I wasn’t surprised that the UK Charity Commission seemingly placed equal blame on Sophie Chandauka and Prince Harry for the mess within Sentebale. There is an abundance of circumstantial evidence that this was always a larger plot to ruin Sentebale, and that Chandauka completed a hostile takeover of the charity with help from Prince William’s allies. Of course the Charity Commission didn’t want to deal with all of those issues, so they merely cleared Harry of the wildest claims made by Chandauka, and then they blamed all sides for not dealing with these issues privately. The Charity Commission’s investigation was cursory at best, and woefully inadequate and severely compromised at worst. There’s one good thing though – as much as Chandauka wants to make this all about Prince Harry and Meghan, there were many other people involved within Sentebale who were appalled by Chandauka’s lies and gross mismanagement. People like the former trustees, who have now issued their own separate statement about the Charity Commission’s insufficient investigation.
The former trustees of Prince Harry’s African charity are speaking out after an official inquiry found fault on all sides following a bitter internal conflict.
The trustees say they are “gravely concerned” for the future of the charity that Harry, 40, and his friend Prince Seeiso of Lesotho set up nearly two decades ago. Sentebale — meaning forget-me-not in Lesotho’s language — was set up by the princes in memory of their late mothers, Princess Diana and Queen ‘Mamohato, to help support young people in Lesotho, especially amid the HIV and AIDS crisis in the southern African country. Harry and his co-founder Seeiso, 59, left their roles as patrons in March in solidarity with the then-trustees who had resigned in a dispute with chairperson Dr. Sophie Chandauka.
Late on Aug. 5, the Charity Commission for England and Wales released its verdict following its inquiry that began in April. It criticized both sides but left the non-profit as it was, with its controversial chairperson, Dr. Chandauka, still in place. The commission said the conflict had been allowed “to play out publicly” and cited poor internal governance and said a “failure to resolve disputes internally severely impacted the charity’s reputation and risked undermining public trust in charities more generally.”
Its review said it found no evidence of “widespread or systemic bullying, harassment, misogyny or misogynoir” at Sentebale, following an investigation into claims made by the charity’s current chair. The Commission also found no “overreach” by either Chandauka or Prince Harry.
In a statement to PEOPLE, the former trustees reacted saying, “We are disheartened by the way in which the Charity Commission has chosen to ignore key concerns and irrefutable evidence raised with them regarding the leadership and oversight of Sentebale’s Chair.”
“We accept there is always room to strengthen governance of an organization, which is why we welcomed a governance review by the Chair initiated in February 2024, and that should have only taken a matter of months — we unfortunately never saw a report or any outcomes enacted, more than two years into her tenure.”
“We remain gravely concerned for the future of the charity and the wellbeing of the communities we served for 19 years, following the mission set out by Prince Harry and Prince Seeiso in honor of their mothers,” the statement concluded.
As I said, while the Charity Commission’s negligence isn’t surprising, it’s interesting that the commission is being called out in this way for their failures. This isn’t hard, and it shouldn’t be some controversial statement to say that Chandauka needs to be forced to resign, that her lies and her behavior are the entire reason for the catastrophe. It makes you wonder who pulled strings at the Charity Commission to ensure that Chandauka remains there as chairwoman.
Meanwhile, Newsweek had an interesting piece about Prince Seeiso exploring some legal maneuvers to somehow bifuricate Sentebale-in-Lesotho and Sentebale’s charitable registration in the UK. Meaning, there’s an exploration to find a way to separate Sentebale’s operations on the ground from the (mis)management of the chairwoman and board.
Photos courtesy of Getty.
This whole ” you shouldn’t have let it play out in public” finger wag is ridiculous. One side went on numerous televised interviews, gave print interviews, and was on social media lobbing accusations. Remember the whole, ” I have an email that shows that Harry was disrespectful and bullying to me?”
The founders have issued two or three statements? The trustees have issued a statement and took part in one Telegraph interview I believe after everything came to light? How exactly is it equal for negative public attention?
And what is it with these British institutions not having a problem with people doing things poorly, but with people saying hey this is a problem and I need you to take a look at this in public? They want everything to be buried and that’s a big problem.
It’s a consistent refrain from the media, the Royal family, down to organizations like the media watchdog groups and a charity commission. You shouldn’t have let everyone know the bad stuff going on. You should have kept it secret. Organizations with enforced lack of transparency aren’t usually doing anything good.
Charities are supposed to be independent of their donors and the way they are set up supports that. This means that they are vulnerable to this sort of bad faith takeover. Hence the charity commission. Sad that they weren’t able to see what was going on here, nor was there any sign of an audit to see if funds were being spent in alignment with the charity’s goals and mission.
I am appalled and disgusted by the Charity Commission report.
It’s utterly inadequate and openly biased.
Isn’t Charles is the godfather of the head of the charity commission?
