The Duke and Duchess of Sussex and Family, News and Events 10: August 2024 -

[EvaH]

We can believe her 100%. Why? Because if she had lie, Harry & co would have sue by now. He really should not have poked the bear.

Harry really does not know black women. In our cultures, we are taught that we must work 2x as hard to get anything, to always put our best foot forward etc He threatened her reputation and by extension her livelihood and career. As black women, we are taught to keep proof of everything. As a lawyer, I am sure she covered all her basis.

And all that for what? Because she refused to let Sentebale be used to remove the bad press his wife received after SHE acted rudely and was rightly criticised for it.

Madness.

 

[shady lady]

If she lies, Harry should sue her for defamation. (But would he?)

Thank you for the link to the whole interview!

I doubt very much he will sue, despite his love of litigation.

Dr Sophie Chandauka wouldn't expose herself (for want of a better expression) to the possibility of that happening unless she was very sure of what she was doing - and sure that she had the proof to back it up.

I thought she was very good in the interview and very believable. It's high time PH was held accountable for his behaviour publicly instead of it being covered up and swept under the carpet.

 

[Hallo girl]

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/30/...arasssment-bullying-sentebale-intl/index.html

A CNN look at the Sentebale furore.

‘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,” she said on Sky’s Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips program.


“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 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 source told CNN.’

I am unclear who carried out the publicity stunt, it was Harry that went to the press with a statement saying he had resigned ,Did the rest of us know anything about it until then. She has said it was his actions that resulted in her giving an interview.
At the moment it is he said, she said.
Some of what she said in the interview is check able,
1. The needed to find a new venue for the polo because he wanted to film it for Netflix,
2. There was a significant change in donations and sponsors after Harry moved away .
3. The reduction in donors/ sponsorship was not being discussed fully at meetings.
It should be able to confirm or otherwise those issues, rather than a ‘ source’ speaking to CNN.

 

[Curryong]

I very much doubt that the entire board including several African members, All the Trustees, and Harry’s co-patron Prince Seeiso, resigned en masse because of any such request about Meghan to the Chair and her subsequent refusal. The truth will come out eventually and then we shall see.

Let’s hope for the sake of Sentebale (an organisation extremely close to Harry’s heart for twenty years) that fresh donors can be found in South Africa. Large sums came from Harry almost annually from Polo matches that he participated in.

 

[RoyalNight]

I don’t know who to believe. Dr Chandauka surely has some valid points, but she didn’t really answer any of the accusations about her. And why isn’t Prince Seeiso mentioned at all? He surely had some decision making power in the charity. It’s all about Harry.

 

[shady lady]

I am unclear who carried out the publicity stunt, it was Harry that went to the press with a statement saying he had resigned ,Did the rest of us know anything about it until then. She has said it was his actions that resulted in her giving an interview.
At the moment it is he said, she said.
Some of what she said in the interview is check able,
1. The needed to find a new venue for the polo because he wanted to film it for Netflix,
2. There was a significant change in donations and sponsors after Harry moved away .
3. The reduction in donors/ sponsorship was not being discussed fully at meetings.
It should be able to confirm or otherwise those issues, rather than a ‘ source’ speaking to CNN.

Yes. Who are these "sources" who always speak up for H&M when they get in a tight spot? PH started it by going to the press trying to force Dr Chandauka to resign, now she has had the courage to calmly and rationally speak up and defend herself. As she pointed out in the interview, she was only doing it because of his statement, which included that he was "resigning until further notice" - now how do you do that - you either resign or you don't! To me that says it all about tactics. Now PH has gone very quiet and once again we have the mysterious "source". What source?

HP source? Tomato source?

 

[Ghost]

So close that he didn’t visit for six years.

I am not sure how much to believe from each side, but I for sure know the things that happened: that netflix filmed at that polo cup for the polo documentary, that Meghan redirected Sophie for that photo, that Harry didn’t visit for six years, that sussexroyal and WMX had problems as charities, that archewell is always late and/or in error with filling the due forms.

What Sophie says was good enough for that Charity surveillence body to open an investigation.

 

[shady lady]

I don’t know who to believe. Dr Chandauka surely has some valid points, but she didn’t really answer any of the accusations about her. And why isn’t Prince Seeiso mentioned at all? He surely had some decision making power in the charity. It’s all about Harry.

