Prince Harry lost interest in his Sentebale charity after marrying the Duchess of Sussex and moving to the US, it has been claimed.
According to the brother of Prince Seeiso, the charity’s co-founder, Harry’s dwindling attention ‘killed the spirit’ of the charity after he married Meghan in 2018 and relocated in 2020.
The royal founded the organisation in honour of his mother Diana, Princess of Wales in 2006 with Prince Seeiso of Lesotho to help young people and children in southern Africa, particularly those living with HIV and Aids.
However, the pair stepped down last month after a string of allegations from the charity’s chairman Sophie Chandauka.
Harry last visited Lesotho in October 2024 but it was his first in six years. He had jetted over more frequently beforehand – making four trips between June 2010 and the end of 2015.
Prince Seeiso’s brother chief Khoabane Theko said he was ‘perturbed’ when Harry and Meghan failed to visit Lesotho when on holiday in Africa.
Speaking to the Telegraph, the chief said he believes the Duke of Sussex could have visited ‘more often’.
He said: ‘When [Sentebale] was launched, I remember his words quite vividly, because he was very strong in saying “my mother, this place, her passion about Africa” and all that.’
Dr Sophie Chandauka, pictured with Meghan and Harry at a polo event last year that sparked a row. A year on the trio have fallen out and the Duke of Sussex resigned from Sentebale
Prince Seeiso of Lesotho and Prince Harry at a children’s centre in Lesotho in October 2024
Twenty-two-year-old Prince Harry wearing a shirt with the Sentebale logo with children from the Good Shepherd Centre, which helps mothers living in poverty or with illness, on a visit to Lesotho in 2006
The chief, who was not aware Harry had visited Lesotho twice since his marriage, added: ‘He’s a loved figure because of his openness, but his loss of interest has totally killed the spirit of the Sentebale’s survival.
‘I haven’t seen him [Prince Harry] since he got himself married.’
It comes after earlier this month Harry accused Dr Chandauka of telling ‘blatant lies’ as Britain’s charities watchdog launched an investigation into ‘concerns’ about how the charity he set up in his mother’s memory has been run.
The Charity Commission opened a regulatory compliance case a week after Harry quit as a patron and demanded the resignation of Dr Chandauka.
She refused, took legal action to remain in post and reported her concerns to the Charity Commission, who responded by announcing an investigation.
The Duke of Sussex has spoken out about the bitter boardroom battle for control of Sentebale that has engulfed him in scandal. He has said he believes the truth about their deepening rift will be ‘unveiled’.
‘What has transpired over the last week has been heartbreaking to witness, especially when such blatant lies hurt those who have invested decades in this shared goal. No one suffers more than the beneficiaries of Sentebale itself’, he said.
Sentebale chairman Dr Sophie Chandauka has made several damaging claims against the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, calling their brand ‘toxic’
Since his resignation, Dr Chandauka has called the Sussexes’ brand ‘toxic’ and accused Harry of ‘harassment and bullying at scale’ – a claim that is denied.
She also suggested Harry is playing ‘the victim card’ and said: ‘Really, what Prince Harry wanted to do was to eject me from the organisation and this went on for months. I have documentation’.
Meghan was also dragged into the rift and accused of gatecrashing a polo event in aid of Sentebale with Serena Williams and a Netflix crew in tow in April 2024. There was then an excruciating video showing her moving the Sentebale chief away from her husband at the trophy presentation.
It came after Harry left the charity he set up in 2006 in the dispute with its chairwoman, declaring that he was ‘truly heartbroken’ but the ‘relationship between the charity’s trustees and the chair of the board had broken down beyond repair’.
The Charity Commission said that it had informed Sentebale that it had ‘opened a regulatory compliance case to examine concerns raised about the charity’, which has been welcomed by both Dr Chandauka and the duke.
The compliance case is not the same as a statutory inquiry, but rather allows the watchdog to ‘gather evidence and assess the compliance of the charity and trustees past and present with their legal duties’ and responsibilities under charity law.
