Part of the reason why this Sentebale catastrophe has been churning away in the British tabloids is because few people believed that there could be some kind of mechanism in which Sophie Chandauka is thrown out of Sentebale. It’s an odd situation legally, because a majority of the board of trustees resigned in protest, as did Prince Harry and Prince Seeiso. Harry and Seeiso’s side has let it be known that they “expected” Chandauka’s “publicity stunt” interviews and her wild, nonsensical allegations. But would anything happen beyond what amounts to a PR war? Well, the UK’s Charity Commission is now investigating the situation, and Prince Harry and Sophie Chandauka released new statements:
The Charity Commission is to investigate the bitter dispute that led to the Duke of Sussex and several others resigning from the charity he co-founded. The watchdog said it had opened a case to examine “concerns raised” about Sentebale, following claims made by its head Sophie Chandauka.
Ms Chandauka told the BBC she welcomed the move by the commission, which comes after she said she had “blown the whistle” on issues including bullying and harassment, and warned of the prince’s “toxicity” for the charity.
Prince Harry said: “What has transpired over the last week has been heartbreaking to witness, especially when such blatant lies hurt those who have invested decades in this shared goal.”
The duke, speaking on behalf of the former trustees and patrons, welcomed the watchdog’s announcement, saying it would be a “robust inquiry” which “we fully expect will unveil the truth that collectively forced us to resign”.
“We remain hopeful this will allow for the charity to be put in the right hands immediately, for the sake of the communities we serve,” said the prince.
The Charity Commission’s “regulatory compliance case” is the first step in assessing the complaints and allegations over what has happened at Sentebale, which was founded in 2006 to help children in southern Africa affected by HIV and Aids.
A statement from the watchdog said it was “in direct contact with parties who have raised concerns” and would gather evidence to see whether those running the charity, past and present, had complied with their “duties and responsibilities under charity law”.
“From the inception of Sentebale nearly 20 years ago, Prince Seeiso and I have had a clear goal – to support the children and young people in southern Africa in memory of our mothers,” said Prince Harry, responding to the charity watchdog’s announcement.
On Thursday, Ms Chandauka said in a statement that the concerns brought to the commission included “governance, administration and management matters”. The Sentebale head said she hoped the public and donors would now see there was a new board of trustees “acting appropriately to demonstrate and ensure good governance and a healthy culture”.
I can’t wait for Sophie Chandauka to claim that the Charity Commission is harassing her and engaging in misogynoir by investigating her unhinged lies and bullsh-t claims. I would assume that Harry, Seeiso and the former trustees have ample documentation as well, especially regarding Chandauka’s consultant spending spree, as well as the current state of Sentebale’s accounts. I don’t know how the UK’s Charity Commission operates and whether they would truly have a mechanism to remove Chandauka though. But it sounds like this investigation is simply what has to happen first before both sides can move forward. My guess is that Harry and Seeiso might even have to sue Chandauka before this is all said and done.
Statement from Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex.
“No one suffers more than the beneficiaries of Sentebale itself….We remain hopeful this will allow for the charity to be put in the right hands immediately, for the sake of the communities we serve."#PrinceHarry pic.twitter.com/kP9YBKX34b
— ChrisBaronSmith (@ChrisBaronSmit1) April 3, 2025
Photos courtesy of Sky News, Getty, Cover Images.
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- The Duchess of Sussex presents the trophy to her husband, the Duke of Sussex after his team the Royal Salute Sentebale Team defeated the Grand Champions Team, in the Royal Salute Polo Challenge, to benefit Sentebale, at The USPA National Polo Center Featuring: Prince Harry, Duke Of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess Of Sussex Where: Wellington, Florida, United States When: 12 Apr 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Duchess of Sussex the Duke of Sussex poses for pictures with the teams after he took part in the Royal Salute Polo Challenge, to benefit Sentebale, at The USPA National Polo Center Featuring: Prince Harry, Duke Of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess Of Sussex Where: Wellington, Florida, United States When: 12 Apr 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Duchess of Sussex presents the trophy to her husband, the Duke of Sussex after his team the Royal Salute Sentebale Team defeated the Grand Champions Team, in the Royal Salute Polo Challenge, to benefit Sentebale, at The USPA National Polo Center Featuring: Prince Harry, Duke Of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess Of Sussex Where: Wellington, Florida, United States When: 12 Apr 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Duke of Sussex during the awards ceremony after he played in a polo match during the Royal Salute Polo Challenge, to benefit Sentebale, at The USPA National Polo Center Featuring: Prince Harry, Duke Of Sussex Where: Wellington, Florida, United States When: 12 Apr 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
What a fucking mess over a power grab by a con woman at the royal family’s behest. Again they want the ruination of Harry and they don’t see the bigger picture of how this affects the children for whom the charity was started. The lengths they will go is just beyond insane!!!
