Gayle King Finds It “Troubling” That Some Are “Downplaying” Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s New York City Car Chase

She’s defending the couple, who are longtime friends of hers.

Gayle King
(Image credit: Getty)

As is seemingly everything when it comes to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the world is divided and up in arms over their New York City car chase last week, a two-hour ordeal involving paparazzi. Gayle King—who Marie Claire reported is interested in having Meghan as the first guest on her new show—is defending the couple, calling it “troubling” that the public is “downplaying” the chase, Page Six reports.

“I think it was a very unfortunate incident,” King told the outlet exclusively. “It’s troubling to me that anybody would try to downplay what that would mean to them. That’s very troubling to me.”

Gayle King

(Image credit: Getty)

King added that it was unsettling that some media personalities and celebrities are trying to “minimize how [Harry and Meghan] felt in that moment.”

“I’m just really sorry it happened and very sorry they had to go through it,” King said. “Everybody can have all of their opinions, but I always go back to, ‘How did they feel in that moment?’”

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle

(Image credit: Getty)

King met Harry and Meghan through her longtime best friend, Oprah Winfrey, “and has been friends with the two ever since,” Page Six reports.

Harry, Meghan, and Meghan’s mother Doria Ragland were pursued by photographers through the streets of Manhattan last Tuesday night after leaving the Ziegfeld Theater, where Meghan was honored with a Women of Vision Award from the Ms. Foundation. Harry told friends it was the "closest I have ever felt" to understanding how his mother, Princess Diana, died. She was killed along with two others after a paparazzi car chase through Paris in 1997.

Rachel Burchfield
Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor

Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.