Gayle King thinks itâs âtroublingâ that people are âdownplayingâ the two-hour paparazzi chase her pals Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were involved in earlier this week in New York City.
âI think it was a very unfortunate incident,â the CBS journalist exclusively told Page Six Saturday at the 148th Preakness Stakes in Baltimore, Md.
“It’s troubling to me that anybody would try to downplay what that would mean to them. That’s very troubling to me.”
Referring to the slew of media personalities and celebrities who have spoken out against the narrative that the two were âchasedâ in the streets of Manhattan, King said itâs unsettling that some are trying to âminimize how [Harry and Markle] felt in that moment.â
âIâm just really sorry it happened and very sorry they had to go through it,â said King, who was in Baltimore to give a commencement speech at her alma mater, the University of Maryland. âEverybody can have all of their opinions but I always go back to, âHow did they feel in that moment?ââ
King, 68, met Harry, 38, and Markle, 41, through her best friend, Oprah Winfrey, and has been friends with the two ever since.
As Page Six previously reported, the royal couple â accompanied by Markleâs mother, Doria Ragland â were pursued by photographers through the streets of Manhattan on May 16 after leaving the Ziegfeld Theater.
The trio eventually hopped out of their own SUV and into a working cab driverâs vehicle â later identified as Sukhcharn Singh â in an attempt to evade the paps, but the pursuit went on.
A rep for Harry and Markle provided the following statement to Page Six on Wednesday: âLast night, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and Ms. Ragland were involved in a near catastrophic car chase at the hands of a ring of highly aggressive paparazzi.
âThis relentless pursuit, lasting over two hours, resulted in multiple near collisions involving other drivers on the road, pedestrians and two NYPD officers. While being a public figure comes with a level of interest from the public, it should never come at the cost of anyoneâs safety.â
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However, a number of media personalities slammed the narrative that Harry and Markleâs reps provided, including âThe Viewâ co-host Whoopi Goldberg who slammed the royal couple’s use of the word “car chase.”
“I think people in New York know if it was possible to have car chases in New York, weâd all make it to the theater on time,” Goldberg said.
TV personality Megyn Kelly also called out the Sussexes during “The Megyn Kelly Show,” saying, “There is no way of having a two-hour car chase in New York City, in Manhattan. There just isn’t.”
King has notoriously supported Harry and Markle in the past.
She defended the two in 2022 when Andy Cohen jokingly called the Netflix series âHarry & Meghanâ a reality show on an episode of âWatch What Happens Live.â
âItâs not a reality show,â King, who was a guest on the show, rebutted. âItâs not.â
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