William realized that he will NEVER be equal to his brother, because he is lazy, inept and simply stupid, which is why envy floods his brain, so he redoubled his strength to destroy what Harry created, what is important to him, what he loves. He has Knauf and the media for such work, and recently he groomed Chandauka by bribing her with a medal. Chandauka with these accusations of violence sounded as if she was quoting Knauf and his accusations against Meghan. What fucking, nasty people. None of them talk about sick children, they don’t care what happens to them… What trash…
This is way too much drama for a charity that raises less than $2 milllion dollars a year. The charity is effectively dead because too much income is tied directly to Harry’s participation and he is out. If he wants to continue this work he should do it through the Archwell Foindation.
On 3 July 2024, the Charity Commission verified that the Ingram-Moores had been disqualified from being charity trustees and “from holding an office or employment with senior management functions in charities.
This is what happened as a result of an investigation into the Captain Tom Moore Foundation. The Charity Commission UK is a regulatory body and they are far from toothless.
https://news.liverpool.ac.uk/2024/11/28/captain-tom-foundation-report-is-a-welcome-reminder-that-charity-is-supposed-to-be-solely-for-the-public-good/
This article relates to charity governance. Everybody relevant will be invited to cooperate with this investigation. This is absolutely the right way forward to ensure good governance of Sentebale and to restore public confidence that charity is being properly governed and donations used properly.
@Lady Digby — what are your thoughts on Call-Me-Doctor’s demand to be paid $300K for her services when the position is voluntary? So far she’s managed to piss away half a million on her crony consultants so that, combined with her demand for a salaried position, effectively eats up almost half the charity’s yearly intake. She’s behaving like sick children requiring urgent medical care don’t matter, it’s all about her.
@Jaded demanding a salary of any kind for a voluntary position when one has burnt through £500k on consultants is audacious! I look forward to the rigorous Charity Commission inquiry deciding whether the honourary doctor ‘s “transformational” approach to a small charity complied with best practice!
I am mostly certain she is gonna sh*t talk about Harry and Meghan to the investigators too when they ask her what 500K consultation brought to the charity. It is sad that this person managed to ruin decades-long work in a year. I am sure all the board members have documents and stories to tell about her behavior.
It would be useless for her to do so. Meghan is not part of the charity at all and Harry is the patron not a trustee so he is not being investigated. As patron he doesn’t have to comply with the same laws and regulations as the chair and the trustees. It is just the trustees past and present and Sophie as chair that are under investigation.
This is a great development and the truth, whatever it is, needs to come out. Knowing how bureaucracies like this work, though, I do wonder if the charity commission normally makes specific charges (she wasted or didn’t waste $X,000) or make any specific charges. Thanks to Lady Digby we know they can remove her.
But what else is in the charity’s remit? I have no idea. Will the commission involve itself in Chandauka’s personal attacks on Meghan and Harry? Will we learn about KP involvement, if there was any? Or will the commission say these aren’t in their remit or related to running the charity.
I suppose a strong statement of financial malfeasance, or even removing her, would cast strong doubt on her credibility and motives. Or perhaps the charity would release Harry’s supposed imperious letter, unless the letter had other information they deemed worth publishing AND normally publishes this sort of thing. Again, I have no idea.
They are gonna follow the money. What happened to the charity money, if there is any shady money exchanges. From previous reports, that was what was reported as a result of the investigation. Also, they are probably gonna decide if the board resigned can remove her from the position.
There won’t be any H&M drama, this is a serious work. I remember, they also investigated H&M’s charity in UK when they left the royal work because the tabloids were alleging that there was some shady business they did. They investigated, found nothing, caused no drama. So, they look like a professional organization.
In its statement the Charity Commission said the trustees past an and present as well as the chair are under investigation. Harry is not a trustee. The commission is not going to investigate silly accusations about polo matches that is not part of its remit.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/sentebale-commission-opens-compliance-case-to-assess-concerns-raised-about-the-charity
Confirmation that it is Chair and past and present trustees, not the former co founding patrons, under investigation.
