It's an alarming instance of déjà vu Prince Harry may have seen coming.

After attending a gala in New York City on May 16, Harry and his wife Meghan Markle, along with her mom Doria Ragland, were involved in a "near catastrophic car chase" with "highly aggressive paparazzi," according to a rep for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

"This relentless pursuit, lasting over two hours, resulted in multiple near collisions involving other drivers on the road, pedestrians and two NYPD officers," their rep told E! News in a statement. "While being a public figure comes with a level of interest from the public, it should never come at the cost of anyone's safety."

Eerily, the incident—of which the couple's two children Archie Harrison, 4, and Lilibet Diana, 23 months, were not present for—comes just five months after Harry opened up about his fear that his wife and his late mom Princess Diana would have similar, heartbreaking fates.

"I was terrified," Harry—who previously stepped back from royal duties in 2020—said in their Netflix docuseries, Harry & Meghan. "I didn't want history to repeat itself."

Harry was just 12 years old when his mom was killed along with Dodi Fayed in a car crash that occurred in Paris' Ponte de l'Alma tunnel, with their driver slamming into a pillar as they were speeding away from paparazzi.

As the 38-year-old noted in the doc, "My job is to keep my family safe. But the nature of being born into this position amid everything that comes with it and the level of hate that is being stirred up in the last three years, especially against my wife and my son, I'm generally concerned for the safety of my family."

The loss of his mother drastically impacted the way he looked paparazzi.

"I think one of the hardest things to come to terms with is the fact that the people that chased her into the tunnel," Harry shared in the 2017 BBC documentary Diana, 7 Days, "were the same people that were taking photographs of her while she was still dying in the backseat of the car."

It's a wound, he explained, that still festers.

"I think being part of this family, and this role, and this job," he told ITV in October 2019, "every single time I see a camera, every single time I hear a click, every single time I see a flash, it takes me straight back."

 

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