The chairperson of an African charity co-founded by Prince Harry accused the royal on Sunday of orchestrating a bullying and harassment campaign to try to force her out, as she pushed back following his abrupt resignation from the organization.
Sophie Chandauka, the chair of Sentebale, a charity Harry co-founded in 2006 that was long aimed at helping children in southern Africa who have HIV/AIDS, took several shots at Harry on Sky News. Chandauka said the prince’s Netflix deal interfered with a scheduled fundraiser and that an incident with his wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, became a source of friction.
The Duke of Sussex resigned Tuesday as a patron of Sentebale, which he helped establish in honor of his late mother, Princess Diana, citing a breakdown in the relationships between board members and Chandauka.
Harry and co-founder, Prince Seeiso of Lesotho, said in a joint statement that they quit “with heavy hearts” as patrons in solidarity with five trustees who resigned over an internal dispute with Chandauka, who refused to step down when asked. The stalemate reportedly involved a change in the organization’s mission.
Themba Hadebe / AP 
“It is devastating that the relationship between the charity’s trustees and the chair of the board broke down beyond repair, creating an untenable situation,” the princes said in their statement. “What’s transpired is unthinkable. We are in shock that we have to do this, but we have a continued responsibility to Sentebale’s beneficiaries, so we will be sharing all of our concerns with the Charity Commission as to how this came about.”
Chandauka sued the charity in order to remain in her position, according to the statement. She said that she reported Sentebale’s trustees to the Charity Commission in the U.K. and filed papers in a British court to prevent her removal.
She alleged there was misconduct at the charity without naming anyone or offering any details in a statement Tuesday. It said she had tried to blow the whistle on “abuse of power, bullying, harassment, misogyny and misogynoir,” the latter word referring to a combination of racism and misogyny directed toward Black women.
Chandauka told Sky that Harry’s resignation had caught her blindsided and was “an example of harassment and bullying at scale.” She said he also had interfered with her whistleblower complaint.
“So it’s a cover-up, and the prince is involved,” she said.
A source familiar with the events rejected that claim, telling CBS News that both Harry and Seeiso had sent a joint resignation letter to the chair as well as trustees on March 10. A source close to trustees and patrons of the charity told CBS News that Chandauka’s “publicity stunt” had been expected, and that the princes’ collective decision to step down was taken with it in mind.
Chandauka said there was a significant drop in donors to Sentebale after Harry and Meghan left their official royal duties in January 2020 and eventually settled in California.
The charity, whose name means “don’t forget me” in the Sesotho language of Lesotho and South Africa, was founded to help youths affected by AIDS in the small mountainous nation and in Botswana. But it is now moving to address youth health, wealth and climate resilience across southern Africa.
The biggest risk to the charity was the “toxicity of its lead patron’s brand,” Chandauka argued in an interview with the Financial Times.
In the Sky interview, she said a polo fundraiser scheduled in Miami last year almost fell apart when Harry asked to bring a camera crew along to film for a Netflix series he was shooting.
The cost of the venue skyrocketed when it became a commercial venture and they scrambled to find another host, which Harry arranged through his connections, she said. Meghan’s surprise appearance at the event led to an awkward moment during the trophy presentation after the match, Chandauka said.
In a video clip circulated on social media, Chandauka tried to pose next to the duke as he held the trophy in one hand and had his other wrapped around Meghan. But the duchess appeared to gesture that Chandauka move farther from Harry, forcing her to duck under the silver cup to get into the photo.
“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,” Chandauka said.
She said she rejected Harry’s request that she issue a statement in support of Meghan, because “we cannot be an extension of the Sussexes.”
CBS News contacted Harry and Meghan and they declined to offer a formal response. An emailed request by The Associated Press seeking comment from their spokespeople was also not immediately returned.
Ramy Inocencio
contributed to this report.
