Getty imagesThe president of a charity co -founded by the Duke of Sussex qualified her brand as “toxic” and said that she had hindered the group, after he and several others left the organization earlier this week.
Speaking in financial timeDr. Sophie Chandauka also said that she first felt the tensions between Prince Harry and herself a year ago.
The Duke resigned from Sentebale, a charitable organization that he set up almost 20 years ago in honor of his mother Diana to help residents of southern Africa live with HIV and AIDS, after an argument between administrators and Dr. Chandauka.
BBC News approached the Sussexes and Sentebale for a comment.
Prince Harry said that he and the Prince Seeiso co-founder of Lesotho resigned because the relationship between the administrators of the charity and Dr. Chandauka “broke down”.
But Dr. Chandauka firmly defended his file as president, adding: “The number one risk for this organization was the toxicity of the brand of its leader.”
Dr. Chandauka, who was part of the Sentebale board of directors before becoming president, accused Prince Harry of wanting to “force a failure and then come to the rescue”.
But she said to them: “The team is resolved that Sentebele will live, with or without you.”
Elsewhere, it argued various controversies around Prince Harry after its resettlement in the United States affected the capacity of the charity to diversify its donor swimming pool and hire people.
“When you start to interview people, they ask questions about, well, these mixed messages around the boss,” she said.
She said she had first felt tensions between Prince Harry and herself a year ago.
She also said that the Duke’s team had asked her to defend his wife Meghan against negative advertising.
“I said no, we do not define a precedent by which we become an extension of the Sussex PR machine,” she said.
In a Separate interview with Sky NewsDr. Chandauka strongly criticized the way Prince Harry resigned.
She said that the only reason she was speaking is that the Duke this week “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?” She said.
“It is an example of harassment and large -scale intimidation.”
Getty imagesPrince Harry founded Sentebale in 2006. The charity was extremely important for him and a massive part of his adult life.
So, his decision to move away from it, with his co-founder Prince Seeiso, is extremely significant.
In a joint statement on Wednesday, the Duke and Prince Seeiso declared that they resign from their roles with “Heavy Hearts” and “Solidarity with the Board of Directors”.
“It is devastating that the relationship between the trustee of the charitable organization and the chairman of the board of directors has broken down, creating an untenable situation,” they said.
They declared that the administrators “had acted in the best interest of the charitable organization” by asking Dr. Chandauka to resign, but that his decision to take legal measures to maintain his position was “still underlined the broken relationship”.
They added that they would share their concerns with the charitable committee “on how it happened.”
Dr. Chandauka said she had “denounced” questions, especially what she described as abuse of power, intimidation, sexism and racism.
She said that her work in Sentebale had been “guided by the principles of equity and fair treatment for all”, and that she had reported the administrators to the UK Charity Commission.
The charitable organization itself confirmed a “restructuring” of its board of directors.
Former Timothy Boucher administrators, Mark Dyer, Audrey Kgosidintsi, Dr. Kelello Lerotholi and Damian West described their decision as “nothing less than devastating” for everyone.
They said they had lost confidence and confidence in the president, but that her legal action prevents them from withdrawn it meant that they had no other option than to resign.
The charitable committee said it was “aware of the concerns” on Sentebale governance, adding: “We assess the problems to determine the appropriate regulatory stages”.
