Is this the REAL reason for Prince Harry’s fallout with the boss of his beloved charity Sentebale? Insiders claim she was spending eyewatering sums on business consultants to break into America – as charity watchdog launches investigation

Prince Harry fell out with the boss of his beloved charity Sentebale partly due to her high spending on business consultants, insiders have claimed.

They claim the acrimonious boardroom battle that caused the Duke of Sussex, his co-founder Prince Seeiso of Lesotho, and the charity’s trustees to mass resign from their roles was due to financial worries and disagreements.

The chair of Harry’s charity Dr Sophie Chandauka, 47, has spent more than £427,000 on consultant fees since she took on the post in July 2023, according to The Times.

Over the past week she has been engaged in a war of words with Harry, 40, with both of them being involved in a bitter PR operation as they seek to blame the other for the scandal currently engulfing the charity.

Sentebale’s latest accounts show it only earned a total income of £3.41million, leaving some in the organisation concerned due to the high spending on consultants.  

The consultants were employed to pursue a strategy to get donations from wealthy individuals and foundations in the US, but sources close to former trustees told the BBC they had not delivered results.

They claim that if the US fundraising strategy had worked this crisis in running the charity might have been averted.

Although a spokesman for Sentebale told The Times that the board ‘acted collectively on major decisions’, a source close to the departed patrons suggested otherwise. 

They told the paper: ‘It’s important to note that this decision was made unilaterally, without board approval.’ 

The highest bill on consultants was for £185,000, which was paid to Lebec, a ‘woman-led strategy firm’ founded by Alix Lebec, a former asset manager who has held leadership roles at the World Bank and Water.org. 

Lebec hosted events with both Harry and Chandauka on the same panel in April 2024 where they ‘highlighted Sentebale’s impactful work’.

A spokeswoman for Sentebale told MailOnline the charity’s board was ‘aware of and approved the contract with Lebec’.

The charity said it hired US firm Lebec to help build a new fundraising strategy, and that by October 2024 a team of six consultants had set up 65 key relationships with potential Sentebale donors.

It said the 12-month deal with Lebec, a women-led strategy firm, had successfully delivered ‘successfully delivered against every single deliverable’.

The spokesman added: ‘Lebec provided the positioning strategy, the tools, and the insights to enter the US market successfully and with credibility.’

The various claims and counter-claims over what has been going on at Sentebale are currently being examined by the Charity Commission, which will then decide whether to escalate the concerns to a full statutory inquiry. 

Today the watchdog announced it had begun a ‘regulatory compliance case’ involving Sentebale, which was welcomed by Chandauka.

Harry also made a statement following the announcement, which was his first public once since the scandal broke, saying the crisis at Sentebale had left him ‘heartbroken’ but he welcomed the probe.

After the investigation, the commission will then decide whether inquiries need to be escalated.

Due to the high-profile nature of the increasingly-personal row, Chandauka said she had to shut down her social media accounts amid allegations of online bullying by racist trolls. 

In her version of events, she claims that when she took over the charity in July 2023 and conducted a review of its finances over the previous seven years, that there was ‘a significant correlation’ in the charity’s downturn in commercial support and Harry’s departure from the UK.

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’.

Chandauka, who served on the charity’s board from 2009 until 2015 and whose family is the third largest donor to Sentebale, described the ‘toxicity of its lead patron’s brand’ as the now number one risk for Sentebale.

But royal sources close to the Duke have hit back, calling accusations that he had personally harassed and bullied her a ‘deflection’ and that the resignation of the trustees was a ‘direct result of the chair’s mismanagement’.

On Tuesday, April 1, an insider told The Telegraph: ‘She’s [Chandauka] definitely playing the race card and openly.

‘This is her plan. As soon as anyone turns against her, she brings the race card in and she comes for you.’

The newspaper also quoted a source close to Dr Chandauka that branded the allegation as ‘horrific’ and ‘extraordinarily ironic’.

Sources also insist Sentebale was in a stable financial position when she was appointed in 2023 and suggest that blaming any loss in revenue on Harry leaving the UK in 2020 is ‘baseless and inaccurate’, not least because the charity was ‘almost entirely reliant’ on the use of his name for fundraising. 

The latest claims come after MailOnline analysed Sentebale’s financial accounts. 

