The incident happened on Tuesday night after Harry and Megan attended an awards ceremony in America’s financial capital.
In a statement emailed to AFP, a spokesperson for the couple said Meghan’s mother, Doria Ragland, was with them in the car.
“Last night the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and Lady Ragland were the subject of a near disastrous car chase by a very aggressive network of paparazzi,” the statement read.
A spokesperson for the couple residing in California pointed out that this “intense pursuit, which lasted approximately two hours, nearly caused a collision with other drivers or with pedestrians and two New York police officers”.
“Being a public figure comes with a level of public interest, but it should never come at the expense of anyone’s safety,” the statement added.
“The release of these images, given how they were obtained, encourages a practice that is extremely intrusive and dangerous to all involved,” the spokesperson said.
A New York Police Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the incident.
Harry, 38, and his wife, Megan, 41, attended a party for a foundation concerned with women’s issues, at which Megan received an award.
The couple stepped down as royals at the start of 2020 and left Britain for the United States, in a move they blamed in part on excessive media interference in their lives.
Harry has long blamed the press for the death of his mother, Princess Diana, in a car crash in Paris in 1997 while being chased by paparazzi.
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