Prince Harry lost venue as he 'wanted to bring Netflix crew', charity boss says (2025)

PRINCE Harry lost a venue for Sentebale because he wanted to invite a Netflix film crew, the charity's chairman claims.

Dr Sophie Chandauka also accused the royal of "harassment and bullying at scale", and labelled the Sussex brand "toxic" - allegations Harry's representatives have denied.

It comes after the Duke of Sussex and Prince Seesio of Lesotho - who set up the charity in 2006 - sensationally resigned last week.

They slammed Dr Chandauka's leadership as "untenable" and sided with trustees in a row over moving the charity's fundraising operations to Africa.

In an interview for Sky News's Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips, she said an opportunity for the charity to do a fundraising Polo Challenge in Miami was scuppered by the prince insisting on bringing a film crew from the streaming service.

She said: "We had a very generous family that was happy for us to use their polo grounds at a material discount and then, about a month before the event was about to take place, Prince Harry called the team and 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.'

"And so the team called me and told me, 'Oh, Prince Harry's made this request, so we're doing the things'.

"I said, you can't be doing the things without seeking consent from the property owners, the sponsors, all the guests. Nobody signed up to being on a Netflix show."

She said "draft agreements" were made and the venue owner said it was now a "commercial undertaking" and named their terms.

Dr Chandauka added: "We couldn't afford it. So now we lost the venue."

BULLYING 'COVER-UP'

She also accused Harry of being "involved" in a "cover-up" regarding an investigation about bullying, harassment and misogyny at the organisation.

Asked about reports trustees had lost confidence in her leadership and whether she was "the problem", rather than Harry, Dr Chandauka said: "It was me who was the problem, because I put a whistleblower complaint about the bullying, the harassment and the misogyny, and Prince Harry interfered in the investigation of that.

"And the senior independent director, who should have taken care of it, was the very same person who then delivered the news to me that I was going to be removed by the board.

"So it's a cover-up, and the prince is involved."

Asked whether the alleged misogyny stemmed from the prince and his associates, she said: "Actually my experience is Prince Harry himself, fantastic actually, we have, we had a great relationship.

"We had a great relationship but there are some individuals on the board who, quite frankly, did not treat me in the way that they would have treated the prior chair, and completely disrupted my meetings because they thought that they could get away with mistreating a woman, and all the women who attended these meetings felt it."

She went on to say there was a "significant correlation" between a drop in donors and the Duke of Sussex's departure from the UK in 2020.

"So when I arrived in July in 2023, of course the first thing you do is you open the annual report, you look at the board minutes to see what it is is going on in the organisation.

"I did a seven-year historical review of the financials, looking at our costs and looking at our revenue so income, it was pretty obvious to me that we had lost quite a number of corporate sponsors.

"We'd lost some families, and we'd lost individuals who were donating to the organisation, and there was quite a significant correlation between the time the organisation started to see a departure of sort of major organisations, and Prince Harry's departure from the UK itself.

"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 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 the instruction was, it's uncomfortable conversation to have with Prince Harry in the room'."

'COMPLETELY BASELESS'

A source close to the former trustees of the Sentebale charity has described Chandauka's claims as "completely baseless".

Another source who was familiar with the events said both Harry and Seeiso had sent a resignation letter to the chair as well as trustees on March 10.

Dr Chandauka, a Zimbabwe-born lawyer, was selected to be chair of the trustees last year.

But it is understood these members strongly disagreed with the decision and wanted her to step down - a move which has seen her sue.

After her refusal to quit, many disgruntled trustees left the charity, as relations "broke down beyond repair" - a move that was followed by the charity's two co-founders.

Following their departure, Chandauka released an explosive statement in which she slammed "unthinkable" infighting in the organisation as well as made claims that there had been a "cover-up".

In a statement given to theMail, Chandauka alleged there had been "weak executive management, abuse ofpower, bullying, harassment, misogyny, and misogynoir".

Misogynoir is the term used to describe discrimination against black women.

Princes Harry and Seeiso had said it was "devastating" to leave the charity, butslammed Chandauka for her "untenable" leadership.

In a statement, they said: "With heavyhearts, we have resigned from our roles as patrons of the organisation until further notice, in support of and solidarity with the board of trustees who have had to do the same.

"It is devastating that the relationship between the charity’s trustees and the chair of the board broke down beyond repair, creating an untenable situation."

They added: "What’s transpired is unthinkable.

"We are in shock that we have to do this, but we have a continued responsibility toSentebale’sbeneficiaries, so we will be sharing all of our concerns with the Charity Commission as to how this came about."

The Charity Commission has confirmed that aninvestigationis underway into the charity, which was set up to support those living withHIV and Aidsin Africa.

Harry and Seeiso said Chandauka's behaviour forced them to consider the "unthinkable" decision of resigning.

In response, the chair appeared to suggest Harry and Seeiso were using the charity as a "vanity project", saying she would not be "intimidated" by them.

She also slammed "people in this world who behave as though they are above thelawand mistreat people...then play the victim card and use the very press they disdain".

Dr Chandauka has now also argued that Harry's move to the US worsened the situation at the charity.

She said the controversy that surrounded his move impacted Sentebale's ability to both diversify its donor pool and make senior hires.

When the Sussex's resided in the UK they attended British events like the West End musicalHamiltonin August 2018 or Cirque du Soleil's Totem show at the Royal Albert Hall in January 2019.

These high-profile appearances pulled in thousands for Sentebale - which helps young boys struggling inSouth Africa.

Once Meghan and Harry stepped down from their Royal duties in January 2020 he dramatically moved to the US they stopped attending these prominent events.

The funding, made up of proceeds from ticket sales, then started to dry up and the fundraising for the charity was reportedly made harder.

With the move swirled by controversy, the pair's popularity dropped somewhat which also affected donations.

Harry setup Sentebale after visiting Lesotho on his gap year in 2004.

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It was on the trip that he met hisfutureco-founder,PrinceSeeiso, who had also lost his mum the year before.

In their resignation statement, the pair said they had started the charity, which means "forget-me-not", in honour of their mums.