{"id":329112,"date":"2025-08-08T23:36:22","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T23:36:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/329112\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T23:36:22","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T23:36:22","slug":"inside-the-crisis-that-bled-dry-prince-harrys-sentebale-charity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/329112\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the crisis that \u2018bled dry\u2019 Prince Harry\u2019s Sentebale charity"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Lesotho children\u2019s centre run by Sentebale, the charity set up by Prince Harry in honour of his mother, was once flush with life.<\/p>\n

Until recently, more than 700 children with HIV headed to its state-of-the-art facilities for \u201clife-changing\u201d residential camps each year.<\/p>\n

It is alleged the site has been \u201ceffectively mothballed\u201d amid a funding crisis that bled the charity\u2019s reserves dry.<\/p>\n

The charity\u2019s \u201cflagship\u201d holiday camps at the Mamohato Children\u2019s Centre, in Lesotho, have ground to a halt and staff there told to work from home to save costs.<\/p>\n

The charity has made redundancies to try to steady the ship, and in total costs have been cut by 25 per cent since March.<\/p>\n

The regulator \u201ccriticised all parties to the dispute for allowing it to play out publicly\u201d and said it had \u201cseverely impacted the charity\u2019s reputation and risked undermining public trust in charities more generally\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Prince Harry unhappy after watchdog criticises all sides in Sentebale row<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex at an April 2024 polo fundraiser for Sentebale<\/p>\n

YAROSLAV SABITOV\/PA ARCHIVE<\/p>\n

Chair\u2019s awkward viral moment with Meghan<\/p>\n

The seeds of the crisis began after Sophie Chandauka, a Zimbabwean-born lawyer, was appointed chair in 2023.<\/p>\n

There was a hint of the trouble to come in April 2024, when the Duchess of Sussex bounced on stage to hand a polo match trophy to her husband and his winning team at a fundraiser, awkwardly supplanting Chandauka.<\/p>\n

\"Meghan<\/p>\n

Chandauka tried to slip on stage next to Harry, as Meghan stuck firm by his side and gestured for her to move<\/p>\n

The chair later claimed Meghan had turned up unannounced and that, because the clip went viral, Harry had invited Chandauka to make a public statement in support of his wife. Chandauka refused, saying the charity \u201ccannot be an extension of the Sussexes\u201d.<\/p>\n

But it was a disagreement over the charity\u2019s fundraising strategy in the US and a \u00a3400,000 bill for consultancy fees that led the relationship to break down fully.<\/p>\n

In March 2025, the charity co-founders Prince Harry and Prince Seeiso, along with a number of trustees, resigned. A statement said the relationship with Chandauka \u201cbroke down beyond repair, creating an untenable situation\u201d.<\/p>\n

Chandauka retaliated, accusing the prince of \u201charassment and bullying at scale\u201d by \u201cunleashing\u201d the Sussex PR machine, and the charity of bullying and misogynoir (misogyny towards black women). Prince Harry described her actions as a \u201chostile takeover\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Sophie<\/p>\n

Sophie Chandauka said she suffered at the hands of the \u201cSussex PR machine\u201d<\/p>\n

REX\/SHUTTERSTOCK<\/p>\n

The commission launched an investigation. Its report this week \u201ccriticised all parties to the dispute for allowing it to play out publicly\u201d, but found \u201cno evidence\u201d of bullying or racism. <\/p>\n

\u2022 Prince Harry accused of \u2018harassment and bullying at scale\u2019 by Sentebale boss<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

\u2018Living on a shoestring\u2019<\/p>\n

Dozens of reliable donors have refused to donate since the Duke of Sussex resigned as patron in March.<\/p>\n

Many of these are from a group of Meghan superfans known as the \u201cSussex Squad\u201d, who pulled funding that was worth an estimated \u00a347,000 per year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be NO fundraisers, and we urge you to HALT all recurring donations until Prince Harry provides further guidance,\u201d the online community said this week.<\/p>\n

The Sentebale Polo Cup \u2014 the charity\u2019s top fundraiser which raises \u00a3740,000 a year \u2014 has not taken place for two years.<\/p>\n

Harry himself was a major donor, pledging \u00a31.1 million to Sentebale from the sales of his memoir, Spare in 2021.<\/p>\n

\"Prince<\/p>\n

Prince Harry at the children\u2019s home while on a visit to Lesotho in 2006<\/p>\n

ANWAR HUSSEIN COLLECTION\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

The situation is so serious that, according to a source, the charity has run through much of its \u00a31.4 million reserves. \u201cIt\u2019s now living on a shoestring,\u201d they said. \u201cThe accounts were delayed to manage media narrative on the poor financial position.\u201d<\/p>\n

