The leader of Prince Harry’s charity said their image is harmful, and insists that Harry’s team requested her to support Meghan against criticism.

An African charity dedicated to assisting children with HIV is under fire from its own head for its association with Harry and Meghan, whose reputation is being called ‘toxic’.

Dr. Sophie Chandauka, the chair of Sentebale, an organization co-founded by the Duke of Sussex, spoke out in a remarkable interview, revealing that she sensed tension between Harry and herself a year earlier.

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

Last week, Prince Harry made a dramatic exit from Sentebale, showing support for the charity’s dissatisfied trustees. They had resigned due to irreparable breakdowns in their relationship with the formidable Zimbabwean lawyer, Dr. Chandauka, who had declined their request to step down.

But in an extraordinary interview yesterday she raised the stakes in the increasingly ugly dispute engulfing the charity, 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 accuses 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.

And in an astonishing message to Harry she said: ‘The team is resolved that Sentebale will live on, with or without you.’

It followed a statement last week from Sentebale – which was formed in 2006 in memory of Harry’s late mother Diana to help Aids orphans in southern Africa – suggesting ‘people in the field’ were more important than its trustees.

Igniting a poisonous internecine dispute, the charity said in a highly charged statement last week: ‘There are people in this world who behave as though they are above the law and mistreat people, and then play the victim card and use the very press they disdain to harm people who have the courage to challenge their conduct.’

There was a deafening silence from Harry about the claims. 

But a source who has known the prince since the charity’s inception told the Mail: ‘There’s no way of sugar-coating the damage of this, regardless of who’s in the right. He’ll be reeling.’

The charity also reiterated its commitment to supporting young people in the region without the support of its royal patron, who stepped back from his role in protest at the ‘untenable’ actions of Ms Chandauka.

Sentebale and its trustees are facing allegations of racism, sexism and bullying from Ms Chandauka. 

Sources say after the board of trustees formally requested Ms Chandauka’s resignation she declined and then, when they tried to force the move through with a vote, she filed a legal challenge at the High Court to prevent their meeting.

While there is no formal record of proceedings at the Royal Courts of Justice, it is claimed that the court did not grant an injunction and, as the charity board meeting was ultimately cancelled, the judge decided that no further hearing or court appearance was necessary. 

It is not clear where this leaves Ms Chandauka’s legal challenge. Prince Harry is not personally the subject of any legal action in this matter.

Representatives for Prince Harry have strongly denied he had sought to engineer the collapse of the charity in order to rescue it.

Ms Chandauka, who trained as a lawyer in London, told the FT that she has been on a mission to transform the charity.

‘The way the organisation had been set up in 2006, was no longer appropriate in 2023 in a post-Black Lives Matter world,’ she said.

She added that her changes triggered friction between UK-based staff and those in Lesotho, where most of the charity’s 500-plus workforce are based.

The board, she said, felt ‘a loss of power and control and influence… oh my goodness, the Africans are taking over’.

Far from being a bully herself, she insisted that during her time as chair she experienced ‘disrespect, bullying and intimidation’ and ‘misogyny and misogynoir (misogyny directed at Black women)’, allegations that have been vehemently denied.

There is no suggestion that Princes Harry or Seeiso were alleged to have behaved in this way.

Kelello Lerotholi, one of the trustees who resigned this week, 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.’

And Baroness Lynda Chalker of Wallasey, who served as a trustee for nearly two decades until November, has spoken of how Dr Chandauka ‘almost dictatorial’ style had led to clashes.

The origins of the dispute have been highly contested by both sides. Dr Chandauka said she first felt tension between Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, and herself in April 2024.

Some sources insist the dispute had nothing to do with personal animosity. ‘There are real issues at hand that have been raised and not addressed,’ said one.

‘The trustees tried to negotiate this privately and requested she consider her position due to their lack of trust and confidence in her as a leader.’

Lawyers for Prince Harry have said there had been a breakdown in relations between the chair and key individuals, including some staff, trustees and major funders.

A Charity Commission spokesperson said: ‘We can confirm that we are aware of concerns about the governance of Sentebale. We are assessing the issues to determine the appropriate regulatory steps.’

The charity’s five former trustees, who include Harry’s long-time mentor Mark Dyer – a former army captain who accompanied him on his first gap-year trip to Lesotho – said in their resignation statement that ‘we see no other path forward as the result of our loss in trust and confidence in the chair of the board.’

In an apparent further dig at Harry, Dr Chandauka added that ‘for me, this is not a vanity project from which I can resign when I am called to account’.

She said: ‘I am an African who has had the privilege of a world class education and career. I will not be intimidated. I must stand for something.’

And she insisted that she would not step down from her role. One source close to the prince told the Mail that it was a ‘hugely sensitive’ situation and urged people to see ‘the facts play out’.

‘The Charity Commission will investigate. That process needs to happen,’ they said.

Sentebale and the Sussexes have been approached for comment.