I am guessing that it is because the charity is independent from the patrons? Two Princes don’t make decisions or control the charity.
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Press release
Sentebale: Commission opens compliance case to assess concerns raised about the charity
The regulator for charities in England and Wales has opened a regulatory compliance case to examine concerns raised about the charity Sentebale.
From:
The Charity Commission
Published
3 April 2025
The Charity Commission is now in direct contact with parties who have raised concerns to gather evidence and assess the compliance of the charity and trustees past and present with their legal duties.
The regulator’s focus, in line with its statutory remit, will be to determine whether the charity’s current and former trustees, including its chair, have fulfilled their duties and responsibilities under charity law. The Commission is not an adjudicator or mediator and is guided by the principle of ensuring trustees fulfil their primary duty to their charitable purpose and beneficiaries.
After a period of assessing the initial concerns raised with the Commission, the regulator informed the charity on 2 April 2025 it has opened a regulatory compliance case. The regulator has not made any findings at this time.
ENDS
Notes to editors
The Charity Commission is the independent, non-ministerial government department that registers and regulates charities in England and Wales. Its ambition is to be an expert regulator that is fair, balanced, and independent so that charity can thrive. This ambition will help to create and sustain an environment where charities further build public trust and ultimately fulfil their essential role in enhancing lives and strengthening society.
Most concerns that we identify in charities are dealt with as regulatory compliance cases. These cases allow us to gather evidence and make findings, and to help trustees address any failures or weaknesses that we might identify.
This is not an inquiry under section 46 Charities Act 2011.
There is more information about how the Commission investigates charities on gov.uk https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/where-the-charity-commission-investigates-charities/where-the-charity-commission-investigates-charities
The Commission intends to publish a concluding statement once its compliance case has concluded. There is more information on gov.uk https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/how-the-charity-commission-reports-on-its-current-regulatory-work/how-the-charity-commission-reports-on-its-regulatory-work
We cannot identify the parties who have raised concerns with us. This is the Commission’s longstanding policy, which aims to encourage people to feel able to bring to us serious concerns about a charity and not hold back for fear of being identified.
Charity patrons are not trustees and do not share trustees’ legal duties and responsibilities.
This whole thing makes me heartsick. Hopefully, it gets worked out.
It is sad to see..
So let’s say it gets resolved and Sophie gets to stay head or whatever. Who is going to donate to her at this point? Maybe some will, idk?
I’m done with donations until she is gone. I don’t want my money going on consultants who do nothing, I’ve already made the change, world kitchen was asking for donations.
Probably Will’s palls? So, the charity can pay to his other palls for their consultation services. That is why she was talking about moving the charity’s area of work to environmental causes, I guess.
That is the only way I can see her getting donations. People close to William that want to stick it to Harry. But honestly, I feel like people close to William are either stingy or cash-poor otherwise wouldn’t he be bringing in more funding for earthshot or whatever.
@Jais, doesn’t Will have some powerful donors at Earthshot, besides Bloomberg? I remember there were a lot of money people and companies there. Will spent most of the money on the show and probably on consultants, but that is another point. Will is getting money from big companies in exchange of connection to BRF, then gives most of the money to his pals. They are probably gonna build a similar structure in Sentebale if she can’t be removed. She already started paying a lot of charity money to consultant.
The new trustees have nothing to do with climate issues. So if that’s what she’s saying now, it’s not how it’s been positioned. The three women do however seem to have interests in the area of social justice and she did say something about looking at wealth inequality or something like that. Rawlinson, the fourth new trustee, is connected with neither issue, and certainly not with the historic mandate of Sentebale. He’s more like the designated chaos agent.
@sevenblue Let’s start with the fact that William DOES NOT HAVE Earthshot! He really wanted his Invictus, and KP proposed to Bloomberg’s existing organization that William would give “his” awards. He got money from them for “his” awards and they were entered into the royal WK foundation. After the second one (if I’m not mistaken) they took it away from him and Earthshot is no longer under the WK foundation, although they still let William promote them, the whole event, awarding awards etc. takes place outside of him. So Bloomberg is definitely not interested in another disaster with William. If anyone knows more details, I would be grateful. The articles I came across some time ago are already deleted, the links are inactive. The propaganda is in full swing, after all, it was not without reason that they compared the UK to North Korea.
@windyriver, in addition to wealth inequality, she mentioned “climate change” as the area of work she wants the charity to work in in that interview with Will’s pal.
