Prince Harry Accused Of ‘Bullying, Harassment’ By Charity Chairwoman
The chairwoman of a charity that was co-founded by Prince Harry is accusing him of “harassment and bullying at scale” in an explosive television interview. The accusation comes just days after the prince and others involved with the charity quit earlier this week.
Sophie Chandauka, the chairwoman of Sentebale, claimed the Duke of Sussex unleashed “the Sussex (PR) machine” on her when he publicly split with the organization along with with co-founder, Prince Seeiso of Lesotho and the board of trustees earlier this week.
“At some point on Tuesday, Prince Harry authorized the release of a damaging piece of news to the outside world without informing me or my country directors, or my executive director,” Chandauka said during in an interview with Sky News on Sunday morning.
“And can you imagine what that attack has done for me, on me and the 540 individuals in the Sentebale organizations and their family?” she added. “That is an example of harassment and bullying at scale.”
According to a report from CNN citing a source close to the charity’s trustees and patrons, they “fully expected this publicity stunt and reached their collective decision (to quit) 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,” the unnamed source told the outlet.
The source also disputed Chandauka’s claim that the media had been informed about the departures before the organization, stating that both Prince Harry and Prince Seeiso had sent a resignation letter to the chairwoman and trustees on March 10.
Sentable issued their own take on the dispute, telling CNN that although “some members of the executive have had sight of a letter that was signed on behalf of the trustees,” they had not received a resignation later from the patrons.
In a separate interview that aired on Saturday, Chandauka accused Prince Harry and Prince Seeiso of attempting to “force a failure” of the organization in order to later “rescue” it. Without providing many specifics of the rift, Chandauka told the Financial Times that there had been tensions between the charity’s U.K.-based staffers and those based in Botswana and Lesotho.
The chairwoman further claimed that the dispute stems from her efforts to transform the charitable organization and shift decision-making to leaders in Southern Africa.
Prince Harry said he was in “shock” after deciding to leave Sentebale, which he set up in 2006 to help young AIDS victims in Lesotho and Botswana. The royal co-founded the charity in honor of his mother, the late Princess Diana, nine years after she was killed in a Paris car accident.
In a joint statement released with his co-founder, Prince Harry announced that with “heavy hearts,” they would be resigning from their roles in the organization “until further notice.” In her own statement released earlier this week, Chandauka accused the Duke of Sussex of “playing the victim card.”
“Everything I do at Sentebale is in pursuit of the integrity of the organisation, its mission and the young people we serve,” she said in the statement reported by Britain’s PA Media news agency.
She further described the situation as “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.”