Last week, there was a curious story in the Daily Mail. The Mail’s Richard Eden claimed that Sentebale managed to pull £342,000 in donations since Prince Harry, Prince Seeiso and most of the Sentebale board of trustees stepped down last year. Eden lavished Sophie Chandauka with praise for bringing in new donors… after Chandauka looted Sentebale’s reserves, shut down Sentebale’s UK office and closed down Sentebale’s children’s center. Well, to make matters even more curious, the Times pointed out that while Chandauka might have pulled in donations, that’s basically all Sentebale is getting because they don’t have any money-generating events since Prince Harry’s exit. From “Event income at Prince Harry’s former charity plummets to £70,000”:

The Duke of Sussex’s former charity Sentebale remains in deficit as income from events last year fell to £70,000, less than a tenth of the total for the previous year. The HIV/Aids charity has recorded significantly lower income from fundraising events since he left in March last year. A few months later it scrapped a polo competition.

The prince co-founded Sentebale, which supports young people in Lesotho and Botswana, with Prince Seeiso of Lesotho in 2006 in memory of both their mothers. However, both patrons and several trustees resigned last year over a disagreement with the chair of the board, Sophie Chandauka.

[From The Times]

So, despite Eden’s glowing reporting of Sentebale’s coffers, it looks like the charity is in dire straits. In the year before Harry stepped down, Sentebale was making £715,000 annually from Harry’s fundraising efforts. Harry ensured that Sentebale was always well-funded and that there was enough money to run all of Sentebale’s programs in Lesotho. Chandauka looted the reserves and now Sentebale is a shell of what it once was. No one even knows what Sentebale *does* anymore. Meanwhile, remember how Chandauka is suing Prince Harry and Mark Dyer for “defamation”? The case has been put on hold.

Sentebale’s High Court defamation claim against its co-founder the Duke of Sussex has been put on hold, The Telegraph can reveal. The charity sued Prince Harry over what its trustees said was a “co-ordinated adverse media campaign” that had caused “operational disruption and reputational harm”.

However, the legal action has stalled amid fears in some quarters that a loss could see the charity forced to fold to cover legal bills.

Sentebale reported a 20 per cent drop in income months after launching the defamation claim. The Duke has made clear that he is prepared to go to trial to clear his name, which if successful could see Sentebale liable for the costs of both sides as well as a potential payout.

Both parties have agreed an extension of time for the filing of both the acknowledgement of service and the defence, meaning that for now, the particulars of claim cannot be made public.

The legal action was lodged following a row with Sophie Chandauka, chairman of Sentebale’s board, over financial problems and fundraising strategy. The dispute prompted the Duke and his fellow trustees, including childhood mentor Capt Mark Dyer, to resign in 2025 in a blaze of public recriminations. Ms Chandauka accused the board of abuse of power, bullying, misogyny and harassment, suggesting that Sentebale was a “vanity project” for the Duke and his friends who used the media they “disdain” to cause harm.

The Charity Commission later criticised all sides for allowing the dispute to play out publicly but found no evidence of the behaviour alleged by Ms Chandauka.

[From The Telegraph]

The prevailing theory for why Chandauka wants to put everything on hold is because if this BS defamation case makes it to trial, the court could look at Sentebale’s books and Chandauka’s records. As in, Harry’s lawyers could and should pursue investigative inquiries into Chandauka’s motives for the hostile takeover of Sentebale, and they could also look into who exactly is funding the defamation lawsuit in the first place.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, screencaps courtesy of Sky News.