Dr. Sophie Chandauka, the chair of Prince Harry’s Sentebale charity, is opening up about the alleged breakdown of their working relationship.
In an interview with Sky News which aired in the U.K. on Sunday, March 30, Chandauka doubled down on allegations that Harry, 40, had bullied and harassed her before he quit the charity on Tuesday, March 26.
“Really, what Prince Harry wanted to do was eject me from the organization. And this went on for months. It went on for months through bullying, harassment. I have documentation,” Chandauka told the outlet.
Chandauka also alleged that the charity lost sponsors when Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, stepped down from their royal duties and relocated to the U.S. in 2020.
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Chandauka told the broadcaster that she conducted a “seven year historical review” of Sentebale when she began her role as chair of the board in July 2023, which led her to believe that it was suffering due to Harry’s departure.
“It was pretty obvious to me that we had lost quite a number of corporate sponsors, we lost families, and we’d lost individuals who were donating to the organization,” she claimed. “And there was quite a significant correlation between the time the organization started to see a departure of major organizations and Prince Harry’s departure from the U.K. itself.”
However, according to a source close to Sentebale’s trustees and patrons, the duke and his Sentebale associates fully anticipated Chandauka’s comments, which they characterized as a publicity stunt, and decided to quit the organization with this in mind. They remain firm in their resignation and look forward to the truth coming to light, according to the same insider.
The Duke of Sussex, Sentebale cofounder Prince Seeiso of Lesotho and several of the charity’s trustees announced their resignation from the charity on Tuesday amid a public rift with Chandauka.
“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 a joint statement at the time. “These trustees acted in the best interest of the charity in asking the chair to step down, while keeping the wellbeing of staff in mind. In turn, she sued the charity to remain in this voluntary position, further underscoring the broken relationship.”
“We thank all the trustees for their service over the years and are truly heartbroken they’ve had to follow through with this act,” they added. “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.”
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In a separate statement to Us, Chandauka alleged that she had experienced “abuse of power, bullying, harassment, misogyny [and] misogynoir.”
“Discerning readers will ask themselves: why would the chair of the board report her own trustees to the Charity Commission? Why would the high court of England and Wales hear her case and issue an emergency injunction to prevent the same trustees from removing her as the chair of the board?” she claimed. “Well, because beneath all the victim narrative and fiction that has been syndicated to press is the story of a woman who dared to blow the whistle about issues of poor governance, weak executive management, abuse of power, bullying, harassment, misogyny, misogynoir — and the coverup that ensued.”
