Yahoo News Most people believe Harry and Meghan's car chase story, US poll reveals
The majority of Americans believe Harry and Meghan's account of a New York car chase they described as "near catastrophic", a poll has revealed.
On 16 May, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were followed by photographers during what their spokesperson described as a "relentless pursuit, lasting over two hours".
In a statement they said they “were involved in a near catastrophic car chase at the hands of a ring of highly aggressive paparazzi”, echoing scenes surrounding Harry's mother, Princess Diana's, death.
Sources close to the couple have said that the incident was the "closest" Harry had felt to understanding what happened on the night of his mother's death.
However, according to ABC News, police disputed some of the details, saying that officers' interaction with Harry and Meghan lasted no longer than 20 minutes. They said if it carried on for two hours it would have been as a result of the couple’s security deciding to take an alternative route back to where they were staying.
Paparazzi agency Backgrid denied any near-crashes, and has refused to hand over images of the incident.
The NYPD said “numerous photographers” made the couple’s journey “challenging” but there were “no reported collisions, summonses, injuries, or arrests”.
In light of a backlash of some questioning the Sussexes' account, a new poll by Newsweek of 1,500 Americans shows a slim majority (52%) say they believe the couple's version of events.
Younger Americans were more likely to back them than older Americans, with 71% of 25 to 34-year-olds believing their account compared to just 40% of over 65s.
Nearly 72% of respondents said they were familiar with the incident.
Waning support in the UK
While the couple may still fare marginally more positively in the US, Harry has seen a fall in support among the British public in recent years.
A YouGov poll published last week showed that while William, Prince of Wales, is considered a good role model by 72% of Britons, only 31% would say the same for his brother.
Only 6% would label William a bad role model, while 36% viewed Harry as one.
Harry and Meghan relinquished their royal roles and relocated to California in 2020.
In an interview with James Corden on the Late Late Show in 2021, Harry said the “toxic” atmosphere created by the British press forced him and his family to leave the UK, telling the host: "We all know what the British press can be like, and it was destroying my mental health. I was like ‘this is toxic’.”
But rather than avoid the limelight, the couple have since become the centre of several controversies surrounding their relationship with other royals following high profile interviews, a Netflix series, and the publication of Harry's autobiography - Spare - which saw the duke's popularity slump even further.
The duke was criticised for revealing unnecessary details about his family members, but he defended the book, saying it gave him a chance to tell his story amid claims members of the Royal Family and their aides spent years planting stories about him and Meghan in the press.
In January of this year a YouGov poll revealed that Harry was less popular with older Britons than his uncle Prince Andrew, who also stepped down from royal duties in 2020 following a TV interview over his friendship with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
The poll found that one in five Britons (21%) believed the main motivation behind Spare's release was for Harry to “tell his side of the story”, but around twice as many (41%) believed it was to make money.
Harry is currently in the UK, pursuing a case against the publisher of the Daily Mirror over alleged unlawful information gathering.
On Tuesday he became the first senior royal in more than a century to testify in court.
MGN began Tuesday's proceedings by apologising to Harry for an article in 2004 about the duke's visit to a London nightclub that it accepts was the product of unlawful information gathering.
'It should never have happened and it won't happen again', Andrew Green KC said.
In his opening comments, Harry said: "I was a child, I was at school."
Follow updates on Harry's lawsuit live on Yahoo News UK here.
Watch: Prince Harry arrives at court in London to give bombshell evidence