Perhaps Prince Seeiso wasn't the one causing problems. Hence he wasn't mentioned.

Personally I thought she did answer the accusations despite being clearly uncomfortable about having to spill the beans as it were.

 

[carlota]

Thank you for the link to the whole interview!

I doubt very much he will sue, despite his love of litigation.

Dr Sophie Chandauka wouldn't expose herself (for want of a better expression) to the possibility of that happening unless she was very sure of what she was doing - and sure that she had the proof to back it up.

I thought she was very good in the interview and very believable. It's high time PH was held accountable for his behaviour publicly instead of it being covered up and swept under the carpet.

I also thought it was a good interview. Sophie is very eloquent and sharp.

Some things that stood out from the video (thanks for posting) for me:

- how she claims she whistleblowed against how she was being treated and her claim was swept under the carpet by the investigators - reminds me of how the sussexes accused the palace some time ago of similar behaviour
- how she claims she was bullied / harassed, exactly as they claimed had happened to Meghan
- how she explains that the board had not changed in much longer than the charity standards suggest is good practice. This sounds like a red flag with respect to the governance of the organisation
- how the polo match was to take place at a venue that gave them a discount to use it due to them being a charity, then harry said he wanted to bring the Netflix cameras and they increased their prices making sentebale not able to afford it. So it means harry didn’t care at all that his precious charity now had to use precious extra funds To pay for the venue because he wanted to bring cameras for his own financial gain. Someone who actually cared, one would think, would avoid bringing the cameras so that the funds of the charity could be used more efficiently.

 

[RoyalNight]

Perhaps Prince Seeiso wasn't the one causing problems. Hence he wasn't mentioned.

Personally I thought she did answer the accusations despite being clearly uncomfortable about having to spill the beans as it were.

For me it lacked examples what she did and what was said. All accusations were brushed as „not true”, „misogyny”. For Harry she had solid examples.

 

[EvaH]

Interesting transcript from DM. Some things they accused the palace and BRF, they allegedly did as well.

These are the damning allegations in full:

• Sentabale lost key sponsors when Harry left Britain

'There was quite a significant correlation between the time the organisation started to see a departure of major organisations and Prince Harry's departure from the UK itself,' Dr Chandauka said.

• Others at Sentabale refused to address this issue, suggesting it was an 'uncomfortable' discussion to have with Harry in the room

'Then when you discuss with the senior executive team and ask why there isn't a conversation about this, the answer is it's really difficult to have this conversation because the instruction was it's an uncomfortable conversation to have with Prince Harry in the room,' she said.

• Donors walked out because of Harry's reputation

Interviewer Trevor Phillips said: 'Before we come to that, let me just get this to be absolutely clear here. You're saying Sophie, number one, that, what you discovered was essentially donors were walking because of the Prince's reputation.'
Dr Chandauka replied: 'Yes.'

• Harry appointed people to the board with no discussion and without talking to Dr Chandauka about it

The charity chairman said: 'Prince Harry decides, on this specific occasion, that he wants to appoint an individual to the board, with immediate effect, without having talked to me. It's not on the agenda and somehow everybody's just supposed to tolerate that.'

• A venue for charity Polo match for Sentebale was lost because Harry wanted to bring Netflix camera crew

'Prince Harry called the team and said, 'I'm doing a Netflix show, and I would love to bring a camera crew so that I can include some footage in this show.' And so the team called me and told me, 'Oh, Prince Harry's made this request, so we're doing the things'.

'I said, you can't be doing the things without seeking consent from the property owners, the sponsors, all the guests. Nobody signed up to being on a Netflix show.

'And so we have this discussion about the need to talk to everybody. We come up with draft agreements and of course, the venue owner says this is now a commercial undertaking. So here are my terms. We couldn't afford it. So now we lost the venue.'

• Harry interfered in an investigation into Dr Chandauka's complaints of bullying and misogyny

'It was me who was the problem because I put a whistleblower complaint about the bullying, the harassment and the misogyny and Prince Harry interfered in the investigation of that.'

I presume she is keeping the financial/governance/meatier accusations for the court.

