The financial accounts from Prince Harry’s embattled charity Sentebale have shed fresh light on what went wrong for the organisation, MailOnline analysis can reveal.
The documents, which must be published annually according to the UK Charity Commission’s rules, show the total income and total expenditure for each year.
They show what was going on with the finances at the charity amidst a deepening row between Prince Harry and the chairwoman Dr Sophie Chandauka over the charity’s alleged mismanagement.
Both of them have been involved in a bitter PR operation as they seek to blame the other for the scandal currently engulfing Sentebale.
Chandauka, 47, claims that since she took over in July 2023 and conducted a review of its finances over the previous seven years, that there was ‘a significant correlation’ in the charity’s downturn in commercial support and Harry’s departure from the UK.
The Oxford-educated Zimbabwean lawyer also claimed Sentebale was a ‘vanity project’ for Harry, portraying herself as a whistle-blower and highlighting ‘poor governance, weak executive management, abuse of power, bullying, harassment, misogyny, misogynoir and the cover-up that ensued’.
Chandauka, who served on the charity’s board from 2009 until 2015 and whose family is the third largest donor to Sentebale, described the ‘toxicity of its lead patron’s brand’ as the now number one risk for Sentebale.
But royal sources close to the Duke have hit back, calling accusations that he had personally harassed and bullied her a ‘deflection’ and that the resignation of the trustees was a ‘direct result of the chair’s mismanagement’.
Prince Harry and Sentebale chairwoman Dr Sophie Chandauka have both been involved in a bitter PR operation as they seek to blame the other for the scandal currently engulfing the charity
Sources also insist Sentebale was in a stable financial position when she was appointed in 2023 and suggest that blaming any loss in revenue on Harry leaving the UK in 2020 is ‘baseless and inaccurate’, not least because the charity was ‘almost entirely reliant’ on the use of his name for fundraising.
MailOnline’s analysis of Sentebale’s financial accounts shows that the charity’s finances have been relatively stable over the past decade.
When Harry left the Royal Family and the UK in January 2020, the account filed in August that year showed Sentebale’s income was at the lowest level in the last decade at £2.39million.
But in the years since, income has recovered to a high of £4.55million in 2022.
However, further analysis of Chandauka’s tenure in charge of the charity, which began in July 2023, are limited because the financial accounts for 2024 have not been published.
The latest publicly available financial accounts date from August 2023, which means Chandauka had only been chairwoman for one month when they were released.
MailOnline has contacted Sentebale asking for further details on the latest financial accounts and when they will be published in full.
Prince Harry, 40, and his co-founder Prince Seeiso of Lesotho, 58, alongside all five of the charity’s trustees, resigned last week rather than remain involved with Chandauka as chair.
The charity regulator of the UK, the Charity Commission, is now undertaking a fact-finding investigation into the charity’s affairs.
The row began on Wednesday, March 26, when the Duke of Sussex revealed ‘unthinkable infighting’ had led to his shock resignation from the charity which he founded in 2006 in honour of Princess Diana to help young people in southern Africa living with HIV and AIDS.
In a bombshell statement, Harry lamented the ‘devastating’ decision to quit as patron, alongside his ‘second dad’ Mark Dyer, who also resigned as trustee.
Chandauka, who has a glittering CV that includes senior corporate positions at Meta and Morgan Stanley, then issued a stinging response taking aim at ‘weak executive management’ and appearing to criticise Harry for ‘playing the victim card’.
In an explosive interview on Sunday, Chandauka claimed donors dropped their support because of the Prince’s reputation after he quit his royal duties.
Prince Harry and Dr Chandauka during the Royal Salute Polo Challenge to benefit Sentebale, at the USPA National Polo Center in Wellington, Florida – April 12, 2024
Dr Chandauka (left) with Prince Harry attending a Sentebale reception and panel discussion at The Saxon Hotel in Johannesburg, South Africa — October 3, 2024
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex during the Royal Salute Polo Challenge, to benefit Sentebale, at the USPA National Polo Center in Wellington, Florida – April 12, 2024
Dr Chandauka speaks during the Sentebale ‘Potential is Waiting’ panel discussion at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Miami Beach, Florida – April 11, 2024
‘There was quite a significant correlation between the time the organisation started to see a departure of major organisations and Prince Harry’s departure from the UK itself,’ she said.
Sentebale lost corporate sponsors as well as donors – and so far as Chandauka was concerned, it was clear where the fault lay.
She said yesterday that a review of the charity’s finances in July 2023 after she became chairman revealed donors began departing after Harry and Meghan left the Royal Family.
‘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,’ she said.
‘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 … it’s an uncomfortable conversation to have with Prince Harry in the room.’
Chandauka also claimed that media attention around Harry’s 2022 Netflix documentary and his autobiography, Spare, had affected the ability to hire senior staff and attract new donors.
She also alleged that Harry ‘unleashed the Sussex machine’ on her in a case of ‘harassment and bullying at scale’ after she tried to bring in changes.
Meanwhile it is understood that Harry and Meghan have an entirely different account of what happened at Sentebale.
While a spokesman for the Sussexes did not comment on the claims, friends of the Duke insist he has raised more than £12 million for the charity and donated more than £1 million from sales of his book Spare.
