‘Toxic’ Harry and ‘disruptive’ Meghan face crushing anniversary amid charity crisis
A highly awkward moment involving Meghan Markle has resurfaced as the Sussexes face a fresh round of devastating claims.
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If some enterprising sort was going to write a Sussex A to Z, then ‘B’ would have to be given for ‘bombshell’, ‘I’ would be for ‘interview’ – and ‘S’? That’s easy. ‘Scorching’.
We’ve got another real BI with extra S today, only this time, it’s not the royal family’s conscientious dissenters Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex doing the complaining – but someone else has really gone all out on them.
Sophie Chandauka, the chair of Sentebale, the charity founded by Harry which he sensationally quit last week, has gone on UK TV to make a series of devastating claims, including accusing him of “harassment and bullying at scale” and arguing their brand had become “toxic”.
Ms Chandauka alleged that ever since Megxit, fundraising efforts had taken a hit and the “number one risk” to Sentebale was Harry.
Meanwhile, deep-pocketed donors who used to support his charity no longer want anything to do with him, according to the organisation’s controversial chair, because Harry, since publishing Spare, has a “toxic” reputation.
Ms Chandauka also told Sky News the duchess had “disrupted” a charity polo match by turning up unexpectedly on a day which had already been hijacked by the duke, who had decided to bring along a Netflix camera crew to shoot footage for his ultimate flop of a series about polo.
But hang on, there’s more.
Overall, the day “went badly”, Ms Chandauka has said, with cameras capturing the highly awkward moment that Meghan appeared to direct Ms Chandauka to move away from Harry, forcing her to execute a strange manoeuvre and duck under a horsey trophy.
When those with eyes and the internet clocked this odd interaction, the duke then allegedly asked Ms Chandauka to come out and defend his wife – which she refused to do.
Meanwhile – right as this Sentebale PR bushfire is only growing – we are about to pass a milestone day on Tuesday that Buckingham Palace will be doing its hardest to ignore.
April 1, 2025 will be bang on the knocker five years since Megxit officially took effect.
April 1, 2020 was the first official day of Harry and Meghan’s new, post-palace life; their first days as two people with no official ties to the Crown; the first day they were no longer allowed to flash their HRHs; and the first day they were nothing more than two regular Joes who had to no choice but to make it on their own.
So how’s that working out for them, hey?
Five years on, and this Sentebale crisis really caps off a Sussex story that absolutely no one could ever have imagined, even with the help of a handful of psychedelic toadstools.
Today, Harry is little more than just another Instagram husband, his key function being to hold Meghan’s iPhone and willingly submit to her art direction as she Creates Content from their kale patch.
He has been left “devastated” over having to resign from Sentebale and fight a PR war with the organisation’s black, female chair – and meanwhile, African Parks, another charity he has worked with for nine years, has also faced repeated accusations that its paid guards killed, tortured and raped members of indigenous African communities.
The duke has no upcoming podcast, book or TV work and it is a right puzzler what he actually does to fill the daytime hours in between doing some high level, modern day dadding.
And then we get to how Meghan is faring.
In 2017 she skipped into the warm embrace of Crown Inc, who knew they were onto a very good thing indeed in the woman that Harry had somehow convinced to sacrifice her own life to rep the royal dog-and-pony show.
In her, there was a way to connect to younger and multicultural Brits who were never going to be wowed by Princess Anne turning up to do some active listening and no-nonsense hand-shaking.
In 2017 – and 2018 and 2019 and 2020 – Meghan was not just a woman in a nice dress, but a totem of promise and change; a woman whose name carried real political and cultural heft and weight.
And then came the day in January 2020 when the late Queen was forced to learn what an Instagram was, when the Sussexes used the social media site to announce that they were chucking in the monogrammed towel.
Back then, it looked like this was just a stepping stone and that the Sussexes were poised to ascend to even greater, shinier and richer heights.
They had ditched the dull-as-a-Deeside-afternoon parts of royalling, the straight-faced openings of off ramps in damp parts of a country that still readily gobbled up the tabloids’ regular doses of scathing Sussex coverage (not least about the hypocrisy of Harry’s eco-carping and his love of private-jet-flying) and them having to let Kate, The Princess of Wales’ Range Rover get the primo Windsor Castle parking spot.
In 2020, the Sussexes had every right to be filled to the brim with glee over their futures – the oodles of lovely money! The reams of Davos invites! The raft of seven-figure speaking gigs at Four Seasons’ ballrooms!
Their future looked so bright they needed matching Oliver Peoples sunnies to even squint at it.
So much for all that prognosticating, including my own at the time.
Harry and Meghan’s lives circa 2025 could not look less dazzling or substantive.
Their brand has been bruised by a series of accusations from highly credible American publications – The Hollywood Reporter and Vanity Fair – making them out to be nightmarish employers who can only come with either derivative or forgettable TV or podcast ideas.
Their Archewell Foundation does some very nice, very good things that pale in comparison with the scale of what they used to be able to achieve in their Crown-y days.
In 2016, Harry was able to get Barack and Michelle Obama (and the late Queen) to appear in a cheeky charity video; in 2025 he would be lucky to be able to get their second assistant’s lesser-used cell phone number.
Back in 2016, Meghan was trying to make it on Instagram.
In 2025, she’s trying to make it on Instagram again, pumping out content and selling clothes on social media like the approximately 85,848 other stylish girlies looking to cash in on their excellent taste. (And divinely wonderful taste the duchess abso-freakin-lutely has).
There will be, at some point, Meghan’s As Ever product range of expensive jams – sorry, preserves – and even a crepe mix hitting the market.
Regarding her commercial prospects, a well-placed source told the Telegraph this week the 43-year-old “thinks she’s going to be a billionaire”.
Meanwhile, there is the family sitch too.
His father King Charles reportedly won’t even take his phone calls out of concern that recordings of such private details could end up on Good Morning America in between segments about dry mouth and Dua Lipa’s dating life.
The duke and duchess are raising their children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, with absolutely zero connection to the institution and the family from whence their titles come.
The kids have no relationship whatsoever with their cousins or either of their long estranged grandfathers and Lili has only ever met the King, in nearly four years, once.
What family do the duke and duchess, aside from her mother Doria Ragland and niece Ashleigh Hale, even have left to invite over to stay in one of their nine bedrooms plus freestanding guesthouse?
In all of this there is a bright side – for all we know, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex could be absolutely happy as two designer Larrys in all of this.
They have all the freedom they could possibly want and no one is expecting them to spend their summer hols camped out in Scotland pretending there is not a midge problem.
They have complete and utter control over their lives and money and afternoon schedules.
So what if their images are now more tarnished than great aunt Mildred’s unpolished family silver and their future money-making prospects now rest entirely on Meghan’s ability to shift crates of expensive designer jam?
In late January 2020, Harry said in one of his final royal speeches, “We are taking a leap of faith, so thank you for giving me the courage to take this next step”.
Who knew that “step” would be into suburban American malls to sell breakfast condiments, with Harry left with endless spare hours for daytime TV and ruminating aplenty?
Let’s just hope the 2025 life the Sussexes have ended up with is the “next step” was the one he had envisaged and dreamt about.
Daniela Elser is a writer, editor and commentator with more than 15 years’ experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles
Originally published as ‘Toxic’ Harry and ‘disruptive’ Meghan face crushing anniversary amid charity crisis
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