 

[Curryong]

This Chair is certainly eager to defend her own position. And so goes after an easy and well known target, Prince Harry.

The fact that the entire board of Trustees and co-patron Prince Seeiso, have all resigned is, according to this woman, because they are all prejudiced against her, every one of them, and used bullying tactics against her. Even fellow Africans like Patron Prince Seeiso and several Trustees. She doesn't seem to mind playing the victim card herself!

She stated that ‘people were afraid to speak’ in the boardroom when Harry entered. Really?!!

And, by the way, Sophie is currently based in New York, not Southern Africa. Great for reaching out and getting sponsors in from the African continent, then.
She's made plenty of allegations, yes, against an easy target, but we don't know that any of them are correct. What of the accusations against her?

And the ex Trustees and ex Patrons have already stated that they will be speaking with the Charity Commission in due course.

 

[Hallo girl]

I very much doubt that the entire board including several African members, All the Trustees, and Harry’s co-patron Prince Seeiso, resigned en masse because of any such request about Meghan to the Chair and her subsequent refusal. The truth will come out eventually and then we shall see.

Let’s hope for the sake of Sentebale (an organisation extremely close to Harry’s heart for twenty years) that fresh donors can be found in South Africa. Large sums came from Harry almost annually from Polo matches that he participated in.

I do not think anybody is saying the polo incident is the main if only issue.
Harry started this by going to the press, now it is only sources that we hear from. Who was it that said they would not be using sources when they moved away.
Sophie has came out and said her piece, she is a highly qualified lawyer , I would be surprised if she could not back up her statements.

This Chair is certainly eager to defend her own position. And so goes after an easy and well known target, Prince Harry.

The fact that the entire board of Trustees and co-patron Prince Seeiso, have all resigned is, according to this woman, because they are all prejudiced against her, every one of them, and used bullying tactics against her. Even fellow Africans like Patron Prince Seeiso and several Trustees. She doesn't seem to mind playing the victim card herself!

She stated that ‘people were afraid to speak’ in the boardroom when Harry entered. Really?!!

And, by the way, Sophie is currently based in New York, not Southern Africa. Great for reaching out and getting sponsors in from the African continent, then.
She's made plenty of allegations, yes, against an easy target, but we don't know that any of them are correct. What of the accusations against her?

And the ex Trustees and ex Patrons have already stated that they will be speaking with the Charity Commission in due course.

Why is Harry an easy target? He was the patron of the charity, he went to the press not her.

 

[RoyalNight]

Why is Harry an easy target? He was the patron of the charity, he went to the press not her.

I kind of agree he’s an easy target. He’s the highest profile of them all and is the most recognizable. He’s actions were heavily discussed and criticized in recent years so he’s the best to „target”.

And going to the press is a strategy to force the other side to respond. But it doesn’t mean the one making public statements is guilty nor innocent.

 

[shady lady]

Why is Harry an easy target? He was the patron of the charity, he went to the press not her.

I suspect that if Dr Chandauka was making complaints against anyone else other than PH she would be supported

 

[Hallo girl]

This Chair is certainly eager to defend her own position. And so goes after an easy and well known target, Prince Harry.

The fact that the entire board of Trustees and co-patron Prince Seeiso, have all resigned is, according to this woman, because they are all prejudiced against her, every one of them, and used bullying tactics against her. Even fellow Africans like Patron Prince Seeiso and several Trustees. She doesn't seem to mind playing the victim card herself!

She stated that ‘people were afraid to speak’ in the boardroom when Harry entered. Really?!!

And, by the way, Sophie is currently based in New York, not Southern Africa. Great for reaching out and getting sponsors in from the African continent, then.
She's made plenty of allegations, yes, against an easy target, but we don't know that any of them are correct. What of the accusations against her?

And the ex Trustees and ex Patrons have already stated that they will be speaking with the Charity Commission in due

Time will tell.

 

[Alison H]

I think this has been very badly handled all round. Everyone involved seems a lot more concerned about themselves than about Sentebale's work.

 

[soapstar]

If Harry has a problem with what she’s saying, he can always come out and speak publicly. I mean, we know he has no problem giving extensive interviews (and writing books) when he wants to get his view across.

