD supply? He desires to know the involvement on the NYPD.”
On condition that the story particularly states that the NYPD was concerned within the paparazzi chase, it stands to cause that the NYPD would difficulty an official assertion. “I am trying, trying…” McPherson stated. “I stated, no, it is only a ‘supply,'” she stated, referring to the “unnamed supply” the story is attributed to. “There is not any title hooked up to it.”
McPherson did discover, nonetheless, that in CNN’s model of the story, a person named John Miller was named as a contributor. “John Miller has a storied historical past with legislation enforcement, and with NYPD counterterrorism. He is additionally the man that interviewed Osama bin Laden,” McPherson stated. “This man is as inside as inside will get.”
Regardless of that, CNN’s story didn’t include any extra particulars in regards to the NYPD’s involvement than another outlet’s reporting. “We have no idea something from the NYPD aside from…one thing occurred,” McPherson stated.
The story’s dramatic wording coupled with the close to complete lack of picture or video proof additionally aroused suspicion.
McPherson stated the very very first thing her former colleague stated to her on the telephone was “What’s up with this headline?” The wording, particularly the phrase “almost catastrophic,” struck them each as impassioned on a stage not often seen from the Royal Household.
“Let’s break down the assertion now,” McPherson stated. She identified that the assertion of occasions got here from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s spokespeople. Quoting from the assertion, McPherson learn, “‘There was a close to catastrophic automobile chase by the hands of a hoop of extremely aggressive paparazzi,'” then famous the “very colourful language” getting used.
As she continued studying, McPherson identified the “parallels” within the assertion’s wording to Harry’s mom Princess Diana, who died in a horrific automobile crash in a tunnel in Paris in 1997 following a high-speed chase with paparazzi. Harry and Meghan have each said that fears they’ll come to the same finish are what in the end pushed them to step down from their royal duties and transfer to the US.
“The relentless pursuit lasting over 2 hours, leading to a number of close to collisions, together with different drivers on the street, pedestrians, two NYPD officers…. now we see the parallels, proper?” McPherson stated. “We see ‘paparazzi,’ ‘relentless pursuit.’ We positively see a parallel there,” McPherson continued.
However the lack of direct proof to again up the parallels strikes McPherson and her colleague as suspicious. “That is New York Metropolis,” she went on to say. “Video, social media, tweets—something that exhibits…this ‘relentless pursuit’—the place are they?” she requested.
Different theorists have even famous that the chase occurred days after the British tabloid Day by day Mirror was compelled to apologize to the previous royal for telephone hacking. The lawsuit additionally supplied proof of Harry’s claims that a lot of the data leaked about him to the press got here from different Royal members of the family or households. Supporters are questioning if the “chase” might have been a part of a way more sinister plot.
The NYPD, the Mayor, and the taxi driver who transported Harry & Meghan have all downplayed the couple’s characterization of the paparazzi chase.
To McPherson’s level, whereas the NYPD has confirmed that an incident of some type befell, their characterization didn’t match the Sussexes’.
“There have been quite a few photographers that made their transport difficult,” Julian Phillips, an NYPD spokesperson, stated in an announcement. “The Duke and Duchess of Sussex arrived at their vacation spot and there have been no reported collisions, summonses, accidents, or arrests.”
New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams was way more blunt in his skepticism, calling into query the mere chance of a two-hour high-speed chase in essentially the most densely-packed metropolis within the nation. “I’d discover it exhausting to consider that there was a two-hour high-speed chase,” he stated, happening to report that the incident really lasted extra like 45 minutes.
Taxi driver Sukhcharn Singh equally downplayed the state of affairs. “I don’t assume I’d name it a chase,” he stated. “I by no means felt like I used to be at risk. It wasn’t like a automobile chase in a film.”
Singh did word, nonetheless, that Harry, Meghan and Meghan’s mom Doria Ragland all “appeared scared” by what was happening, which is definitely comprehensible given all they have been by way of with paparazzi earlier than. And regardless of its downplaying of the occasions, the NYPD has launched an investigation into the incident, which it has since stated concerned NYPD officers having to “conceal in a driveway” at one level to keep away from the swarming paparazzi.
Harry and Meghan’s ‘close to catastrophic’ paparazzi chase story comes simply two days after Harry filed swimsuit in opposition to the UK authorities over his safety.
Whether or not or not the incident was as harmful because the Sussexes say, being chased round a metropolis by paparazzi, even when just for a couple of minutes, is an insane factor to need to take care of. And it could possibly’t presumably not be tough, particularly for Harry given what occurred to his mom.
Given all that historical past, it is no shock that simply two days earlier than Harry and Meghan’s “close to catastrophic” paparazzi chase, the Prince launched a second lawsuit in opposition to the UK authorities to compel them to permit him to pay for police safety when within the nation. Buckingham Palace rescinded his safety element when he and Meghan stepped down from their royal duties, and each have been candid in regards to the methods this has endangered them and their youngsters, Archie, 3, and Lilibet, 1.
As McPherson factors out in her video, the timing of the paparazzi chase story vis à vis the submitting of Harry’s lawsuit has additionally struck many as suspicious. However even when Harry and Meghan are ginning up the story to sway the powers that be, in any case, they have been by way of with the paparazzi, can you actually blame them?
John Sundholm is a information and leisure author who covers popular culture, social justice and human curiosity subjects.
