PRINCE Harry lost a venue for Sentebale because he wanted to invite a Netflix film crew, the charity’s chairman claims.
Dr Sophie Chandauka also accused the royal of “harassment and bullying at scale”, and labelled the Sussex brand “toxic” – allegations Harry’s representatives have denied.
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It comes after the Duke of Sussex and Prince Seesio of Lesotho – who set up the charity in 2006 – sensationally resigned last week.
They slammed Dr Chandauka’s leadership as “untenable” and sided with trustees in a row over moving the charity’s fundraising operations to Africa.
In an interview for Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips, she said an opportunity for the charity to do a fundraising Polo Challenge in Miami was scuppered by the prince insisting on bringing a film crew from the streaming service.
She said: “We had a very generous family that was happy for us to use their polo grounds at a material discount and then, about a month before the event was about to take place, Prince Harry called the team and said ‘I’m doing a Netflix show, and I would love to bring a camera crew so that I can include some footage in this show.’
“And so the team called me and told me, ‘Oh, Prince Harry’s made this request, so we’re doing the things’.
“I said, you can’t be doing the things without seeking consent from the property owners, the sponsors, all the guests. Nobody signed up to being on a Netflix show.”
She said “draft agreements” were made and the venue owner said it was now a “commercial undertaking” and named their terms.
Dr Chandauka added: “We couldn’t afford it. So now we lost the venue.”
She also accused Harry of being “involved” in a “cover-up” regarding an investigation about bullying, harassment and misogyny at the organisation.
Asked about reports trustees had lost confidence in her leadership and whether she was “the problem”, rather than Harry, Dr Chandauka said: “It was me who was the problem, because I put a whistleblower complaint about the bullying, the harassment and the misogyny, and Prince Harry interfered in the investigation of that.
“And the senior independent director, who should have taken care of it, was the very same person who then delivered the news to me that I was going to be removed by the board.
“So it’s a cover-up, and the prince is involved.”
Asked whether the alleged misogyny stemmed from the prince and his associates, she said: “Actually my experience is Prince Harry himself, fantastic actually, we have, we had a great relationship.
What is Sentebale?
Sentebale was set up to support those living in poverty, as well as those suffering from Aids and HIV, in Lesotho.
Prince Harry started the charity in honour of his mum, Princess Diana, who died in 1997.
He met his co-founder Prince Seeiso while on his gap year in 2004.
The word Sentebale means “forget-me-not” in Sesotho, the local language of Lesotho.
“We had a great relationship but there are some individuals on the board who, quite frankly, did not treat me in the way that they would have treated the prior chair, and completely disrupted my meetings because they thought that they could get away with mistreating a woman, and all the women who attended these meetings felt it.”
She went on to say there was a “significant correlation” between a drop in donors and the Duke of Sussex’s departure from the UK in 2020.
“So when I arrived in July in 2023, of course the first thing you do is you open the annual report, you look at the board minutes to see what it is is going on in the organisation.
“I did a seven-year historical review of the financials, looking at our costs and looking at our revenue so income, it was pretty obvious to me that we had lost quite a number of corporate sponsors.
“We’d lost some families, and we’d lost individuals who were donating to the organisation, and there was quite a significant correlation between the time the organisation started to see a departure of sort of major organisations, and Prince Harry’s departure from the UK itself.
“When you look at the board minutes, though, there is no discussion about what’s happening with respect to some of our most significant funders and then when you discuss with the senior executive team and ask why there isn’t a conversation about this – the answer is ‘it’s really difficult to have this conversation because the instruction was, it’s uncomfortable conversation to have with Prince Harry in the room’.”
Timeline of events at Sentebale
2004: Prince Harry spends two months in Lesotho in a working visit during his gap year. Here he meets Aids orphans and vulnerable young people.
2006: Inspired by his visit two years prior, he setups up Sentebale with Prince Seeiso of Lesotho, taking the name from the Sesotho language for the phrase “forget me not”.
2010: The first polo cup is held. Harry has regularly played in the annual tournament, helping to raise more than £11 million since the tournament’s creation.
2015: Harry attends the official opening of the charity’s flagship Mamohato Children’s Centre in Lesotho.
2020: Following the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s decision to step back as senior royals, Harry made his first public speech to Sentebale.
2023: Sophie Chandauka is appointed to the role of chair after Johnny Hornby resigns, following his five years in the position.
2024: Harry visits Lesotho in October for the first time in six years to showcase Sentebale’s work.
2025: In March, princes Harry and Seeiso release a joint statement announcing their resignation amid a row between the trustees and Chandauka.
In response, Chandauka slams “weak executive management, abuse of power, bullying, harassment, misogyny, and misogynoir” at the charity.
