UK watchdog announces probe into Prince Harry charity

The United Kingdom (UK)’s charity watchdog on Thursday opened a probe into Sentebale, the African organisation co-founded by Prince Harry, after a bitter boardroom row led King Charles III’s youngest son to step down as patron.

“After a period of assessing the initial concerns raised with the commission, the regulator informed the charity on 2 April it has opened a regulatory compliance case,” the Charity Commission said in a statement.

The watchdog added that it would be examining whether the charity’s current and former trustees had “fulfilled their duties and responsibilities under charity law”.

The row at Sentebale escalated on Sunday after its chairperson, Sophie Chandauka, accused the prince of “bullying” and being involved in a “cover up”.

Earlier, Harry and Sentebale’s co-founder, Lesotho’s Prince Seeiso, announced their departure from the charity they established in 2006, following a “devastating” dispute between trustees and Chandauka.

Relations with Chandauka, who was appointed in 2023, “broke down beyond repair”, they said in a joint statement last week, prompting trustees to leave and demand that Chandauka resign.

Harry founded the charity in honour of his mother, Princess Diana, with Seeiso to help young people with HIV and AIDS in Lesotho and later Botswana.

The latest accusations are a fresh blow for the prince, who kept up only a handful of his private patronages including with Sentebale after a dramatic split with the British royals in 2020.

While Harry was integral to the founding vision of the charity, to which he once said he was “committed for the rest of my life”, Chandauka has said “Sentebale has a future” beyond the prince.

Harry chose the name Sentebale as a tribute to Diana, who died in a Paris car crash in 1997 when the prince was just 12. It means “forget me not” in the Sesotho language and is also used to say goodbye.