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LONDON (AP) — The chairperson of an African charity co-founded by Prince Harry accused the royal on Sunday of orchestrating a bullying and harassment campaign to try to force her out as she pushed back following his abrupt resignation from the organization.
Sophie Chandauka, the Sentebale chair, took several shots at Harry on Sky News in which she described how the prince’s Netflix deal interfered with a scheduled fundraiser and how an incident with his wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, became a source of friction.
The Duke of Sussex cited a breakdown in the relationship between board members and Chandauka when he resigned Tuesday as a patron of the charity he co-founded nearly 20 years ago in memory of his late mother, Princess Diana.
Harry and co-founder Prince Seeiso of Lesotho said in a joint statement that they quit “with heavy hearts” as patrons in support of the trustees in their dispute with Chandauka.
“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,” the princes said. “In turn, she sued the charity to remain in this voluntary position, further underscoring the broken relationship.”
Chandauka said she reported Sentebale’s trustees to the Charity Commission in the U.K. and filed papers in a British court to prevent her removal.
She alleged there was misconduct at the charity without naming anyone or offering any details in a statement Tuesday. It said she had tried to blow the whistle on “abuse of power, bullying, harassment, misogyny and misogynoir,” the latter word referring to a combination of racism and misogyny directed toward Black women.
Chandauka told Sky that Harry’s resignation had caught her blindsided and was “an example of harassment and bullying at scale.” She said he also had interfered with her whistleblower complaint.
“So it’s a cover-up, and the prince is involved,” she said.
Chandauka said there was a significant drop in donors after Harry and Meghan left official royal duties in January 2020, and eventually settled in California.
The charity, whose name means “don’t forget me” in the Sesotho language of Lesotho and South Africa, was founded to help youths affected by AIDS in the small mountainous nation and in Botswana. But it is now moving to address youth health, wealth and climate resilience in southern Africa.
The biggest risk to the charity was the “toxicity of its lead patron’s brand,” Chandauka told the Financial Times.
A person close to the charity’s patrons and trustees and familiar with events countered Chandauka’s claims. The person, who requested anonymity because the allegations are under scrutiny by the Charity Commission, said Harry and Seeiso had sent a resignation letter to the chair on March 10 — two weeks before they went public with the news.
The person said the trustees and patrons were firm in their decision to leave and had collectively decided to resign with the expectation Chandauka would pull such a publicity stunt after their departure.
In the Sky interview, she said that a polo fundraiser scheduled in Miami last year almost fell apart when Harry asked to bring a camera crew along that was filming him for a Netflix series on the sport.
The cost of the venue skyrocketed when it became a commercial venture and they scrambled to find another host, which Harry arranged through his connections, she said.
Meghan’s surprise appearance at the event led to an awkward moment during the trophy presentation after the match, Chandauka said.
In a video clip circulated on social media, Chandauka tried to pose next to the duke as he held the trophy in one hand and had his other wrapped around Meghan. But the duchess appeared to gesture that Chandauka move farther from Harry, forcing her to duck under the silver cup to get into the photo.
“The international press captured this, and there was a lot of talk about the duchess and the choreography on stage and whether she should have been there and her treatment of me,” Chandauka said.
She said she rejected Harry’s request that she issue a statement in support of Meghan, because “we cannot be an extension of the Sussexes.”
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