Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were seen touring the L.A. fire damage in Altadena ... actively participating in the ongoing wildfire relief efforts.
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00:00Late Friday, we got some images that turned into a big controversy this weekend.
00:06The images were of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle with the mayor of Pasadena
00:12walking through some of the rubble, the ruins, what was Altadena, just getting a tour of this.
00:19And then, after that, they were seen at Jose Andres.
00:25The chef was here with his World Kitchen.
00:28They were at the Pasadena Convention Center, where there's a, you know,
00:32it's basically for people who don't have a place to go.
00:34Who've been displaced, and so he's providing food, and they were there volunteering with him.
00:39Seemed like they were doing some good, right, joining the relief effort.
00:43Justine Bateman, remember from Family Ties?
00:46Now, she does not see it that way at all, and has just...
00:50Well, she really went in on them.
00:52Yes, here's what she had to say.
00:53Meghan Markle and Harry are no better than ambulance chasers.
00:58What a repulsive photo op they achieved.
01:01They are touring the damage.
01:03Are they politicians now?
01:05They don't live here, they are tourists.
01:07Disaster tourists.
01:08So, I gotta say about this.
01:10I found it crazy that there are people...
01:16Most people cannot get into these areas, especially Altadena.
01:21And they don't even know if their homes are still there, because they're not letting people in.
01:26For Meghan and Harry to show up from Montecito, where they don't have a home there,
01:31and they're the ones that get in, and they get a tour.
01:33For what reason are they getting a tour?
01:37So, I mean, I don't necessarily...
01:39I don't know what the ambulance chaser thing means or whatnot,
01:42but why are they getting a tour of this?
01:46For what purpose?
01:47What are they gonna do?
01:48Agreed, it does seem like ill use of resources to bring them in there.
01:54To have homeowners in, to see what's going on.
01:57It's not sitting well with people in the community, too.
02:00Because, look, if you have a celebrity escorted in, you know, beyond the yellow tape,
02:06it's kind of like, well, what is their reason?
02:08And for them, it's, you know, oh, we want to raise awareness.
02:13There is no more awareness that needs to be raised.
02:16We know the destruction that happened there.
02:19We know that there's 20,000 GoFundMes of people that have lost their home.
02:24There is no business for them to look at the destruction.
02:28And look, I will say, they did speak with somebody there that was looking at the destruction of his home.
02:36They did speak with people that lost their homes.
02:39But to be there doing that feels not genuine and also unnecessary.
02:46It just feels like they could do just as much, you know, whatever, exposure about what happened
02:53from their home or from volunteering, which, like you guys mentioned, they did do that.
02:58That was great.
02:59They went to the Pasadena Center.
03:02They, you know, helped volunteer there.
03:04That is okay.
03:05But it's when you are getting special treatment above people that are not even able, they want to go.
03:11They want to see, is my pet still there?
03:14My, you know, is my, it's been five days.
03:16I haven't been able to go to the wreckage to see if my beloved pet that I had to leave behind
03:23is still alive.
03:24Yet you have Megan and Harry, you know, prancing around the streets.
03:28I will say the one thing that, and I agree with you, that the use of resources for them to go in there is crazy.
03:35But correct me if I'm wrong, Charlie.
03:37They didn't do, that part of it wasn't, you can't call that a photo op, right?
03:41They didn't post photos of themselves or video walking.
03:45These were photos that we got, that we've obtained from people that were in that area as well.
03:52I agree with you. I'm not disagreeing.
03:54No, I hear you.
03:54They should not need to walk through it.
03:57And, you know, I know this is a different situation, but one of the reasons presidents don't go to disaster areas generally,
04:04when it's in progress, is they don't want to divert resources.
04:08They don't want to slow law enforcement down.
04:11And that's why they don't go.
04:14What is the purpose of Harry and Megan touring Altadena?
04:19It's great that they're trying.
04:19I believe them that they want to help.
04:21I just don't know how that tour, how it gets in the craw of all of these homeowners.
04:30I mean, I don't know if you saw yesterday, there was a line hours long getting into neighborhoods
04:37because people were begging authorities to let them in, hours and hours and hours long.
04:41And they're strolling through it.
04:43It's just crazy.
04:45Hi, my name is Edwin and I'm from Brooklyn, New York.
04:47And I just want to say I want to believe that Harry and Megan had the best intentions.
04:52However, it is very tone deaf that they went there and they took resources from others that could have went there that lived in the area.
05:00And I don't blame Justin Bateman for calling them out at all because it looks bad.
05:06We've seen them do things for attention in the past.
05:09And I want to believe that they didn't do this for attention, but it looks like they did.