I’m never surprised by the extent of the monarchy influence and control. Their metastasis into all facets of life will never be completely understood, at least by me. Meghan (and Harry) never stood a chance with this vast , corrupt machine.
He wasn’t listed as one.
https://www.hellomagazine.com/royalty/551104/who-are-king-charles-33-godchildren/
But rory brooks one of the main directors of the CC is on the board of the Quintessencially foundation together with Ben Elliott, Camilla, nephew. Whose mother earned millions from the Duchy…its a corrupt circle of friends.
“Meaning, there’s an exploration to find a way to separate Sentebale’s operations on the ground from the (mis)management of the chairwoman and board.” I mean that’s really it. How this is affecting the operations on the ground and the people the charity supported. I’ll never forget Sophie saying the mission should pivot to climate change as opposed to its original purpose.
Actually, I kind of see the Charity Commission’s point. Their job is to make sure the charity is operating legally. Sophie’s claims of harassment, etc. are part of that and the Commission found they were baseless. The Commission also has to make sure the charity is fulfilling its obligations and that’s where the “public cat fight” comes into it. Basically, they’re saying shut up and figure it out because you’re making the charity look bad. It’s up to the board to figure out their inner workings. If they can’t and Sentebale folds, that’s too bad, but this kind of thing happens.
Eurydice but that is what they did prior to Sophie reacting and making these baseless accusations against them to prevent things from progressing. The obvious issue was Sophie and she refused to work with them because her objectives weren’t the same as theirs. Her whole statement about wanting to switch the focus from HIV because “it is no longer a death sentence” and focus more on climate change shows that her ideals of the charity didn’t align with anyone else’s there at Sentebale. They voted to fire her and she refused to leave. Firing her was them handling this in house and in private. She is the one who made all of this public and used lies to do it. Even the commission admitted they were lies, but still didn’t remove her(?) that makes no sense to me.
Unfortunately, I don’t believe they found that she “lied”. They just found no evidence to support what she said. There’s a pretty big difference legally speaking.
This is obviously a really horrible situation, and I feel for the princes that they feel they’ve lost control of something they started and poured their hearts into. But at the end of the day, I don’t think there’s much they can do unless the charity is acting illegally.
Realigning the mission and changing funding strategies isn’t illegal. I’m not saying this is a wonderful situation, it sucks. The public part of this story started when the trustees and Harry left and made their statement – then Sophie countered with her ridiculous and untrue accusations. But, overall, this situation as reported makes no sense to me. I don’t understand how a person who has been fired can refuse to leave. And I don’t understand how the board that fired her would choose to leave instead. There have to have been a majority of trustees who supported her.
I agree.its not the commissions job to adjudicate board disagreements. If what is happening is legal, thats the end of it for them.
@Eurydice —
I see your point so far as that goes, but there is no mention at all of all the Sentebale money “Call Me Doctor” spent on “consultant fees” that went to people directly connected to her, and possibly back into her own pocket.
Instead they blame all parties for making other, unrelated charities look bad??
I’m sorry, but that’s disingenuous at best and outright malfeasance on the part of the Commission at (possibly) worst.
Again though, unless the Commission can prove those payments are illegal, they can’t do anything. its not their job to adjudicate board decisions or disagreements.
Maybe they cannot take legal action, but they could certainly speak to those events, just as they chose to pearl-clutch about “damage” done to other, unrelated, unspecified charities.
Yes, this is a British thing and it’s infuriating. “You should have worked it out amongst yourselves,” okay, but then *why* is there a charity commission at all? This has happened in my experience volunteering at schools (PTAs are notorious for being mismanaged and acrimonious and they live up to their image), with landlords & tenants, with lettings agents, with work, ….it’s the state of banking regulation (LIBOR), it’s the Church of England (remember the guy resigning with such ill grace when he was shown to have protected a child abuser, and he pleaded his own victimhood?)… it’s the same thing that happened years ago when a BP oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico had a catastrophic accident (given it was an accident) and the CEO had to fly in to a storm of protest in the US to which he reacted by observing, “there are other places I’d rather be,” at which point, Obama told a watching world, “he wouldn’t be working for me.” The NHS is rife with stories about botched baby deliveries and mutilated mothers and no one is ever accountable. The Lucy Lebty trial caught the public imagination because it echoed a theme: no one is in charge. Other doctors had tried to raise the alarm and were accused of “bullying” the poor nurse, who has been convicted of murdering newborns. I mean… it’s a society in which accountability is thin on the ground. Since the financial crisis and austerity, and Brexit, there is a widespread awareness that the ship is going down, we’re all bailing water, it’s all hands on deck, and yet…. It doesn’t translate into solidarity. People are all fed up and p*issed off and out to get what they can, to feather their own nests. I have to say, it reminds me of the climate of France, as I imagine it in 1938. We are saved by being an island but also condemned by it. It’s like No Exit. They managed their decline, for a long time, but Thatcher shook them back to life, and Blair had stabilised their politics and their economy. They hate his guts, mostly due to Iraq, but Cameron and the Tories are the ones who hit the iceberg. Really.
