Unsurprisingly, a cottage industry of “Sussex doubters” cropped up within minutes of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s statement about the New York paparazzi chase on Tuesday night. The doubters screamed that it was all a set-up, that Harry and Meghan are desperate for attention, that they were lying about everything from the two-hour ordeal to the number of paparazzi involved. The fact that these internet-doubters are rabid royalists is not surprising. What is surprising is that even the American tabloid media (including the New York Post) is backing up the Sussexes’ story completely. From TMZ:

A source tells TMZ the chase started around 10 PM, after the award ceremony, and the pursuit was at its most intense on the FDR Drive … a highway on the east side of Manhattan. We’re told Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s SUV got up to about 80 mph as they tried to shake the paparazzi.

We’re also told it ended around midnight … so, that 2-hour time span Harry and Meghan’s spokesperson mentioned is accurate.

At some point during the chase, the SUV pulled over and the trio jumped in a New York taxi and beat a hasty retreat. It looks like the cops tried to outwit the paps by driving in a different direction than the cab. Sources say the paparazzi were in a half-dozen blacked-out vehicles, claiming the traffic violations included driving on the sidewalk, running red lights and driving the wrong way on a one-way street.

[From Page Six]

For some reason, the “switched cars and took a taxi” part has broken people’s brains. I mean, we weren’t there, we don’t know why the police and their security people made that decision. I would think that leaving their SUV and taking a chance with a cab would add to their problems, but again, we don’t know the specifics of the situation and it’s more than possible the switch was meant to cause confusion among the paps. It certainly caused a lot of confusion among the rabid haters and delusional royalists. Meanwhile, Page Six mustered up a surprising amount of sympathetic coverage:

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are “extremely upset and shaken” after being involved in a “near-catastrophic” two-hour paparazzi chase in New York City on Tuesday night. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who were traveling with Markle’s mom, Doria Ragland, were pursued by photographers after leaving the Ziegfeld Theater — where the former actress was honored by Gloria Steinem at the Women of Vision Awards — in Manhattan.

The trio left the event in an SUV around 10 p.m., and were immediately followed by around 12 paparazzi, we’re told. They eventually decided to ditch their original vehicle and jump into a yellow cab in hopes of evading photogs, a source claims. The insider alleges that one cameraman hit a car while another almost ran over an NYPD officer during the “near-fatal” chase.

“It started off with 12 paparazzi, then ended up with four chasing [Meghan, Harry and Doria],” the insider tells us. “Their security tried their best to lose [photographers].” Once in the taxi, Harry used his cellphone to record the ensuing melee. We’re told security was also recording to gather evidence.

Paparazzi were confronted by uniformed police officers, but ignored warnings and continued chasing the trio, we hear. Our source calls the incident “absolutely shocking” and says Ragland, who is 66 years old, was particularly “terrified” by the ordeal.

“Everyone is still upset, to say the least. It was horrific,” the source tells us.

[From Page Six]

It sounds horrific and terrifying. Going back to TMZ’s story, “Sources say the paparazzi were in a half-dozen blacked-out vehicles.” I’ve also heard (but it has not been verified in any reporting) that the paparazzi had covered up their license plates. Even if you believe that everyone involved in this pursuit was an unarmed paparazzo, how would the Sussexes even know that? All they knew, in real time, was that there were multiple vehicles driving recklessly and the vehicles appeared to be part of an organized operation. While I would guess that Harry was triggered by memories of what happened to his mother, I would also think that his military training jumped out and he understood that there was something really “off” about the situation.

A member of the Sussexes’ security – a former Secret Service agent – named Chris Sanchez also spoke to CNN:

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.