Sentebale boss is accused of ‘openly playing the race card’ in row with Prince Harry as royal’s ‘unpleasant’ messages are revealed

 The boss of Prince Harry‘s Sentebale charity has been accused of ‘playing the race card’ amid a bitter fallout at the heart of the organisation. 

Sophie Chandauka, who became chair in mid-2023, has accused the board of bullying, harassment, misogyny, and misogynoir – a form of prejudice directed at black women. 

It is alleged one of Sentebale’s trustees compared her chairmanship to the white minority rule of Rhodesia in the 1960s.

Ms Chandauka has also claimed Harry used the charity, he set up almost 20 years ago to help AIDs orphans in Lesotho, as an extension of the Sussex PR machine. 

The trustees, including the duke, have resigned en masse, demanding that Dr Chandauka steps down as the relationship between them is broken beyond repair.

But now a source close to the board has claimed Dr Chandauka, a Zimbabwe-born lawyer, used racism to regain control of the charity when she realised things were not going her way.

They said the tipping point was when she was challenged over the loss of a major sponsor of the annual Sentebale polo cup that raises funds for the charity. 

‘She’s definitely playing the race card and openly,’ the insider said according to The Telegraph. 

The ‘highly awkward’ moment between Meghan Markle and Sophie Chandauka at a fundraising polo match for Sentebale in the US last year

Prince Harry pictured in conversation with Dr Chandauka during an event in Miami last April

Dr Chandauka is pictured with the Sussexes at the Royal Salute Polo Challenge held in Florida in April last year to raise funds for Sentebale

‘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 as branding the allegation ‘horrific’ and ‘extraordinarily ironic’.

It comes as the charity boss was today forced to close her public social media accounts after a huge pile-on led by the so-called Sussex Squad.

However, sources have said while unpleasant, Ms Chandauka, has no intention of stepping down from her position and is focusing on the charity’s work.

In interviews at the weekend, she called the Sussexes’ brand ‘toxic’ and accused Harry of ‘harassment and bullying at scale’, a claim that is strongly denied.

Much of the issue centres on a charity polo match in Miami last year, which Ms Chandauka says 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.

She believes it resulted in the charity losing the venue.

And when the event was re-organised, Ms Chandauka says, Meghan turned up unannounced, bringing along with her a friend, tennis star Serena Williams.

Then at a prize-giving ceremony, the chaos ensued with Ms Chandauka seemingly elbowed out by the Duchess of Sussex in a highly awkward on-stage exchange. 

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’.

The Mail understands that the Duke subsequently sent an ‘unpleasant’ message to Ms Chandauka demanding to know how she was going to deal with the public debacle.

Dr Chandauka (pictured) has accused Sentebale and its trustees of racist, sexist and bullying conduct

Ms Chandauka was seemingly elbowed out by the Duchess of Sussex in a highly awkward exchange that was caught on camera

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are seen during the Royal Salute Polo Challenge to benefit Sentebale

 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?’

It is understood the message ‘would reinforce others people’s ideas that he is used to people being subservient to him’.

In a recent interview, Ms Chandauka claimed she first felt tension between Harry and herself a year ago.

She said at one point she was asked by his team to defend Meghan against negative publicity, but she refused.

Then in an extraordinary interview on Saturday, she raised the stakes even further saying the Sussexes’ ‘brand’ had hindered the charity.

‘The number one risk for this organisation was the toxicity of its lead patron’s brand,’ Dr Chandauka told the Financial Times.

She argued that controversy surrounding Prince Harry since his move to the US had an impact on the charity’s ability to diversify its donor pool and make senior hires.

‘When you start to interview people, they’re asking questions about, well, these mixed messages around the patron,’ she said.

Elsewhere she accused Harry and fellow co-founder Prince Seeiso of Lesotho of trying to ‘force a failure’ of the organisation only to then come to its rescue.

In her first interview since the dispute erupted, Dr Chandauka issued an impassioned defence of her record.

In another bombshell allegation, Dr Chandauka accused the Duke of Sussex ‘harassment and bullying at scale’.