Ms Chandauka said she welcomes the opening of the case and hopes the outcome can ‘comfort’ the public that the charity and its new trustees are ‘acting appropriately’.
Harry said in a statement: ‘From the inception of Sentebale nearly 20 years ago, Prince Seeiso and I have had a clear goal: to support the children and young people in Southern Africa in memory of our mothers.
‘On behalf of the former trustees and patrons, we share in the relief that the Charity Commission confirmed they will be conducting a robust inquiry.
‘We fully expect it will unveil the truth that collectively forced us to resign.
‘We remain hopeful this will allow for the charity to be put in the right hands immediately, for the sake of the communities we serve.’
Prince Harry giggles as he holds old friend Mutsu Potsane, six, in the grounds of the Mants’ase childrens home, while on a return visit to Lesotho in 2006 as he set up Sentebale
The ‘highly awkward’ moment at a fundraising polo match for Sentebale in the US last year. The incident now forms part of the row between the charity boss and Harry
The Oxford-educated Zimbabwean lawyer also claimed Sentebale was a ‘vanity project’ for Harry, portraying herself as a whistle-blower and highlighting ‘poor governance, weak executive management, abuse of power, bullying, harassment, misogyny, misogynoir and the cover-up that ensued’.
She also lifted the lid on their row over a Miami polo event organised to raise funds for Sentebale last April.
She claimed it was derailed by the prince’s insistence on bringing along a Netflix film crew with him to shoot scenes for a documentary he was making on polo. She believes it resulted in the charity losing the venue.
When the event was re-organised, she says, Meghan turned up unannounced, bringing along with her a friend, tennis star Serena Williams.
At a prize giving ceremony the ensuing chaos on stage saw Ms Chandauka seemingly elbowed out by the Duchess of Sussex in a highly awkward exchange that was caught on camera.
It is alleged Harry asked her to make a statement ‘in support of the duchess’ which she refused, saying it was important that the charity wasn’t seen as an ‘extension of the Sussexes’.
This was in part because Harry’s decision to quit the Royal Family had been proving problematic for the charity in terms of decision-making and attracting sponsors, she has alleged.
The royal is understood to have sent the ‘extraordinary’ text message to Sophie Chandauka demanding to know how she was going to deal with the public debacle involving his wife Meghan, who was being accused of snubbing her at a fundraising polo match.
Sources have described the message as ‘basically very unpleasant’, ‘imperious’ and ‘fairly extraordinary’ in tone, and asking her ‘how are you going to deal with this?’
Dr Chandauka (left), the chair of Prince Harry’s beleaguered charity Sentebale, said she had been asked to defend Meghan Markle against negative publicity but declined
The royal founded the organisation in honour of his mother Diana, Princess of Wales in 2006 with Prince Seeiso of Lesotho to help young people and children in southern Africa, particularly those living with HIV and Aids
The royal founded the organisation in honour of his mother Diana, Princess of Wales in 2006 with Prince Seeiso of Lesotho to help young people and children in southern Africa, particularly those living with HIV and Aids.
Last month it emerged that several trustees had left the charity in a dispute with its chairwoman, Sophie Chandauka, having requested her resignation.
Harry and Prince Seeiso backed the departing trustees and announced they had resigned as patrons until further notice.
They said their resignations came ‘with heavy hearts’, adding that it was ‘devastating that the relationship between the charity’s trustees and the chair of the board broke down beyond repair, creating an untenable situation’.
Ms Chandauka issued a statement in which she alleged there had been ‘poor governance, weak executive management, abuse of power, bullying, harassment, misogyny, misogynoir’.
The commission said it had informed the charity that it had ‘opened a regulatory compliance case to examine concerns raised about the charity’.
This allows the watchdog to ‘gather evidence and assess the compliance of the charity and trustees past and present with their legal duties’ and responsibilities under charity law.
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