The head of the African charity co-founded by the Duke of Sussex has accused him of “harassment and bullying at scale” after he stood down last week.
Sophie Chandauka hit back at Prince Harry during a Sky News interview following a bitter and very public row between the chairwoman and the trustees of Sentebale.
Sentebale was set up in 2006 by Prince Harry and Prince Seeiso of Lesotho, in memory of their late mothers, to support children affected by HIV and Aids in southern Africa.
Last week both princes stepped down as patrons “with a heavy heart” in “support of and solidarity with” five trustees who had also resigned. Former trustees have now reported concerns about Sophie Chandauka, the chairwoman, to the Charity Commission, which a friend of Harry’s said the prince “100 per cent” supports. Chandauka has been accused of manipulating the minutes of board meetings and bullying staff, sources close to the charity have claimed.
Sophie Chandauka said she had experienced misogyny directed at black women JASON KOERNER/GETTY IMAGES Chandauka responded by telling Sky News: “The only reason I’m here … is because at some point on Tuesday, Prince Harry authorised the release of a damaging piece of news to the outside world without informing me or my country directors, or my executive director. Advertisement “And can you imagine what that attack has done for me, on me and the 540 individuals in the Sentebale organisations and their family? That is an example of harassment and bullying at scale.” Earlier Chandauka had released an explosive statement in which she claimed she had experienced “disrespect, bullying and intimidation” as well as “misogyny and misogynoir” — misogyny directed at black women — from the board and had reported trustees to the Charity Commission over issues of governance. Her allegations have been strongly denied. • Prince Harry is a member of a strange new breed: the influencer’s husband Chandauka also blamed Prince Harry’s reputation for a drop in Sentebale’s income from donations and corporate sponsorship. She told Sky News: “There was quite a significant correlation between the time the organisation started to see a departure of major organisations, and Prince Harry’s departure from the UK itself.” Asked by Trevor Phillips if the “number one risk” to the charity is the Duke of Sussex, she replied: “Yes, it is.” Advertisement Chandauka claimed Prince Harry wanted to “eject” her from Sentebale. She said: “This went on for months, it went on through bullying, harassment. When that failed, Prince Harry and his team started to brief sponsors against me and the charity because that is a sure way of getting me out if it’s seen as though I’m not being successful in my fundraising efforts.” She added: “I put a whistleblower complaint about the bullying, harassment and misogyny, and Prince Harry interfered in that … It’s a cover up, and the prince is involved.” However she declined to accuse the prince personally of misogyny, describing him as “fantastic, actually”. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex declined to comment. On Saturday Harry’s friend said the prince was “distraught” and confirmed that each former trustee had been asked to submit a report to the Charity Commission. Advertisement A source with detailed knowledge of the charity and trustees’ plans said that one report would include concerns about Chandauka’s governance and details of her “manipulation of minutes to endorse her false claims of bullying and misogyny”. A source close to Chandauka denied the claim about manipulation of the minutes and bullying.
Sources with detailed knowledge of the charity’s workings said they feared for its future because available funds had fallen below its self-imposed £600,000 safety threshold since Chandauka was appointed in 2023. A source close to Chandauka confirmed the £600,000 figure but said Sentebale was awaiting $1.75 million that had been pledged.
In an escalating war of words, Chandauka, a Zimbabwe-born lawyer, claimed this weekend that Harry’s reputation was the biggest danger to the organisation and accused Harry and Seeiso of trying to “force a failure and then come to the rescue” of the charity.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Chandauka, 47, made further damaging accusations about Harry’s reputation hindering Sentebale’s fundraising efforts. She said: “The No 1 risk for this organisation was the toxicity of its lead patron’s brand.”
She claimed the controversy surrounding Harry, 40, since his departure from royal life, move to America and fallout from his memoir Spare and his Netflix documentary, had affected the charity’s ability to diversify its donors and recruit senior people to work for it.
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Chandauka also claimed she witnessed “belligerence” at board meetings and “an insistence on raising of topics that were not even on the agenda of the day.”
On one occasion Prince Harry effectively pushed through the immediate appointment of a new board member without consulting her, Chandauka claimed. “Everybody is shocked and quiet,” she said. “But this is what happens, when the prince is in the room and no one has the courage to speak.”
Harry and Meghan at a polo event to benefit Sentebale in April 2024
REBECCA BLACKWELL/AP
Chandauka also told of the disturbance caused by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s attendance at a fundraising polo event in April last year.
She said they had to change location because Prince Harry wanted to a bring a camera crew along while filming a programme for Netflix. “The show went on but there was a lot of disruption, a lot of people were unhappy because we worked on this for months and on the actual day, we had Prince Harry, which is always wonderful,” Chandauka said.
The Duchess of Sussex had initially said she would not attend but on the day turned up with “a very famous friend,” Chandauka claimed. “We would have been really excited that we know ahead of time, but we didn’t, and so the choreography went badly on stage because we had too many people.”
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Media coverage of the event captured the moment the Duchess of Sussex appeared to manoeuvre Chandauka away from Harry on stage as they posed for photos.
But when Harry asked Chandauka to issue a statement in support of Meghan, she refused. “I said I wouldn’t, not because I didn’t care about the duchess, but because I knew what would happen if I did so, number one, and number two, because we cannot be an extension of the Sussexes.”
Harry has helped to raise more than £12 million for Sentebale by playing in charity polo matches, and donated more than £1 million of the proceeds from Spare to the charity.
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A former long-serving trustee of Sentebale described Chandauka’s claims as “total bollocks”. They said Chandauka had lost the confidence of the board after spending “an obscene amount of money on consultants”, reported by The Times as about £500,000, with little benefit to the charity. “We have to hope she leaves pretty lickety split,” they said. Another source with close knowledge of the charity said: “If Harry is a bad brand, why has she asked him to be involved in all her fundraising efforts?”
Harry hopes to be involved with Sentebale again if Chandauka leaves. “Yes, that is what he wants,” said a friend. “I imagine it’s the same for Prince Seeiso.
“What Harry has made clear is he’s not walking away from Sentebale — he is just not currently able to fulfil his role. If there’s a choice for them to carry on in the way they were, then he’d want that. Harry’s commitment to the people and the issues is ongoing. People will just need to look at the facts, which the Charity Commission will do, and the facts haven’t come out yet.” Another source said: “Harry and Seeiso may return after the chair has departed.”
Before her appointment as chairwoman in 2023, Chandauka served on Sentebale’s board of trustees from 2008 to 2014. She has also held roles at Meta and Morgan Stanley, and leads a life sciences company in New York, where she lives.
She told the FT that as chairwoman she wanted to restructure the charity’s culture and strategy by focusing more on African-led initiatives and US fundraising.
She claimed the board felt “a loss of power and control and influence … oh my goodness, the Africans are taking over”. Sources close to the former trustees say that the board was supportive of the move towards an American funding model but that Chandauka had failed to deliver. The most recent figures show that as of August 2023 the charity’s income was £3.4 million, down from £4.5m a year earlier.
The Charity Commission said: “We can confirm that we are aware of concerns about the governance of Sentebale. We are assessing the issues to determine the appropriate regulatory steps.”