The charity denies the claim. It said it has taken action to shore up its finances, and only shifted the accounting period to \u201calign with the calendar year and what is typically \u2018giving season\u2019 in the US and UK\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u2018Life has totally vanished\u2019<\/p>\n

There are fears the activities of the charity, set up to honour Princess Diana and Prince Seeiso\u2019s mother, have already taken a hit.<\/p>\n

Principal Chief Khoabane Theko, who drives past Mamohato Children\u2019s Centre daily, cannot remember the last time he saw any children there.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe life has totally vanished from that place, it looks closed and more like somebody\u2019s private property than the space for children as it was intended to be,\u201d the 67-year-old said this week. \u201cThat beautiful place is just standing empty with no one benefiting.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Times reporter who visited last month, in the middle of the winter holidays, saw the car park full of smart 4\u00d74 vehicles. The site was hosting a health conference, not a children\u2019s camp.<\/p>\n

\"Prince<\/p>\n

Local staff have been told to work from home and a guard at the space said no camp had been held all year<\/p>\n

CHRIS JACKSON\/GETTY IMAGES FOR SENTEBALE<\/p>\n

The charity says renting the space helps fund its programmes, but a guard on the gate said no camp had been held all year. This would represent a drastic change from 2022 to 2023 when 740 children were welcomed to the site.<\/p>\n

Local staff have even been told to work from home where possible, to save money on electricity, with one source saying \u201cit\u2019s effectively mothballed\u201d.<\/p>\n

The charity defended its work, saying it remains on track to \u201cserve at least 78,000 children and young people \u2026 matching or exceeding our 2024 impact\u201d. The schedule at Mamohato \u201cincludes at least one holiday camp, each year\u201d, it added.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Why Harry and Meghan are going solo<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Theko has traced the energy ebbing away from the charity\u2019s hub to Prince Harry\u2019s marriage and subsequent emigration.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t understand how that lady from Zimbabwe got so powerful and Prince Seeiso and Prince Harry just walked away,\u201d he said. \u201cI hope they will come back and fight for this organisation that was taken away from them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Prince<\/p>\n

Prince Seeiso of Lesotho and Prince Harry, who co-founded the charity in honour of their mothers<\/p>\n

BRIAN OTIENO\/GETTY IMAGES FOR SENTEBALE<\/p>\n

Supporters of Prince Harry said he last visited Mamohato in October last year, once pandemic travel restrictions were lifted.<\/p>\n

Local families said the site offers few jobs and no opportunities to use the facilities. \u201cWe were happy when it was being built, but this place has given us nothing,\u201d Maotsana Matela, a mother of three, 42, said.<\/p>\n

The row continues<\/p>\n

Sentebale denied the charity was in a poor financial position, saying its \u201cmission, cause and impact-focused funders\u201d, which provide 70 per cent of its income, have remained steadfast.<\/p>\n

While some royal fans have pulled donations, \u201cSentebale has gained an equal, if not greater number of individual funders since March 2025\u201d, it said.<\/p>\n

A spokesman added: \u201cThe charity has suffered from the negative impact of the adverse media campaign launched by the duke and the former trustees on 25 March and then the effect of the Charity Commission opening its regulatory compliance case, which has made fundraising extremely challenging for Sentebale and so we have been reliant on reserves.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the Charity Commission having concluded their work, the team can reactivate its fundraising efforts in earnest and are confident that the charity will recover positively as time progresses.\u201d<\/p>\n

The crisis at the charity could not be more ill-timed for Lesotho, which is being battered by President Trump\u2019s parallel wars on trade and aid.<\/p>\n

The Duke of Sussex, who has walked away from two decades of work, has said he \u201cwill now focus on finding new ways to continue supporting the children of Lesotho and Botswana\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sentebale continues to say the bullying allegations have not been investigated, and that they may pursue them through other \u201cmore appropriate avenues\u201d.<\/p>\n

If the past week has been anything to go by, it looks like neither side is ready to bury the hatchet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Lesotho children\u2019s centre run by Sentebale, the charity set up by Prince Harry in honour of his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329113,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7708],"tags":[7709,7721,7719,7718,7720,1281,447,7710,519,7711],"class_list":{"0":"post-329112","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-royals","8":"tag-british-royal-family","9":"tag-duchess-of-sussex","10":"tag-duke-of-sussex","11":"tag-harry","12":"tag-meghan","13":"tag-meghan-markle","14":"tag-prince-harry","15":"tag-royal-families","16":"tag-royal-family","17":"tag-uk-royal-family"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114995775851349029","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}