UK regulators criticize all sides in dispute over Prince Harry and Prince Seeiso’s charity

Advertisement

Advertise with us

LONDON (AP) — British regulators criticized on Wednesday both sides in a dispute over the future of a charity founded by Prince Harry and Prince Seeiso of Lesotho, for allowing the issue to be played out in public and damaging the organization’s reputation.

Read this article for free:

or

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Monthly Digital Subscription

$1 per week for 24 weeks*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles

*Billed as $4.00 plus GST every four weeks. After 24 weeks, price increases to the regular rate of $19.00 plus GST every four weeks. Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.

Monthly Digital Subscription

$4.75/week*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles

*Billed as $19 plus GST every four weeks. Cancel any time.

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Add Winnipeg Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only

$1 for the first 4 weeks*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles
Start now

No thanks

*$1 will be added to your next bill. After your 4 weeks access is complete your rate will increase by $0.00 a X percent off the regular rate.

LONDON (AP) — British regulators criticized on Wednesday both sides in a dispute over the future of a charity founded by Prince Harry and Prince Seeiso of Lesotho, for allowing the issue to be played out in public and damaging the organization’s reputation.

The Charity Commission for England and Wales went on to say that it found no evidence of widespread bullying or misogyny at Sentebale, which provides support for young people living with HIV in Botswana and Lesotho.

The commission opened a review of Sentebale’s governance in April after the two princes stepped down as patrons and a group of trustees, saying the relationship between the board and its chair, Sophie Chandauka, was beyond repair. Chandauka later accused Harry of orchestrating a campaign of bullying and harassment to try to force her out.

FILE - Britain's Prince Harry speaks during the Clinton Global Initiative, on Sept. 24, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki, file)
FILE - Britain's Prince Harry speaks during the Clinton Global Initiative, on Sept. 24, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki, file)

Disagreements over the organization’s future surfaced in 2023 after the then-board of trustees sought to roll out a new fundraising strategy in the United States, the commission said. The dispute between Chandauka, other trustees and Harry was first reported to the commission in February 2025.

Those tensions became public in March, when Harry announced he was stepping down as patron to support the trustees who had resigned. In his role as patron, the prince used his star power to promote and raise funds for Sentebale.

“Sentebale’s problems played out in the public eye, enabling a damaging dispute to harm the charity’s reputation, risk overshadowing its many achievements, and jeopardizing the charity’s ability to deliver for the very beneficiaries it was created to serve,” commission CEO David Holdsworth said in a statement released Wednesday.

Harry’s spokesman attacked the commission’s decision.

The report “falls troublingly short in many regards, primarily the fact that the consequences of the current chair’s actions will not be borne by her – but by the children who rely on Sentebale’s support,” Harry’s spokesman said in a statement.

Harry will now look at alternative ways to help young people in Botswana and Lesotho, the spokesman said.

Chandauka welcomed the report, saying it confirmed the governance issues she raised earlier this year.

“The unexpected adverse media campaign that was launched by those who resigned on 24 March 2025 has caused incalculable damage and offers a glimpse of the unacceptable behaviors displayed in private,” she said in a statement.

Harry and Seeiso founded Sentebale in 2006 to honor their late mothers

Report Error Submit a Tip