The Duke of Sussex has lost his battle for control of the charity he set up in his mother’s memory as a watchdog criticised him for his part in a “damaging” bullying row.
Sentebale, which Prince Harry co-founded in 2006, was thrown into crisis in March when Dr Sophie Chandauka, its chairman, made claims of harassment and misogyny, triggering the resignations of the Prince as patron and several trustees.
A Charity Commission investigation into the affair has found problems with Sentebale’s governance and rebuked “all parties” involved for allowing the spat to play out in public, but ruled that Dr Chandauka and the current board could remain in place, meaning she has emerged victorious.
The Prince is said to be “utterly devastated” by what he regards as a “hostile takeover” of the charity, and has signalled that his split from Sentebale is now permanent.
The Duke hit back at the commission’s findings, saying its investigation had fallen “troublingly short” and that the “consequences of [Dr Chandauka’s] actions will not be borne by her but by the children who rely on Sentebale’s support”.
It is a bitter blow for the Prince, who set up the charity with Prince Seeiso of Lesotho to continue the work of Harry’s late mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, by supporting children with HIV/Aids.
The Duke set set up the charity alongside Prince Seeiso of Lesotho – Brian Otieno/Getty Images for Sentebale
The row began when Dr Chandauka was asked to step down following disagreements about fundraising, including accusations that she had spent £500,000 on consultants to find wealthy donors in the US, which she denied.
She responded by suing the charity and reporting it to the Charity Commission, alleging bullying, harassment, misogyny and “misogynoir” – discrimination against black women.
That triggered the resignations of Prince Harry, Prince Seeiso and several trustees.
The commission said in a statement: “The regulator has criticised all parties to the dispute for allowing it to play out publicly, and further concluded that the then trustees’ failure to resolve disputes internally severely impacted the charity’s reputation and risked undermining public trust in charities more generally.”
The commission said it had found no evidence of widespread or systematic bullying or harassment, including misogyny or misogynoir, but it “acknowledged the strong perception of ill treatment felt by a number of parties to the dispute and the impact this may have had on them personally”.
Harry carries on the spat
In a statement, a spokesman for the Duke said: “Sentebale has been a deeply personal and transformative mission for Prince Harry, established to serve some of the most vulnerable children in Lesotho and Botswana.”
In his response to the report, the Duke continued the public spat by describing Sentebale as a “once brilliant charity” that had helped more than 100,000 children during his time as patron.
He said he would “now focus on finding new ways to continue supporting the children of Lesotho and Botswana”. A friend of the Prince said he could not now see any way the Prince could ever return to Sentebale.
After carrying out a compliance investigation into Sentebale, the watchdog issued it with a regulatory action plan “to address governance weaknesses” after finding that there had been “mismanagement in the administration of the charity”.
It did not escalate the investigation to a statutory inquiry, meaning Dr Chandauka will be allowed to address the issues with a largely new board of trustees whom the commission said had been “validly appointed”.
In a television interview, Dr Chandauka complained about her treatment by Prince Harry, citing an incident at the end of a charity polo match in Miami last year.
Television footage showed the Duchess of Sussex apparently asking her to switch places from her position next to the Duke during the prizegiving. Dr Chandauka had to duck under a trophy in an awkward moment that prompted questions from the media about the Duchess’s behaviour.
Credit: Social media
She said earlier this year: “Prince Harry asked me to issue some sort of a statement in support of the Duchess and I said I wouldn’t. Not because I didn’t care about the Duchess, but because I knew what would happen if I did so, and because we cannot be an extension of the Sussexes.”
She said that as tensions between the Sussexes and the Royal family grew, it became harder to raise funds for the charity and she had been a victim of “this unleashing of the Sussex machine”.
The commission found no evidence of over-reach by the Duke of Sussex as patron of the charity, but was “critical of the charity’s lack of clarity in delegations to the chair which allowed for misunderstandings to occur”.
This lack of clarity around roles, and around internal policies, had exacerbated tensions, which culminated in the dispute.
In a series of criticisms, the commission found that the delegation of certain powers to Dr Chanduaka was “a confusing, convoluted and poorly governed process”; that the then-trustees did not have a proper complaints process in place; and that it was “not satisfied that public statements made to the media and public criticism made in television interviews were conducted in a way that served the charity’s best interests”.
In future, it said, the charity should have a clearly defined patron role set out in writing.
The commission found that: “All the charity’s then-trustees contributed to a missed opportunity to resolve issues which led to the dispute. The regulator observed that strategic and financial difficulties that had emerged for the charity following the Covid-19 pandemic contributed to the tensions that arose.”
As well as improving internal processes, Sentebale was told of “the importance of the trustees securing sufficient funding to enable the charity to deliver for its beneficiaries”.
The Duke described Sentebale as a ‘once brilliant charity’ – Brian Otieno/Getty Images for Sentebale
David Holdsworth, the chief executive of the commission, said in his report that: “Sentebale’s problems played out in the public eye, enabling a damaging dispute to harm the charity’s reputation, risk overshadowing its many achievements, and jeopardising the charity’s ability to deliver for the very beneficiaries it was created to serve.
“Passion for a cause is the bedrock of volunteering and charity, delivering positive impact for millions of people here at home and abroad every day. However, in the rare cases when things go wrong, it is often because that very passion has become a weakness rather than a strength.
“This case highlights what can happen when there are gaps in governance and policies critical to charities’ ability to deliver for their cause. As a result, we have issued the charity a regulatory action plan to make needed improvements and rectify findings of mismanagement.
“Moving forward I urge all parties not to lose sight of those who rely on the charity’s services. The current trustees must now make improvements and ensure the charity focuses on delivering for those it exists to serve.”
Sentebale’s latest accounts, for the year ended August 31 2023, show that its total income was £3.4 million and it spent £3.78m.
The Prince donated £1.2m from the proceeds of his autobiography, Spare, which was published in 2023.