@AR, Will gave some positions on Earthshot to his friends though, didn’t he? Like Jason Knauf? That is why I think he still has some power there. A lot of money spent on the awards, more than the money given to the winners. I don’t think that is Bloomberg’s work, it looks like a total BRF business.
@SEVENBLUE
NO, no. This mess in
Earthshot is not Bloomberg’s work, it’s Will’s. My English is so poor that sometimes I find it hard to describe something
The point is that the whole thing is being worked on by professional, serious people, probably from Bloomberg, but maybe from another foundation cooperating with him.
They are the ones who choose the winners, familiarize themselves with their work, make the analysis and choices. William has nothing to do with it, and his trips “to the meetings” are just propaganda, deception and pretending to be important, like when his office informed that he was taking part in the UN climate summit, but he only spent a moment on the sidewalk in front of the building, and then went to the “climate summit Earthshot (there was no such thing), and it was a working meeting in a conference room in some hotel. For Bloomberg’s people (or whoever is currently piloting it), William’s presence is irrelevant, because he doesn’t do anything there. They allow him to promote himself on it (I don’t know why). And so, they hire a few people for him, because someone has to order a plane ticket for him and find a willing star, which is not easy, because even with money they managed to do it only with Heidi Klum, who honestly admitted that it was the first time she had heard about Earthshot, but she came because they ordered her.
I think the Charity Commission does have the power to remove the Chair. If I’m not mistaken, they banned Naomi Campbell for 5 years from the charity she was involved in for misuse of funds. Harry’s statement is very strong and puts the focus back on the purpose of the Sentable which was to help children. I don’t see the same Sophie Chanduaka.
Hopefully, the charity will be put under impartial guardianship while it been investigated.
Past and present trustees are the ones being investigated. Harry and Prince Seeiso are patrons; Meghan is the spouse so they would not be involved. So bullying claims by Sophie will not be investigated; they’re irrelevant. Sophie as trustee and chair since 2013 will be. Guess who else is being investigated because he is a current trustee? Iain Rawlison, William’s buddy. KP will be dragged into this. I love this for him.
Could the board have disbanded and closed Sentebale somehow before they all resigned? That may have been a cleaner break, although under a cloud of controversy that wouldn’t be cleared by the charity investigation.
I hope Harry, Seesio and the resigned board start over with a brand new charity, either US based or Lesotho based, to benefit the same clientele as Sentebale. It no longer should be UK based.
Gabby, I was thinking the same as your last paragraph, both sentences. Good idea.
Lady Digby, you’ve really helped me with your info on the Charity Commission. I just wish results could arrive sooner!
I do worry a bit that Rawlinson may be a chum of a commissioner or two, making it harder for them to do their job. After all, he has been in the business of running & advising charities for a long time, & they probably cross paths.
Charity Commission UK inquiry will be forensic and being thorough takes time even though we wish for a swift and satisfactory conclusion for Sentebale. Confidence does need to be restored because donations will be hurt by controversy. I am not a lawyer but would assume that any commissioner who has a friendship or economic connection to anybody under investigation would declare that and have to be excused from this inquiry.
It is not the charity commissioner’s remit to investigate petty arguments or allegations of misogyny or racism (Sophie will need to go the legal route or employment tribunal if she wants to adjudicate those.) The Commission will investigate whether the chair and trustees past and present were acting in the best interests of the charity and the community it serves. So is money being handled correctly etc..Harry and the other co founder/patron are not trustees so not under investigation.
Julia, I hope they first look into whether Sentebale’s legal documents are being followed. Is Sophie’s new board, appointed by her alone (at least the first one) actually legal? I would love to see the documents.
Perhaps Harry’s note (email? text?) re the polo match actually had some material evidence re financial or other mismanagement. Don’t know if it would be released as part of the commission’s report, though. We can always hope for a leak….
The Charity Commission looks at how a nonprofit is governed and if its operations are in accordance with British laws on this. That includes appointment of board members, proper oversight of organization resources and financials, including systems and processes for staffing and overseeing management and controls on spending with the intent of donors also in mind.
