Prince Harry ‘toxic’, harassed and bullied me says the chair of his Sentebale charity

The chair of Prince Harry’s charity Sentebale has unleashed further damning claims, with Meghan Markle at the centre of the bitter breakdown in relations. What caused it?

There are a couple of things that are incontestable in the bitter stoush between Prince Harry and the chair of his Sentebale charity, Dr Sophie Chandauka.

In a court they would be presented as agreed facts: that Harry set up the charity in Lesotho and Botswana, alongside Prince Seeiso of Lesotho back in 2006, to honour his deceased mother Diana, Princess of Wales, and that the charity was a deeply emotionally connection to her by helping children with HIV Aids.

So for Harry to stand down last week as trustee of Sentebale, along with the other board members was a quite significant moment.

He said he was in shock and was ‘deeply heartbroken”. This was not done in haste or was any knee jerk reaction. This was a considered and deliberate move in concert with his board member allies who also resigned in a joint action he believes will be short lived, with Dr Chandauka’s removal only a matter of time.

It is also indisputable that Dr Chandauka is intricately involved in the charity, having served on the board of trustees for many years, and with her family being one of the charity’s most significant donors. She’s a highly educated Zimbabwean woman with extensive business and legal experience in the United States.

What then has gone so drastically wrong that Dr Chandauka has referred the charity to the UK’s Charity Commission for inspection?

Why has a board split become front page news?

In interviews over the weekend Dr Chandauka carefully enunciated her position, clearly and forcefully. She is not going anywhere.

She also highlighted a series of issues that came to a spectacular head last week, but which were brewing for months, accusing Harry of unleashing “harassment and bullying at scale” and using what she called “the Sussex machine” to brief against her in a bid to force her to resign.

Dr Chandauka says that Sentebale lost key sponsors during the tumultuous period beginning five years ago when Harry and wife Meghan left Britain and relocated in California, unloading on the Royal Family in an Oprah Winfrey interview, in a Netflix series and in Harry’s autobiography “Spare”.

Sophie Chandauka, Prince Harry and a guest attend a Sentebale reception in South Africa. Picture: Getty Images.

Others involved in the charity – nearly all on the board were appointed by Harry – felt uncomfortable about discussing the issue when their friend was in the room.

But it also appears Dr Chandauka was increasingly concerned how Harry – by now a “toxic brand” would use the charity for his own purposes, even insisting one fundraiser in Miami become the subject of a Netflix series, which involved relocating venues after a donor objected to the charity event becoming a commercial exercise.

The flashpoint though, came in 2024 when Harry’s wife Meghan suddenly, without notice, arrived at one polo fundraiser, the Royal Salute Polo Challenge in Florida, in tow with her friend the tennis player Serena Williams. Meghan had previously said she wouldn’t be attending.

Footage from the day shows Meghan was not only present, but front and centre, directing attendees where to stand as she handed over a trophy to Harry, and the winning team.

At one point Meghan firmly insists that Dr Chandauka moves from Harry’s right hand side, to be positioned on the left of herself, involving a limbo-like manoeuvre from Dr Chandauka under arms, under the trophy – all the while trying to smile.

Harry asked her to issue a statement after the event, refuting suggestions that Meghan was “mean” or being rude. Dr Chandauka declined to do so.

Reflecting on the incident on Sky News on Sunday, Dr Chandauka said: ‘We would have been really excited had we known ahead of time [of Meghan’s arrival], but we didn’t. And so the choreography went badly on stage because we had too many people on stage.

“The international press captured this, and there was a lot of talk about the Duchess and the choreography on stage and whether she should have been there and her treatment of me.

“Prince Harry asked me to issue some sort of a statement in support of the Duchess, and I said I wouldn’t.

“Not because I didn’t care about the Duchess, but because I knew what would happen if I did so, number one. And number two, because we cannot be an extension of the Sussexes.”

Meghan Markle arrived unexpectedly at the Royal Salute Polo Challenge in Florida to present the trophy to Harry. Picture: Getty Images for Sentebale.

Dr Chandauka appears to have become increasingly concerned about the charity’s sponsorship, particularly as one key donor, the US government, was withdrawing because of US president Donald Trump’s termination of US Aid. She wanted to modernise the fundraising, focusing more on Africa and distance the charity from Harry’s global polo playing in places like Singapore, the United States and Mexico. But Dr Chandauka says this prompted Harry and the other trustees to move against her because of “a loss of power and control and influence … ‘Oh my goodness, the Africans are taking over.’”

The Charity Commission has confirmed it is investigating Sentebale after Dr Chandauka lodged a case.

Dr Chandauka says she “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”.

In a powerful statement she further excoriated Harry’s reputation, saying: “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.”

The Sussexes have not responded, but a source has told their preferred US publication: “The (Sentebale) trustees tried to negotiate this privately and requested she consider her position due to their lack of trust and confidence in her as a leader, as demonstrated by the financial position she put the charity in.

“They fully expected this publicity stunt 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.”