A CBS broadcast journalist, Gayle King, is facing backlash for saying she believes Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s dubious car chase claims from last week.
Amid the chorus of mockery the duke and duchess have been receiving for their baseless claims of having been involved in a “near catastrophic” incident during their exit from the Glamour magazine “Women of Vision” event, Ms. King said it is “troubling” that people are trying to “downplay” what happened.
Ms. King is diminishing her credibility as a journalist, a British broadcaster, Piers Morgan, wrote in an article for the New York Post. “Gullible Gayle” has “unquestionably” expressed her support for the pair during their war with the royal family, Mr. Morgan wrote, even when the couple is engaging in mendacity and distortions.
Ms. King backed Harry and Ms. Markle in an interview with Page Six on Monday, saying what happened to the couple was a “very unfortunate incident.” The journalist, who is best friends with Oprah Winfrey, and like Ms. Winfrey is close to the couple, said she was bothered that people were doubting the statement.
“Why is Gayle King once again racing to defend them when she must know inside her hard-edged news mind that what they’re saying is all unsubstantiated nonsense?” Mr. Morgan said. “That’s very troubling.”
Ms. King has a long background as a local news anchor and reporter before becoming the principal host of CBS News’s national morning news program.
Last Tuesday, Harry and Ms. Markle were followed by paparazzi in a “relentless pursuit” that lasted two hours with “multiple near collisions,” according to their spokesman. The incident occurred after the couple and Ms. Markle’s mother, Doria Ragland, left Manhattan’s Ziegfeld Ballroom, where Ms. Markle was awarded a 2023 Women of Vision award.
After more details emerged, American and British figures began questioning the facts presented by the pair, as they said it is “not possible” to have a two-hour car chase in Manhattan. During a news conference the day after, Mayor Adams called the car chase “reckless and irresponsible” and said he found it “hard to believe” it lasted two hours.
Others also criticized the use of the word “catastrophic” after the police confirmed there had been no collisions or crashes. A cab driver that drove the couple around for 10 minutes as they were attempting to reach their destination and lose the press, Sunny Singh, told the BBC he did not feel the paparazzi were being aggressive.
One of the paparazzi’s photo agencies, Backgrid USA Inc., said in a statement sent to The New York Sun that the photographers reported the couple “was not in immediate danger at any point.”
The agency noted that photographers have a “professional responsibility” to cover newsworthy events and personalities. They were covering Harry and Ms. Markle’s stay at New York, the agency said, which could have included dinner after the ceremony.
The prince and Ms. Markle have since urged the agency to hand over the footage taken during the encounter. Backgrid’s team refused by saying that in America, the property belongs to its owner. “Third parties cannot just demand it be given to them, as perhaps Kings can do,” the letter from their lawyers said, the Independent reported.
Yet, Ms. King said she was unsettled by the people trying to “minimize” how Harry and Ms. Markle felt. “Everybody can have all of their opinions, but I always go back to, ‘How did they feel in that moment?’” Ms. King said.
In response, Mr. Morgan redoubled his criticism of the journalist by mentioning the 2019 book written by a conservative American commentator, Ben Shapiro, “Facts Don’t Care About Your Feelings.”
“I’m not interested in what the Sussexes may ‘feel’ in any given moment when it conflicts with cold, hard reality,” Mr. Morgan said. The truth is, he said, what happened to Harry and Ms. Markle was a “gigantic nothing-burger” that occurred because the two turn everything into “pointless drama.”
A longtime antagonist of the duchess of Sussex, Mr. Morgan has repeatedly called her out for lying, and even quit his star turn as host of a popular morning show in Britain amid an uproar that ensued when he questioned if she was prevaricating in her claims that she was suicidal while living in Kensington Palace. “I wouldn’t believe her if she read me a weather report,” he said.
By contrast, Ms. King has previously shown unwavering support toward Harry and Ms. Markle, as she does to others in her and Ms. Winfrey’s large collection of celebrity friends. During an episode of “Watch What Happens Live,” where Ms. King was a guest, an American television presenter, Andy Cohen, joked about the pair’s new Netflix documentary, “Harry and Meghan,” and called it a reality show. Ms. King quickly corrected him: “It’s not a reality show,” Ms. King said. “It’s not.”
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