There have been many stories about how difficult it is to work for the Sussexes. Their staff turnover has been excessive, not to mention the claims of bullying that Harry himself inadvertently acknowledged. He said in his book that there were days his staff would be crying at their desks - which is not a healthy work environment. So it’s not far fetched to believe the allegations against Harry.

At the end of the day, it sounds like there was a clash of ideas. Harry was no longer as connected - he wasn’t bringing in the money and hadn’t visited the charity in 6 years. Which was something the board was afraid to discuss with him. While Dr. Sophie Chandauka was struggling to find donors and wanted the focus to be more local. Interestingly, I just read an article that said Dr. Chandauka’s family was the 3rd largest donor to Sentebale.

All this makes me wonder about the survival of Invictus. There have been quite a few articles detailing the issues the charity has with money and the way it’s being run. Before the last games, two senior executives were supposedly fired without cause. The issues surrounding Invictus seem quite similar to the issues surrounding Sentebale. So it makes me wonder where the charity will go from here and how long it can last under Harry.

Prince Harry's Invictus Games in chaos as TWO top chiefs are 'sacked'

EXCLUSIVE: CEO Peter Lawless, a lawyer and arguably Canada's most respected Olympic and Paralympic administrator, has left his job abruptly, as well as the Games' Chief Commercial Officer.

www.dailymail.co.uk

As for Harry being an easy target, I just find it ironic that the things he accused the BRF of (racism, bullying, leaking to the media/using sources), are things he’s now being accused of doing.

 

[Hallo girl]

This Chair is certainly eager to defend her own position. And so goes after an easy and well known target, Prince Harry.

The fact that the entire board of Trustees and co-patron Prince Seeiso, have all resigned is, according to this woman, because they are all prejudiced against her, every one of them, and used bullying tactics against her. Even fellow Africans like Patron Prince Seeiso and several Trustees. She doesn't seem to mind playing the victim card herself!

She stated that ‘people were afraid to speak’ in the boardroom when Harry entered. Really?!!

And, by the way, Sophie is currently based in New York, not Southern Africa. Great for reaching out and getting sponsors in from the African continent, then.
She's made plenty of allegations, yes, against an easy target, but we don't know that any of them are correct. What of the accusations against her?

And the ex Trustees and ex Patrons have already stated that they will be speaking with the Charity Commission in due course.

Harry knows all about easy targets..

It really does sound like that for whatever reason Sophie was not happy with the governance/ running of the charity, she wanted to make changes, Harry and the Trustees did not like the changes and tried to eject her from the job. She did not back down she fought back... I wouldn't be surprised if she ends up walking away anyway but not before all the facts are in the public domain for people to make up their own minds.

 

[Catman]

Yes, we don’t know whether Dr. Chandauka’s allegations are factually correct or not. But the Sussexes have always made a point that their version of events is ‘their truth’. So Harry would be hypocritical not to acknowledge that her allegations are, at the very least, ‘her truth’.

 

[TLLK]

Harry knows all about easy targets..

It really does sound like that for whatever reason Sophie was not happy with the governance/ running of the charity, she wanted to make changes, Harry and the Trustees did not like the changes and tried to eject her from the job. She did not back down she fought back... I wouldn't be surprised if she ends up walking away anyway but not before all the facts are in the public domain for people to make up their own minds.

I am astounded to learn from the interview that there were no term limits for board members. Even more surprised to learn that Harry wanted someone appointed to the board without bringing it forward as an agenda item and that there was no discussion before the motion to vote!

 

[Duke of Marmalade]

I am astounded to learn from the interview that there were no term limits for board members. Even more surprised to learn that Harry wanted someone appointed to the board without bringing it forward as an agenda item and that there was no discussion before the motion to vote!

What Harry wants, Harry gets ... or this is what he was used to all his life until just recently.

 

[victor1319]

Please excuse me for being so uninformed and asking stupid questions:

So, Prince Harry and this Prince from Lesotho are the founders of this foundation? Or were they just the prominent faces, that were shown to the public?

And has Prince Harry personally or Prince Harry's own charity donated to the Sentebale foundation? And if "yes", do we know how often and how much?