The documents, which must be published annually according to the UK Charity Commission’s rules, show the total income and total expenditure for each year. 

MailOnline’s analysis of Sentebale’s financial accounts shows that the charity’s finances have been relatively stable over the past decade. 

When Harry left the Royal Family and the UK in January 2020, the account filed in August that year showed Sentebale’s income was at the lowest level in the last decade at £2.39million.

But in the years since, income has recovered to a high of £4.55million in 2022.

However, further analysis of Chandauka’s tenure in charge of the charity, which began in July 2023, are limited because the financial accounts for 2024 have not been published.

The latest publicly available financial accounts date from August 2023, which means Chandauka had only been chairwoman for one month when they were released.

When asked by MailOnline when the next accounts would be published, Sentebale stated it will be in the third quarter of 2025.

The charity said its fiscal year had been adjusted to align with the calendar year resulting in the 2023/2024 annual report covering 16 months to align with a fundraising cycle in the US.

Prince Harry and his co-founder Prince Seeiso of Lesotho, 58, alongside all five of the charity’s trustees, resigned last week rather than remain involved with Chandauka as chair.

The row began on Wednesday, March 26, when the Duke of Sussex revealed ‘unthinkable infighting’ had led to his shock resignation from the charity which he founded in 2006 in honour of Princess Diana to help young people in southern Africa living with HIV and AIDS. 

In a bombshell statement, Harry lamented the ‘devastating’ decision to quit as patron, alongside his ‘second dad’ Mark Dyer, who also resigned as trustee.

Chandauka, who has a glittering CV that includes senior corporate positions at Meta and Morgan Stanley, then issued a stinging response taking aim at ‘weak executive management’ and appearing to criticise Harry for ‘playing the victim card’.

In an explosive interview on Sunday, Chandauka claimed donors dropped their support because of the Prince’s reputation after he quit his royal duties.

‘There was quite a significant correlation between the time the organisation started to see a departure of major organisations and Prince Harry’s departure from the UK itself,’ she said.

Sentebale lost corporate sponsors as well as donors – and so far as Chandauka was concerned, it was clear where the fault lay.

She said yesterday that a review of the charity’s finances in July 2023 after she became chairman revealed donors began departing after Harry and Meghan left the Royal Family.

‘When you look at the board minutes, though, there is no discussion about what’s happening with respect to some of our most significant funders,’ she said.

‘And then when you discuss with the senior executive team and ask why there isn’t a conversation about this, the answer is it’s really difficult to have this conversation because … it’s an uncomfortable conversation to have with Prince Harry in the room.’

Chandauka also claimed that media attention around Harry’s 2022 Netflix documentary and his autobiography, Spare, had affected the ability to hire senior staff and attract new donors. 

She also alleged that Harry ‘unleashed the Sussex machine’ on her in a case of ‘harassment and bullying at scale’ after she tried to bring in changes. 

Meanwhile it is understood that Harry and Meghan have an entirely different account of what happened at Sentebale. 

While a spokesman for the Sussexes did not comment on the claims, friends of the Duke insist he has raised more than £12 million for the charity and donated more than £1 million from sales of his book Spare.

Claims that the prince’s requests were nodded through by acolytes on the board of trustees were also described as ‘completely baseless’. 

The former overseas development minister Baroness Chalker of Wallasey, who served as a trustee for 20 years, described Dr Chandauka as ‘almost dictatorial’. 

And the five trustees who resigned said the ‘devastating’ decision was the ‘result of our loss in trust and confidence in the chair of the board’. 

When asked about Chandauka’s claims of bullying and misogyny against her, Kelello Lerotholi, one of the trustees who resigned, told Sky News he did not recognise the allegations: ‘I can honestly say, in the meetings I was present in, there was never even a hint of such.’

Chandauka had been viewed as controversial and, at times, divisive figure.

The acrimony within the charity eventually led her to launch a legal attempt to block trustees from removing her, a move ultimately orchestrated by Harry – her associates claim.

Trustees at the charity have instead accused her of bullying staff, doctoring the minutes of meetings and spending large amounts on consultants. 

In an interview with The FT published on Saturday, Chandauka claimed she wanted to restructure Sentebale to bring in more money from the US and focus on Africa-led initiatives.

