The parents of Harry Dunn, a 19-year-old who was killed in England when an American woman drove the wrong way, said “no” to President trump’s suggestion Tuesday that they were Dating a woman right then. Charlotte Charles and Tim Dunn seen here in new York on Tuesday.

Eduardo Munoz/Reuters

In a bizarre moment Tuesday that seemed straight out of reality TV, President trump dropped a bomb on a grieving British family surprising them with the news that the woman who killed her son in a car crash was in the next room and then urging the families to meet her.

“It took your breath away when he mentioned it the first time,” Tim Dunn, the father of 19-year-old Harry Dunn, said in an interview with CBS This Morning on Wednesday.

Harry Dunn was riding his motorcycle when he was fatally struck by Ann Sacoolas, an American woman who was riding her car on the wrong side of the road. Three weeks later, she and her family returned to the United States and did not comply with her parents ‘ requests to return to the United Kingdom for a full police investigation. Sakoulas is reportedly protected by diplomatic immunity granted by her husband’s job as a U.S. intelligence officer.

Dunn said trump asked two or three times if the family would meet with Sacolas, though they said they didn’t think it was right. “It was a bit of pressure, but we stuck to our guns,” Dunn said.

White house photographers stood nearby, the family said, apparently ready to capture the scene.

Charlotte Charles, the victim’s mother, said in an interview with CBS that they were always willing to meet Sacolas.

“We are still ready to meet her. But it has to be in the UK, you know, and with therapists and intermediaries. And it’s not just for us. It’s for her, too. She’s traumatized, her children are traumatized. To be thrown into a room together without prior warning is not good for her mental health. It’s certainly not good for ours.”

Charles and Dunn went to the White house to ask Sakoulas to return to justice in the UK. Their first surprise of the day was that instead of meeting some “senior official,” as they say, they were met by President trump himself.

Trump told reporters Wednesday that his meeting with the family “was beautiful in a way” and that he met with Dunn’s parents at the request of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

“Unfortunately, when we had everyone together, they decided not to meet,” trump said. “Maybe they had lawyers by then, I don’t know for sure. I know people were nice, they were very nice, and they were, you know, desperately sad.”

He went on to say that accidentally driving on the wrong side of the road “happens to a lot of people, by the way.”

“You go to Europe, and the roads are opposite,” the President said. “And it’s very difficult if you’re from the United States, you make that decision to make a right turn where you have to make a left turn. The roads are opposite.”

Sacoolas accepted the invitation to the White house in the hope that the family would meet with her and was disappointed when they did not, according to her attorney Amy Jeffress.

Sacoolas fully admits to driving on the wrong side of the road when she collided with Dunn, her attorney says.

“Anna is devastated by this tragic accident,” the statement said. “No loss compares to the death of a child and Anne expresses her deepest sympathy to Harry Dunn’s family.”

During a meeting at the White house, national security adviser Robert O’brien told the family that Sacolas would not return to Britain, according to family spokesman Rudd Seiger.

“The family feels a bit ambushed to say the least,” Seiger said in an interview with the BBC. “And disappointed that they made the effort to go all the way there … with really no progress in achieving the closure that they are so desperately looking for.”

At the end of their meeting, Dunn’s mother says trump took her hand.

“I said to him,’ Look, you have to see that if it was your son, of course you would be doing the same thing, you would be trying to get justice for him. And he agreed with me and said, “Yes, Yes, I would,” Charles said Good morning Britain.” And I said, ” So please just do the right thing, please just try.” And he squeezed my hand and said he said he would … try to look at it from a different angle.”

But she says she doesn’t know what he meant. “If I’m honest, I won’t hold out too much hope that it will be returned to us.”