The drama surrounding Prince Harry’s departure from the African AIDS charity he founded escalated Wednesday as the organization’s Black chairwoman went public with claims of misogyny and racism.
Harry announced a day earlier that he and the board of trustees had quit the charity, Sentebale, over a dispute with its chairwoman, Sophie Chandauka, a Zimbabwe-born lawyer based in New York. The prince said it was “devastating” that the relationship between the trustees and Chandauka had broken down “beyond repair,” creating an “untenable situation.”
Chandauka, in a statement, complained about “weak executive management, abuse of power, bullying, harassment, misogyny, and misogynoir”—a term for discrimination against Black women in particular.
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Harry created Sentebale in 2006 to honor his late mother, Princess Diana, who died in a car crash in Paris less than a decade earlier. The organization traditionally operated in Botswana and Lesotho in southern Africa, supporting vulnerable children affected by HIV/AIDS.
The name means “forget-me-not,” in the local language of Lesotho—the landlocked country surrounded by South Africa that President Donald Trump offended by claiming no one “has ever heard of” the nation in a speech to a joint session of Congress earlier this month.
Harry co-founded the charity with Prince Seeiso of Lesotho, who also lost his mother at an early age. Seeiso and the trustees followed Harry in leaving the organization until further notice.
For Harry, Sentebale represented a vital connection to his humanitarian endeavors following his departure from official royal duties.
Alongside the Invictus Games, it was one of the few royal roles he retained after leaving his role as a working royal, which may go some way to explain his devastation at being forced out of the charity.
In a notably aggressive statement shared with the Daily Beast, Harry’s team said that Chandauka had been asked to stand down, but had refused and had retaliated by suing those demanding her resignation.
Harry said of his own resignation: “What’s transpired is unthinkable. We are in shock that we have to do this.”
Chandauka replied with an equally devastating statement.
“My actions are guided by the principles of fairness and equitable treatment for all, regardless of social status or financial means,” she said. “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.”
The comment did not specifically name Harry, who has a long history of disparaging the press, but whose statement was leaked to the London Times Tuesday night before it was officially released.
Chandauka added: “Beneath all the victim narrative and fiction that has been syndicated to the 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 coverup that ensued. I could be anyone. I just happen to be an educated woman who understands that the law will guide and protect me.”
“For me, this is not a vanity project from which I can resign when I am called to account. I am an African who has had the privilege of a world-class education and career. I will not be intimidated. I must stand for something. I stand for those other women who do not have the ways and means.”
The Daily Beast has approached Prince Harry’s office asking if they will have any further comment in response to Chandauka’s statemnt.
The charity said it was “pleased” to confirm its board had been restructured and said it was now no longer focused on HIV-related issues but on “youth health, wealth and climate resilience in Southern Africa.”
Sentebale, which is registered as a charity in Britain, is now being investigated by the U.K. Charity Commission—although both sides have taken credit for calling them in.
Harry said: “We have a continued responsibility to Sentebale’s beneficiaries, so we will be sharing all of our concerns with the Charity Commission as to how this came about.”
Chandauka said: “Discerning readers will ask themselves: why would the Chair of the Board report her own Trustees to the Charity Commission? Why would the High Court of England and Wales accept her application to hear the matter at all if the case had no merit?”
Chandauka says on her LinkedIn that she is based in New York and is co-founder of Nandi Life Sciences, a U.S.-based biotech funding vehicle and has held “senior corporate roles leading strategy, legal, and operations functions for complex, systemically important firms across the legal, technology, retail, and investment banking sectors, including Baker McKenzie, the Virgin Group, Morgan Stanley, and Meta.”
