Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are the subject of a celebrity sightseeing tour organized by Thomas Markle’s friend — a photographer who has “jeopardized the safety” of the Sussexes, according to a disinformation researcher. Karl Larsen, who created a YouTube channel called “Remarkable Friendship” with Meghan’s father, has started charging $1,200 for nine-hour Harry and Meghan sightseeing tour groups of five or six people. The channel drew criticism and accusations that Larsen was bringing “online harassment” into the real world, although Larsen told Newsweek that he was aiming to appeal to the couple’s fans, not their critics. The tour had been listed on the travel website Tripening.com, but Tripening.com announced on social media that the listing had been removed after it had been subjected to outrage, including from Christopher Bouzy, founder of the tech firm Bot Sentinel. It can still be found on Viator.com.
In a recent interview with Newsweek about his research into the world of online trolls on the couple’s Netflix show Harry & Meghan, Bouzy said: “The recent incident where a celebrity tour was being organized to visit the neighborhood of the Duke and Duchess’s residence is a concerning escalation of online harassment transitioning to the real world. “The problematic listing was an act of targeted harassment, and it jeopardized the safety of the Duke and Duchess’s family. The rise in online harassment underscores the urgent need for robust legislation to counteract this escalating problem that affects everyone.” Larsen told Newsweek: “I have no intentions of going past Harry and Meghan’s house for that reason, just where she [Meghan] grew up. I want to have the tour be available where she grew up. We’re going to go to Montecito, but just places they go to, restaurants they go to.”
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Furthermore, he stated that online protests would not stop the tours from continuing: “This is not going to be the end of the tour. “This tour is designed for people who like Harry and Meghan, it’s like going to see Elvis, going to Graceland because they like Elvis.” He added: “It’s a custom tour so if people want to go see other sights that’s what we’re going to do but we will not go past [Meghan’s mother] Doria [Ragland’s] house and we will not go past Harry and Meghan’s.” Viator lists the tour as “The Royal Celebrity Tour of Los Angeles and Montecito.” This listing says: “I’m the world-famous celebrity photographer Karl Larsen, a best friend of Thomas Markle (Meghan’s father) and the guy with a stunning exclusive portfolio of pictures of Prince Harry & Meghan Markle together in Montecito. I am the ONLY person in the world that knows the truth about what happened between Meghan Markle and her father ahead her marriage to Prince Harry in 2018. There is nobody on the planet that knows more info than me and I’m the only person that’s qualified to put on such a tour.” Throughout Larsen’s YouTube account with Thomas Markle, he was repeatedly critical of Harry and Meghan and, in an episode, recommended that Meghan’s father make an offer on a house that was for sale next door to Meghan’s mother, Doria, because it was on the market at the time. A section was added after the backlash stating that the tour would not visit the homes of Harry and Meghan and Doria Ragland and that “Anyone on the tour whose intentions is to harass anyone will immediately be asked to leave without refund.”
In a related controversy, there had just been a backlash against YouTuber Andy Signore weeks earlier after he had promised his viewers that he would take them on a mock ‘Worldwide Privacy Tour’ to Montecito referencing a South Park episode that ridiculed them. A recent Popcorned Planet YouTube video with Starlab’s Stef the Alter Nerd included a discussion where co-host Signore explained that the company was monetizing their idea. “It looks like it’s being arranged by a father or, sorry, a friend of Megan’s father who is now sightseeing but look, Stef, all this proves is this was totally legal. I’m sure people have done it.” Larsen told Newsweek he had not modeled his tour after Signore’s claim: “Well, no, otherwise I would have called mine the worldwide privacy tour, but it’s not about that. “It’s that there are a lot of people who like the royal family, and if you go to the United States, Harry’s the only member of the royal family. And it’s the extraordinary background Meghan had, not the one that she portrays but the one she really had.”