20 years ago I was a board member and cochair of a respected and well known nonprofit. When the CEO left, after a search we hired a new head who had been the deputy at another organization. That person claimed to have done much of the major work at the last employer, including the fundraising. We hired that person and within 6 months figured out she was incompetent and was quietly shown the door by the prior employer. Privacy laws make it hard to find out all the facts when checking a person’s employment background. But when we realized this person had no fundraising track record or good contacts and a former staff that was glad to see her go the board stepped up, did the only reasonable thing and let the person go. The person resisted, threatened to publicly claim we were descriminating, and after advice from lawyers we gave severence in order to move on. I suspect this is what happened with Sophie but she knows she ruined things and has to cling on to salvage her value in the employment market. I bet there is less than meets the eye to her prior employment and any serious journslust need only kick over a few rocks at her prior employers to find it.
My point is we don’t need to drag Egg and the other welfare royals into this. No conspiracy theories necessary. It is plausible thet she made this mess all on her own and based on the media climate in the Uzk thought she could just Blame Harry for it all and be believed.
@GMH. Very much on point. Sounds like the CC will have seen situations like this before (sans royals & tabloids). TY.
I also thought people were being paranoid. Then, she did that awful interview next to Will’s pall. That is no coincidence, coupled with the articles about how if Harry didn’t left BRF, this wouldn’t happen. It is obviously a talking point from BRF. That is why multiple tabloids are saying the same thing.
I do think she may have started with good intentions but was not meeting standard. She wasn’t able to raise money. Now at some point Rawlinson came into the picture and then it became about defending her poor performance through tabloid talking points and doing an interview with someone associated with William on sky news. Plus going to the Sun of all papers.
Exactly! Why I kept saying, think this is her own mess and no RF members involved.
I’m just confused about why she’s hanging on by her fingernails and libeling everybody in sight. I’ve seen several cases where C-suite and chairs failed upwards: they were let go, they resigned gracefully, and they were given decent recs for their next senior position. Or Egg, even if he has no connection to the current fiasco, would likely have given her a plum climate change job and something closer to that £300k salary she was seeking.
Sophie knew the board would resign and that her accusations would create an international incident. And she went ahead anyway. Why? Hubris? Trying to stay out of jail? Agree there are reasons besides Egg, but not ruling him out either.
In the meantime do we know what is happening to the kids? Since that woman has changed the Remit to Climate is anyone seeing to their needs ?
Sentebale is most likely source of funding for her current activities, such as Iain Rawlinson’s ongoing consulting work at her side, her lawyers if she has any, and her trip to London. That is, if it’s true her family are school teachers as someone here reported, and her request for a (substantial) salary was turned down, then she’s not paying for any of this. Sentebale will be broke soon. It doesn’t even matter if it pivots to climate change, because it won’t be doing any charity work period. Poor children.
Maybe they should just carry on with “Forget-Me-Not” – I’m sure there will be a lot more donors for it after this scare than before. Simply out of sympathy and trust in the Sussexes.
Good. I hope Harry is able to restart his charity and still help the children of Lesotho and Botswana. I wonder who recommended Sophie as a board member? Whoever that was, they got some explaining to do.
Exactly this is a developing story. Sophie served for 7 years between 2008 and 2015 and she said in the Sky Interview when she rejoined in 2023 many of the same trustees were still serving so she was a known quantity? Eight years she’s back as CoB and she views herself as the agent of change which again according to Sky Interview, change is hard for some people?
MsIam – According to Sussex S. investigators, Sentebale asked a recruiter to compile a list of potential candidates for the chair position. Since she knew the recruiter personally, she pressured him to include her name, even threatening legal action if he didn’t. The recruiter added her to the list and arranged an interview. She passed the interview.
Somehow, Wikipedia also goes back and forth. I have the impression that explosive information is always being added, then it’s gone again, then it’s back again. It’s always about the “hostile takeovers” in the entries. You have to look at the bottom under changes, where a tool opens where the edits are visible.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Chandauka
Yep. I saw the stuff about her career in hostile takeovers yesterday on her Wikipedia page. Then today it’s gone. Thanks for the tip about finding changes.
Meanwhile, Eden at the Fail has an article entitled, “Why Prince William hired Diana’s divorce lawyers.” Not paying to read the article, but from the comments it sounds like Eden is trying to argue that William isn’t actually divorcing, nothing to see here, move along. The 50 or so comments so far all claim that it’s because of Harry, because something something. But it seems really weird. Each branch of law is very specialized. You don’t hire a securities lawyer when you’re being prosecuted for white collar crime. And you don’t hire a divorce lawyer unless … you want to divorce. I mean, is this a family law firm, so is there something wrt to Harry that doesn’t involve things estate or British line-of-succession lawyers would need to address? Kate hasn’t been seen in three weeks. Anybody have more info?