Britain’s Prince Harry accused of bullying, harassment by charity chairwoman
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Prince Harry quit his charity helping young people with HIV and Aids after a "devastating" dispute with chairwoman Sophie Chandauka.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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LONDON – The chairwoman of a charity Prince Harry set up to help young people with HIV and Aids in Lesotho and Botswana has accused him of “harassment and bullying at scale” after he quit this week over a dispute he described as “devastating”.
Prince Harry, the younger son of Britain’s King Charles III, co-founded Sentebale in 2006 in honour of his late mother, Diana, Princess of Wales. He left it – along with co-founder Prince Seeiso of Lesotho and the board of trustees – following a dispute with chairwoman Sophie Chandauka.
In an interview with Sky News that will be broadcast in full on March 30, Ms Chandauka said, referring to the way Prince Harry resigned: “At some point on Tuesday, Prince Harry authorised the release of a damaging piece of news to the outside world without informing me or my country directors, or my executive director.
“And can you imagine what that attack has done for me, on me and the 540 individuals in the Sentebale organisations and their family.
“That is an example of harassment and bullying at scale.”
Representatives for Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the allegations.
Sky News said the couple declined to offer any formal response to the interview.
A source close to the charity’s trustees and patrons, including Prince Harry, said they fully expected what they described as a publicity stunt and reached their collective decision with this in mind.
The same source said they remained firm in their decision to resign.
Prince Harry and Prince Seeiso said in a joint statement on March 26 that it was “devastating” that the relationship between the charity’s trustees and Ms Chandauka had broken beyond repair.
Ms Chandauka has previously said Sentebale was beset by “poor governance, weak executive management, abuse of power, bullying, harassment, misogyny (and) misogynoir”.
In an interview with the Financial Times published on March 29, she said she was asked by Prince Harry’s team to protect the Duchess of Sussex after negative media coverage, which she refused to do.
She also said the way Sentebale was run “was no longer appropriate in 2023 in a post-Black Lives Matter world... funders were asking for locally led initiatives”.
Prince Harry and Prince Seeiso said on March 26 that the trustees acted in the charity’s best interests in asking Ms Chandauka to step down, but in turn she sued Sentebale to remain in her position. REUTERS
