The chairwoman of a charity co-founded by Prince Harry has accused him of “harassment and bullying at scale” in a TV interview Sunday as he and others involved with the charity quit this week via CNN.
Sophie Chandauka, the chairwoman of Sentebale, stated that the Duke of Sussex unleashed “the Sussex (PR) machine” on her earlier this week when he publicly quit as a patron of the charity, along with co-founder, Prince Seeiso of Lesotho, and the board of trustees.
“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.”
As per 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.
The source also countered Chandauka’s claim that the press had been informed about the exits before the charity, stating both Prince Harry and Prince Seeiso had sent a resignation letter to the chairwoman and trustees on March 10th.
Sentebale, however, told CNN in a statement that, although “some members of the executive have had sight of a letter that was signed on behalf of the trustees,” there had been no resignation letter from the patrons.
In another interview, published Saturday, Chandauka said Prince Harry and Prince Seeiso “want to force a failure and then come to the rescue” of the organization.
While the specifics of the row are not clear, Chandauka told the Financial Times there had been friction between the charity’s UK-based staff and those in Lesotho and Botswana.
This, she said, was triggered by her efforts to transform the charity and shift decision-making to leaders in southern Africa.