Prince Harry pictured on a visit to Lesotho with Ntoli Moletsane of Sentebale in October last year

Prince Harry and Prince Seeiso of Lesotho quit as patrons of the charity they had founded in solidarity with trustees who said they could not carry on under Dr Chandauka

 In a separate interview on Sky’s Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips she said the Duke authorised the release of a statement revealing that he and other trustees had quit the charity, which she described as ‘unleashing of the Sussex machine on me’.

Mr Philips asked her: ‘What you’re essentially saying is that the Duke of Sussex is guilty of harassment and bullying and improper conduct in the governance of the charity?’

In response, she said Harry’s release of ‘a damaging piece of news to the outside world without informing me or my country directors’ was an ‘attack’ and ‘an example of harassment and bullying at scale’.

She added: ‘And so if the world didn’t want to believe that there’s such a thing as bullying, this unleashing of the Sussex machine on me and the 540 employees, at Sentebale, who received this and have had to defend it….’

At this point Mr Phillips interjected, asking what she means by the Sussex machine.

Dr Chandauka replied: ‘The PR machine that supports Prince Harry’s efforts, the only way we discovered of his decision was through the Sussex machine activating newspapers.’

Sources categorically deny suggestions the charity is close to collapse as a result of the boardroom battle and stress that both Ms Chandauka and the teams on the ground are getting on with their work.

Ms Chandauka herself said at the weekend that she had ‘a great relationship with Harry’ and sources close to the charity insist that he remains ‘respected and admired’ in Lesotho for the work he did there ‘and no-one can take this away from him’.

But it is clear that the trustees, now backed by the prince, ‘want Sophie out’ over her attempts to bring the command structure of the charity away from London and ‘back to Africa’.

‘Times have moved on and what was good 20 years ago isn’t the best operating model now,’ a source told the Mail.

‘Local leadership is the correct way to run a charity focused in Africa.

‘The trustees couldn’t seem to accept this.’

Ms Chandauka herself has stated that Prince Harry hadn’t been to Lesotho for five years before his last visit in October 2024, which came at her request.

Observers have described this as ‘quite telling’ and questioned how much his focus had been on Sentebale since moving to the US and setting up his and Meghan’s join philanthropic and commercial arm, Archewell.

There is also strong anger at comments made in the Mail today by Alex Rayner, a friend of the prince who claims he has been in contact with him over the weekend and been ‘authorised’ to speak for him, who claimed: ‘It feels like [Ms Chandauka ] had her nose put out of joint because she was not the most important woman of colour on the stage’.

Meghan asked Dr Sophie Chandauka not to stand next to Prince Harry for a picture after he won

Dr Sophie Chandauka (pictured), the chair of Prince Harry’s beleaguered charity Sentebale, said she had been asked to defend Meghan Markle against negative publicity

Sources have described the claims as ‘outrageous’ and ‘offensive’ and come from someone who ‘would say ‘woman of colour’ and pat himself on the back for doing so’.

‘She [Ms Chandauka] is a determined person and will look after herself, but for her it’s about the charity. What she is concerned about is the wellbeing of the staff. It’s unfortunate and unfair they are being subjected to this and she wants to focus on the work being done,’ the source added.

It is understood that one upside to the furore is that new sponsors and donors have been coming forward.

Four new trustees have also been appointed, suggesting that Sentebale’s work will continue, regardless of the ongoing row.

While the Duke of Sussex has not commented on the allegation that he sent an ‘imperious’ text to Ms Chandauka, sources have suggested that many of the recent claims made have been attempts at ‘deflecting from the serious matters at play here’.

It is understood that the patrons and trustees have questioned whether she is acting ‘in the best interests of the charity’ and if so ‘why is she using her platform to target Prince Harry specifically’.

A source close the Netflix production team has also described the claimed version of events as ‘misleading’ and that video of Meghan and Ms Chandauka on stage has been ‘misrepresented’ and ‘weaponised’.

A source close to trustees and patrons says they ‘fully expected this publicity stunt and reached their collective decision with this in mind. They remain firm in their resignation, for the good of the charity, and look forward to the adjudication of the truth’.