The head of the African charity co-founded by the Duke of Sussex accused him of “harassment and large-scale intimidation” after having retired last week.
Sophie Chandauka retaliated to Prince Harry during an interview with Sky News after a bitter and very public row between the president and the administrators of Sentebale.
Sentebale was created in 2006 by Prince Harry and Prince Seeiso du Lesotho, in memory of their late, to support the children affected by HIV and AIDS in southern Africa.
Last week, the two princes left customers “with a heavy heart” in “support and solidarity with” five administrators who had also resigned. The former administrators have now reported concerns about Sophie Chandauka, the president, to the Charity Commission, who A Harry friend said prince “100%” supported. Chandauka was accused of having manipulated the minutes of the meetings of the Board of Directors and the Intimidation Staff, said sources close to the charitable organization.
Sophie Chandauka said that she had known misogyny against black women
Jason Koerner / Getty images
Chandauka answered Sky News: “The only reason I am here … is because at some point on Tuesday, Prince Harry authorized the release of a new damaging to the outside world without informing me or my directors of the country or my executive director.
“And can you imagine what this attack did for me, on me and the 540 individuals from the Sentebale organizations and their family?” This is an example of large -scale harassment and intimidation. ”
Previously, Chandauka had published an explosive declaration in which she said that she had experienced a “lack of respect, intimidation and intimidation” as well as “misogyny and misogymoir” – misogyny against black women – of the board of directors and had reported administrators to the committee of the charitable organization on questions of governance. His allegations have been strongly refused.
Chandauka also blamed Prince Harry’s reputation for a decrease in sentebals of donations and the sponsorship of companies. She told Sky News: “There was a fairly important correlation between the moment when the organization began to see a departure from the major organizations, and the departure of Prince Harry of the United Kingdom itself.”
Trevor Phillips asked if the “number one risk” of the charity is the Duke of Sussex, she replied: “Yes, it is.”
Chandauka said Prince Harry wanted to “eject him” from Sentebale. She said: “It lasted for months, it lasted intimidation, harassment. When it failed, Prince Harry and his team began to brief sponsors against me and the charity because it is a sure way to get me out if it is seen as if I could not succeed in my fundraising efforts.”
She added: “I filed a complaint against the denunciators concerning intimidation, harassment and misogyny, and Prince Harry interfered in this … It is a concealment, and the prince is involved.”
However, she refused to accuse the prince personally of misogyny, describing him as “fantastic, in fact”.
The Duke and the Duchess of Sussex refused to comment.
Harry’s friend said on Saturday, the prince was “distraught” and confirmed that each former administrator had been invited to submit a report to the charity.
A source with a detailed knowledge of the charitable and trustee plans said that a report would include concerns about Chandauka’s governance and the details of its “manipulation of minutes to approve its false claims of intimidation and misogyny”. A source close to Chandauka denied the demand for the manipulation of minutes and intimidation.
Sources with detailed knowledge of the functioning of the charity said they feared for its future because the available funds fell below its self-imposed security threshold since Chandauka was appointed in 2023. A source close to Chandauka confirmed the figure of £ 600,000, but said that Sentebale was waiting for $ 1.75 million.
In an escalation of the War of Words, Chandauka, a lawyer born in Zimbabwe, said this weekend that Harry’s reputation was the greatest danger for the organization and accused Harry and Seeiso of trying to “force a failure, then come to the rescue” of the charity.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Chandauka, 47, was damaging the accusations that Harry’s reputation had hindered the efforts to collect Sentebale funds. She said: “Risk No. 1 for this organization was the toxicity of the brand of its main patron.”
She said that the controversy surrounding Harry, 40, since his departure from the Royal Life, has moved to America and the benefits of her replacement memories and her Netflix documentary, had assigned the capacity of the charity to diversify her donors and recruit the elderly to work for this.
Harry helped collect more than 12 million pounds sterling for Sentebale by playing in charity polo games, and donated more than 1 million sterling pounds from the replacement product to the charity.
A longtime former sentebale trustee described Chandauka’s allegations as “total Bollocks”. They said that Chandauka had lost the confidence of the board of directors after spending “a sum of obscene money to the consultants”, reported by the Times at around £ 500,000, with few advantages for the charitable organization. “We have to hope that she leaves a part of Lickety,” they said. Another source with close knowledge of the charity said: “If Harry is a bad brand, why did she ask him to get involved in all her fundraising efforts?”
Harry hopes to be involved again with Sentebale if Chandauka leaves. “Yes, that’s what he wants,” said a friend. “I imagine it’s the same for Prince Seeiso.
“What Harry clarified is that he does not move away from Sentebale – he is simply unable to fulfill his role. If there is the choice for them to continue in the way they were, then he wishes. Another source said: “Harry and Seeiso can come back after the president’s departure.”
Chandauka said that she first felt the friction with Harry after refusing what she described as a request for him to defend the duchess of Sussex when the negative media coverage appeared after a charitable polo match in Florida in April of last year. Meghan seemed to ask Chandauka to withdraw during a photocall, then, he was said, asked him to speak to the press to minimize the incident. “I said no, we do not define a precedent by which we become an extension of the Sussex PR machine,” she told FT.
Before her appointment as president in 2023, Chandauka sat on the board of directors of Sentebale from 2008 to 2014. She also held posts in Meta and Morgan Stanley, and heads a life science company in New York, where she lives.
She told the FT that as president, she wanted to restructure the culture and strategy of the charity by focusing more on African initiatives and American fundraising.
She said that the board of directors had felt “a loss of power, control and influence … Oh my God, Africans take over”. Sources close to the former trustees say that the board of directors was favorable to the transition to an American financing model, but that Chandauka had failed to deliver. The most recent figures show that in August 2023, the income from the charitable organization was 3.4 million pounds sterling, compared to 4.5 million pounds sterling the year earlier.
The Charity Commission said: “We can confirm that we are aware of the concerns about Sentebale governance. We assess the problems to determine the appropriate regulatory steps. ”
