In a determined and uncomfortable television interview, the chair of a charity founded by Prince Harry has restated claims of “bullying, harassment and misogyny” against the royal.
Dr Sophie Chandauku, a highly respected Zimbabwean-born lawyer who was on the board of the Sentebale charity from 2009 to 2015 and returned as chair in July 2023, appeared on a TV interview that aired on the UK’s Sky News on Sunday night Australian time.
She claimed the prince was involved in attempts to remove her to cover up poor governance and revealed pressure to draft public statements in support of the Duchess of Sussex, contrary to the charity’s purpose.
She said perceptions of Prince Harry were now so bad he represented the charity’s number one risk, claiming corporate and high wealth sponsors had abandoned Sentebale “because of Prince Harry’s reputation”.
In the interview, Dr Chandauku also implied Prince Harry acted above the law and had undermined her behind her back, adding “the prince was involved” in attempts to remove her as a ploy to cover up governance inconsistencies.
“Prince Harry asked me to issue some sort of a statement in support of the Duchess and I said I wouldn’t … because we cannot be an extension of the Sussexes,” she told interviewer Trevor Phillips.
“Prince Harry started to brief … sponsors that I had been speaking to, 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.
In the interview, Dr Chandauku revealed that when she returned as chair she had scrutinised the charity’s books and discovered what she believed to be serious problems but that she felt unable to raise concerns because “when the Prince is in the room, no-one has the courage to speak”.
Prince behaves as if he is ‘above the law’
The Sky interview follows a media statement released by Prince Harry on Tuesday last week in which he publicly announced his resignation from Sentebale along with his co-founder Prince Seeiso of Lesotho.
When in 2006 Prince Harry founded Sentebale with Prince Seeiso to help orphans and families impacted by the HIV/Aids virus in southern Africa, they could have never imagined almost 20 years later they would be walking away from the charity amid damning accusations including “misogynoir”, ingrained male prejudice against black women.
Britain’s Prince Harry and Lesotho’s Prince Seeiso founded the charity in 2006. (Reuters: Mike Hutchings)
The claims on Sky, aimed most forcefully at Harry, were the latest of a series of responses from Dr Chandauka to the princes’ resignation that have also included interviews with UK newspapers.
In their statement last week, the princes declared that Dr Chandauku, currently based in New York City, had been “previously asked by the board to step down but refused”. Instead, “she sued the charity to remain in this voluntary position,” they said, adding that they are “in shock” and “what has transpired is unthinkable”.
It is clear that battle lines had been drawn and Dr Chandauku has certainly come out fighting.
“Normally I wouldn’t want to discuss family business,” Dr Chandauka told Phillips, saying that she saw Prince Harry as the charity’s biggest concern.
Despite claiming she got on incredibly well with Prince Harry, Dr Chandauka said he would bring up issues at their board meetings that were not on the agenda and cited the potential appointment of an individual as a trustee without previously consulting her as an example of cronyism.
“There are people in this world who behave as though they are above the law and mistreat people and then play the victim card and use the very press they disdain to harm people who have the courage to challenge their conduct,” she said in a media statement released last week.
She described herself as “a woman who dared to blow the whistle about issues of poor governance, weak executive management, abuse of power, bullying, harassment, misogyny, misogynoir — and the cover-up that ensued”.
She claimed the board members were stale in their ideas and had been in their positions far too long and when she tried to evolve the charity in what she saw to be vital new directions she was blocked.
Most of all she painted Prince Harry’s media statement as “harassment and bullying at scale”.
She claimed in the Sky interview that Prince Harry had not informed her of his decision to resign.
“And can you imagine what that attack has done for me, on me and the 540 individuals in the Sentebale organisations and their family,” she said.
Certainly, the charity’s financial situation is not as rosy as it once was and while Dr Chandauka blames Prince Harry, other sources cite the chair’s use of expensive consultants — which she denied in the interview.
Concerns about PR requests
Finally, Dr Chandauku attacks what she calls the toxic “Sussex PR machine”
She described crossing swords with Prince Harry and his PR team after refusing a request from them to defend the Duchess of Sussex following negative media after a charity polo match in Florida in April last year when Meghan seemed to ask Dr Chandauka to move places away from Harry’s side in a photo call.
“I said no, we’re not setting a precedent by which we become an extension of the Sussex PR machine,” Dr Chanduaka told the Financial Times in another interview in the past few days.
Dr Chandauka believes Prince Harry is playing a precarious game of shaming her so he and Prince Seeiso can then return to the charity as its saviours.
She suggests Harry is forcing the failure of the charity as “a last resort…briefing sponsors against her”.
A source familiar with events countered Dr Chandauka’s claims, saying “both Harry and Seeiso had sent a resignation letter to the chair as well as trustees on March 10” — two weeks before their statement was released.
Prince Harry and Sentebale Chair Sophie Chandauka at a Sentebale benefit in April, 2024. (Reuters: Marco Bello)
In their own letter, the board noted: “Prince Seeiso and Prince Harry have notified us they are aligned with our position, and although they will forever be the founders of an incredible organisation in honour of their mothers, they must also resign as patrons for as long as you remain chair.”
A source close to trustees and patrons says they “fully expected this publicity stunt from Dr Chandauka and reached their collective decision with this in mind. They remain firm in their resignation, for the good of the charity, and look forward to the adjudication of the truth”.
Sentebale’s website is embracing the fight: “This week: Talked about? Yes. Distracted? Never. The work continues” shouts the home page.
But whether the work of Sentebale can continue without Prince Harry is just one of a litany of questions about the charity’s future.
Dr Chandauka’s claims will now be scrutinised and whatever the outcome Prince Harry’s standing as a charity entrepreneur has been damaged.