But she said that these changes left the board fearing ‘oh my goodness, the Africans are taking over’.

The lawyer told the paper: ”The way the organisation had been set up in 2006, was no longer appropriate in 2023 in a post-Black Lives Matter world.

‘Funders were asking for locally led initiatives.’

According to her, the transition had triggered friction between UK-based staff and those in Lesotho, where most of the charity’s 500-plus workforce are based.

A person familiar with the trustees’ account of events said the trustees were supportive of moving fundraising towards America, but the problem was Chandauka failed to do that. 

Harry has not commented directly on Chandauka’s claims but sources close to the Prince and trustees have described them as a ‘publicity stunt’, according to The Times.

The paper reported concerns were also raised when available funds for the charity fell below its self-imposed £600,000 safety threshold after Chandauka was appointed. 

Sentebale told MailOnline it is awaiting receipt of around $1M that had been contracted or pre-approved for receipt this quarter. 

It said timelines ‘were extended due to the need to appropriately address governance requirements arising from the US Administration Executive Orders’.

Royal expert Richard Palmer wrote in the i newspaper that Chandauka wanted to make the charity less reliant on money raised by well-meaning posh white men, including Harry.

Although glamorous polo matches around the world with celebrities had been a major sources of funding for years, he believed they would be reduced.

One source familiar with the matter told him that Chandauka upset one of the main financial backers of the Sentebale Polo Cup, resulting in the match not taking place in 2024.

Palmer believes that when a financial deal fell through in December, the board of trustees turned against Chandauka and attempted to vote her out in February.

But the experienced lawyer went to the High Court to stop the vote, prompting the five trustees and the Princely founders to resign, according to Palmer.

More details of the turning point in Chandauka and Harry’s relationship emerged on Sunday when the lawyer was interviewed on Sky News’s Trevor Phillips show.

She claimed the Prince nearly derailed a polo match to raise funds for Sentebale in April 2024 by insisting on bringing a Netflix camera crew.

Chandauka also told how Meghan had said she would not attend the event – but turned up with a celebrity friend, now revealed to be tennis star Serena Williams, and caused chaotic scenes when the trophy was presented.

The incident, where the Duchess appeared to usher the charity boss away from her husband on stage, led to media criticism of Meghan’s behaviour.

Dr Chandauka told Phillips that Harry ‘asked me to issue some sort of a statement in support of the duchess’ – but she refused.

‘Not because I didn’t care about the Duchess, but because I knew what would happen if I did so, number one. And number two, because we cannot be an extension of the Sussexes,’ she said.

Describing the situation when Harry insisted the Netflix crew join him at a fundraising event, Dr Chandauka said they had secured the use of a polo ground in Miami at a ‘material discount’.

But about a month before the event, Harry called the team and allegedly said: ‘I’m doing a Netflix show, and I would love to bring a camera crew so that I can include some footage in this show.’

The charity managed to bag another venue through Harry’s connections, with the Duke in attendance as well as an unexpected visit from Meghan. 

Meanwhile, Sussex sources have said Chandauka’s account of the debacle around last year’s polo match in Miami is ‘highly misleading’. 

They suggest the original venue had already changed its terms, resulting in a rise in costs, which meant the charity had no option but to find a new site with the help of Harry’s friend and fellow polo player, Nacho Figueras.

They say the decision had nothing to do with Netflix.

Earlier today the Charity Commission announced it had begun a ‘regulatory compliance case’ involving Sentebale.

The commission said it had informed the charity yesterday 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.

It is not the same as a statutory inquiry.

The commission, which said the decision to open a case came after assessing initial concerns raised, said it is in ‘direct contact with parties who have raised concerns’.

Regulatory compliance cases can lead to a range of outcomes including an official warning being given to a charity or a statutory inquiry being opened, which can give the commission additional powers of investigation.

According to the Charity Commission, it will try to issue guidance or an action plan that it has agreed with trustees.

But when necessary, the watchdog says it can resolve charity governance issues by using its legal powers to make schemes or orders where a charity does not have its own powers to do so.

Occasionally, in cases of abuse, or where it has suspicions or evidence of mismanagement and/ or misconduct in the administration of a charity, it can open a statutory inquiry to investigate and resolve the problems that are found.