This was a failure on the part of the Charity Commission and I agree that there is something severely wrong with how organizations and committees in the UK seem to fail to address real problems because they focus too much on wanting to keep things hush-hush. The truth of the matter is that it wasn’t the trustees, Harry or Prince Seeiso who made this go public, Sophie did. She made it public with her false accusations and with her refusal to handle all of this in house. The trustees, Harry and Prince Seeiso all tried to address the problem and only when she refused to accept the decisions made, she reported them with false claims to the commission. Them stepping down didn’t make this public, her reaction and subsequent accusations and interviews are what made this all public. Her partnership with William’s lackey to overtake the charity through organized media attacks also contributed to this being more public than it needed to be. So it is the Charity Commission that has failed to do its part by allowing the one person who caused all of this to become public to remain in a charity that she cares so little about that she wants to restructure what its focus is on after 19 years. This is disgraceful and I hope that the karma Sophie gets is swift and overwhelming for her. The same for William and his lackey.
MOVE ON HARRY, DISAPPOINTMENTS ARE BLESSINGS IN DISGUISE 🥸
The good news for Harry is he can move on and create another foundation. Between his name recognition and Archewell’s investors, he can start over. As infuriating as it is for him, at least he can.
@Swaz: It’s kind of easy for you to say that but Harry has spent half of his life dedicated to that charity. It’s being reported that Harry is looking at other ways of continuing the work.
@Swaz —
This isn’t a disappointment.
It’s outright theft of 20 years of good work building trust and community with vulnerable young people, children, the people on the ground most affected and doing the hard work of support, and a carefully cultivated donor base.
And it’s deliberate destruction of a charity that’s done that good work, to prop up a grifter and the viciously vengeful Prince William who is pulling strings to make it happen.
If someone breaks into your house and steals 20 years worth of work you’ve put your heart into, will you say “OK, that’s disappointing, time for me to move on?”
@swaz agree with you. It’s very hard especially so much work/years of hard work put into this organization. But it’s becoming very toxic. Things happen for a reason and sometimes we have to start over. Who knows maybe it’s for the better anyways. They took a risk leaving the Uk to come to the US to start over, and it was for the best for them. And That pssts off the BM and BRF as they have No control.
They didn’t get a report on the governance because she was using the cracks discovered to maneuver her take-over.
What cracks?
She managed to take over even when voted out, there must have been cracks.
@Somebody
I don’t understand what you’re saying here.
Chandauka sued to block the decision of the trustees to remove her, and they and the Princes all chose to step down rather than bankrupt Sentebale fighting her in court.
They relied on the Charity Commission to investigate and find that she tried to change the mission of Sentebale inappropriately, away from serving those suffering from HIV/AIDS, apparently for her own benefit (or to serve BillyIdle’s need to destroy what his brother creates.)
And the Charity Commission failed to adjudicate fairly and appropriately.
Meanwhile, Chandauka did a 180 and tried to start raising money for HIV/AIDS victims again, only to find that no one wants to donate while she is in charge.
100% of the DM comments are infuriating and anti Harry. “A whinging liar, Meghans puppet, doesn’t have the brains to understand that no one wanted him, on and on.”
Why torture yourself reading that crap? Those people are deranged.
You’re right. Makes me so angry I could spit tacks. No more DM.
@libra do you work for the DM? IIRC you’ve remarked on negative DM comments before.
I hope Prince Seeiso is successful in separating the Lesotho arm of the Charity.
Agreed @Amy Bee I also hope something can be salvaged. Also Sentebale is being monitored and Sophie and her trustee band of two do have to use their vast network of connections to fundraise?! . Having seen the very public blunderbuss approach adopted by Sophie and Iain in their Sky news interview are donors going to want to work with them? Sophie is a liability and has the reverse Midas touch so let’s see how this pans out. I can’t in all conscience donate to Sentebale while Sophie remains.
Harry was fund-raising for the charity and he and Meghan got bad-mouthed by her. That shouldn’t inspire anyone else to want to work with her.
I said it before and I’m gonna say it again – Prince Harry allowing some ego’s at The Invictus Foundation to grant The IG2027 to Birmingham, UK, was a big, big mistake. It’s gonna be a mess from the 1 years to go in 2026, up to July 2027.
Why: next Willy and his people, and probably Charles as well, will try to do, or continuing to do anything to sabotage the games and to di a samillour hostile takeover of The Invictus Foundation and the Games.
Harry knows better by now, but he still puts too much trust in UK’s institutions and govt ánd the royally titled & honoured people he keeps appointing in key positions to his charities , all who will always prioritise Charles, Willy and the Firm’s biddings, if called upon, to undermine and set Harry and his wife up for failure and reputational damage.
Whilst you can, move you charities and businesses from that island, Harry!