Harry and Seeiso visit a special Sentebale event aimed at providing work opportunities for young women in Lesotho on October 2, 2024
Prince Harry flanked by Sister Victoria Mota and Prince Seeiso, interacts with pupils at a school in Lesotho during a visit in 2013
Claims that the prince’s requests were nodded through by acolytes on the board of trustees were also described as ‘completely baseless’.
The former overseas development minister Baroness Chalker of Wallasey, who served as a trustee for 20 years, described Dr Chandauka as ‘almost dictatorial’.
And the five trustees who resigned said the ‘devastating’ decision was the ‘result of our loss in trust and confidence in the chair of the board’.
When asked about Chandauka’s claims of bullying and misogyny against her, Kelello Lerotholi, one of the trustees who resigned, 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.’
The Zimbabwe-born lawyer Chandauka had been viewed as controversial and, at times, divisive figure.
The acrimony within the charity eventually led her to launch a legal attempt to block trustees from removing her, a move ultimately orchestrated by Harry – her associates claim.
Trustees at the charity have instead accused her of bullying staff, doctoring the minutes of meetings and spending large amounts on consultants.
In an interview with The FT published on Saturday, Chandauka claimed she wanted to restructure Sentebale to bring in more money from the US and focus on Africa-led initiatives.
But she said that these changes left the board fearing ‘oh my goodness, the Africans are taking over’.
The lawyer told the paper: ”The way the organisation had been set up in 2006, was no longer appropriate in 2023 in a post-Black Lives Matter world.
‘Funders were asking for locally led initiatives.’
According to her, the transition had triggered friction between UK-based staff and those in Lesotho, where most of the charity’s 500-plus workforce are based.
A person familiar with the trustees’ account of events said the trustees were supportive of moving fundraising towards America, but the problem was Chandauka failed to do that.
Harry has not commented directly on Chandauka’s claims but sources close to the Prince and trustees have described them as a ‘publicity stunt’, according to The Times.
Prince Seeiso of Lesotho and Prince Harry attend a welcome event at the Mamohato Children’s Centre in Maseru, Lesotho – October 1, 2024
Prince Seeiso of Lesotho and Dr. Sophie Chandauka are pictured with Prince Harry in 2024
Prince arrives at a visit to Matlameng in the Leribe region with Sentebale last year
The paper reported concerns were also raised when available funds for the charity fell below its self-imposed £600,000 safety threshold after Chandauka was appointed.
Although sources close to the chairwoman said the charity was awaiting $1.75 million that had been pledged.
Royal expert Richard Palmer wrote in the i newspaper that Chandauka wanted to make the charity less reliant on money raised by well-meaning posh white men, including Harry.
Although glamorous polo matches around the world with celebrities had been a major sources of funding for years, he believed they would be reduced.
One source familiar with the matter told him that Chandauka upset one of the main financial backers of the Sentebale Polo Cup, resulting in the match not taking place in 2024.
To replace the income, she allegedly hired consultants without board approval, understood to be Lebec, a women-led strategy firm that advises clients on philanthropists, according to Palmer.
‘The total spend on the consultants to explore a new fundraising strategy was £500,000 but it did not produce new funding,’ a source told the writer.
‘There was a clear breach of trust. She lost the support of the board.’
Palmer believes that when a financial deal fell through in December, the board of trustees turned against Chandauka and attempted to vote her out in February.
But the experienced lawyer went to the High Court to stop the vote, prompting the five trustees and the Princely founders to resign, according to Palmer.
More details of the turning point in Chandauka and Harry’s relationship emerged on Sunday when the lawyer was interviewed on Sky News’s Trevor Phillips show.
She claimed the Prince nearly derailed a polo match to raise funds for Sentebale in April 2024 by insisting on bringing a Netflix camera crew.
Chandauka also told how Meghan had said she would not attend the event – but turned up with a celebrity friend, now revealed to be tennis star Serena Williams, and caused chaotic scenes when the trophy was presented.
In a bombshell new interview on Sunday, Chandauka made several damaging claims against the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, calling their brand ‘toxic’
The ‘highly awkward’ moment at a fundraising polo match for Sentebale in the US in April 2024 looked like the Duchess ushering the charity boss away from her husband on stage
The incident, where the Duchess appeared to usher the charity boss away from her husband on stage, led to media criticism of Meghan’s behaviour.
Dr Chandauka told Phillips that Harry ‘asked me to issue some sort of a statement in support of the duchess’ – but she refused.
‘Not because I didn’t care about the Duchess, but because I knew what would happen if I did so, number one. And number two, because we cannot be an extension of the Sussexes,’ she said.
Describing the situation when Harry insisted the Netflix crew join him at a fundraising event, Dr Chandauka said they had secured the use of a polo ground in Miami at a ‘material discount’.
But about a month before the event, Harry called the team and allegedly 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.’
The charity managed to bag another venue through Harry’s connections, with the Duke in attendance as well as an unexpected visit from Meghan.
Meanwhile, Sussex sources have said Chandauka’s account of the debacle around last year’s polo match in Miami is ‘highly misleading’.
They suggest the original venue had already changed its terms, resulting in a rise in costs, which meant the charity had no option but to find a new site with the help of Harry’s friend and fellow polo player, Nacho Figueras.
They say the decision had nothing to do with Netflix.
The Charity Commission is currently undertaking a fact-finding investigation into the charity’s affairs.
A statement from the organisation 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.’
