On Tuesday, Prince Harry announced he was resigning from his patron position at Sentebale, a charity he co-founded in 2006 in honor of his late mother, Princess Diana. Harry originally founded Sentebale alongside Prince Seeiso of Lesotho with the mission of helping people in Lesotho and Botswana who were living in poverty, as well as those suffering from HIV and AIDS. Now, it seems like their mission has gone a little sideways — Harry and his co-founder referred to an “untenable situation” with Sentebale’s chairwoman, Dr. Sophie Chandauka, who in turn accused them of running the charity as a “vanity project.”
This all started when Harry and Seeiso shared a statement with the Times about their departure from Sentebale, alluding to tensions with Chandauka. “With heavy hearts, we have resigned from our roles as patrons of the organisation until further notice, in support of and solidarity with the board of trustees who have had to do the same,” they wrote. “It is devastating that the relationship between the charity’s trustees and the chair of the board broke down beyond repair, creating an untenable situation.”
In a statement, the departing trustees cited a “loss in trust and confidence” in Chandauka as their reason for resigning. The Times reported that the board had questioned whether or not she was a good fit for her role as chairwoman, primarily because she had moved the operation to Africa.
But Chandauka sees things a little differently. In her statement to the Times, she said she filed a lawsuit against the organization for their attempts to push her out. She also noted that she has reported the trustees to the United Kingdom’s Charity Commission. Harry and Seeiso said in their statement that they, too, will be sharing their concerns with the Charity Commission.
“There are people in this world who behave as though they are above the law and mistreat people, and then play the victim card and use the very press they disdain to harm people who have the courage to challenge their conduct,” Chandauka said in a statement to the Times. “Beneath all the victim narrative and fiction that has been syndicated to press is 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 cover-up that ensued.”
Something is definitely going on here, and it might not just be Harry’s usual penchant for flopping. On paper, it’s hard to see how the African woman who moved the charity meant to help Africans to Africa can be in the wrong here, but who knows. As for Harry, he has several other charities to fill his time with. And hey, there’s always the Netflix deal?