 

[Royalist.in.NC]

I am astounded to learn from the interview that there were no term limits for board members. Even more surprised to learn that Harry wanted someone appointed to the board without bringing it forward as an agenda item and that there was no discussion before the motion to vote!

You just don’t do that in a board

 

[Durham]

The interviewer was Trevor Phillips, former head of the UK Commision for Racial Equality & its successor body.

He's a good interviewer, fair but persistent. I bet you all the chicken eggs in Montecito that Harry wouldn't agree to be interviewed by someone of Philips' calibre.

 

[Alison H]

Please excuse me for being so uninformed and asking stupid questions:

So, Prince Harry and this Prince from Lesotho are the founders of this foundation? Or were they just the prominent faces, that were shown to the public?

And has Prince Harry personally or Prince Harry's own charity donated to the Sentebale foundation? And if "yes", do we know how often and how much?

Prince Harry and Prince Seeiso founded it.

 

[Somebody]

It may not be as black and white but I doubt she is lying on big scale. I watched the interview in full and a lot sounds very much like credible 'Harry behaviour'.

Just watched in full as well. Of course, this is one side of the story but she wasn't let of lightly by the interviewer and was able to bring some nuance into the discussion at times, for example stressing that while the bullying and harassment were done by Harry and the Sussex machine, the misogyny was not coming from Harry but from other trustees who didn't take lightly to a woman leading the board (and to other women on the board).

Her original findings when starting as a chair seem very plausible as well. I can well imagine that Harry leaving the UK/royal family had an impact on fundraising (it would have been weird if nothing had changed - so the denial of that (and everything else) by the anonymous source seems rather untrustworthy) - and yes, of course, that would be an uncomfortable discussion to have but still a necessary one. Unfortunately, that seemed to have made her the number one enemy of some of the trustees and prince Harry more recently. I thought Iain Rawlinson described it very well when he explained (in more diplomatic terms) that a big problem was that part of the board prioritized Harry over the charity:

"You are expecting the board to act independently, to support the charitable objects and to support the organization as a whole. If you get some trustees, or a part of the board, which is serving an external party that can create a number of difficulties and it can create dysfunctionality. Because if they are serving the external party over and above the interests of the charity as a whole you can get into a muddle."

This principle of serving Harry over the charity's goals was evident on the board level in the example of suddenly appointing another trustee to the organization without prior discussion and the trickle-down effect of that in day-to-day practice in the polo example - when the Netflix commercial enterprise took precedence over the charity's interests and Sentebale was expected to publicly support the Duchess (who lied to them about her intention to come and by doing so was responsible for creating the unnecessary fuzz in the first place) against media allegation.

 

[tommy100]

Surely Netflix (or Archewell Productions) could simply have offered to pay the increased fee once it was stated there was a desire to film at the polo.

I agree that it sounds like perhaps there were too many people on the board whose primary aim was to support Harry not the charity. The fact they couldn't have a conversation about the decrease in support when Harry left the RF because it "was uncomfortable" says a lot.

TBH I think Harry is really struggling without the support being in the RF brings in terms of advising him how best to handle such things.

 

[TLLK]

Surely Netflix (or Archewell Productions) could simply have offered to pay the increased fee once it was stated there was a desire to film at the polo.

I agree that it sounds like perhaps there were too many people on the board whose primary aim was to support Harry not the charity. The fact they couldn't have a conversation about the decrease in support when Harry left the RF because it "was uncomfortable" says a lot.

TBH I think Harry is really struggling without the support being in the RF brings in terms of advising him how best to handle such things.

I agree that supporting Harry was a likely goal for a number of people on the board. When it was time to have the challenging conversations with him, they were reluctant to do so.

 

[shady lady]

Archived from the Telegraph, published earlier today:

Prince Harry ‘sent unpleasant and imperious message’ to charity boss

archived 31 Mar 2025 11:28:37 UTC

archive.ph

"He initially asked his team to contact the Zimbabwean-born lawyer and request she issue a statement quashing any rumours of tension between her and the Duchess.

However, after she refused to be drawn into the row, Prince Harry fired a direct message to her allegedly demanding that she “explain herself”.

According to sources, the note was “unpleasant” in tone and used “imperious” language that left the charity boss feeling taken aback."