Prince Harry ‘in shock’ after quitting his African AIDS charity

LONDON — Britain’s Prince Harry said he was “in shock” after quitting as a patron of Sentebale, a British charity he set up to help young people with HIV and AIDS in Lesotho and Botswana, following a row between trustees and the chair of the board.

Harry, the younger son of King Charles, co-founded Sentebale in 2006 in honor of his mother, Princess Diana, nine years after she was killed in a Paris car crash. Sentebale means “forget-me-not” in the local language of Lesotho in southern Africa.

Co-founder Prince Seeiso of Lesotho, as well as the board of trustees, joined Harry in leaving Sentebale following a dispute with chair Sophie Chandauka, who has taken legal action to try to retain her position.

In a joint statement with his co-founder, Harry said on Wednesday that it was “with heavy hearts” that they had resigned from their roles “until further notice.”

The trustees had acted in the best interests of the charity in asking the chair to step down, the joint statement said.

“Although we may no longer be patrons, we will always be its founders, and we will never forget what this charity is capable of achieving when it is in the right care,” it continued.

The specifics of the row within the charity are not yet clear. But in her own statement, Chandauka appeared to take a swipe at the 40-year-royal for “playing the victim card.”

“Everything I do at Sentebale is in pursuit of the integrity of the organisation, its mission, and the young people we serve,” she said in a statement reported by Britain’s PA Media news agency.

The news agency said she claimed she had reported the trustees to the UK’s Charity Commission and that a UK court had issued an injunction to stop her dismissal.

“My actions are guided by the principles of fairness and equitable treatment for all, regardless of social status or financial means. 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,” Chandauka said.

She continued that the situation was “the story of a woman who dared to blow the whistle about issues of poor governance, weak executive management, abuse of power, bullying, harassment, misogyny, misogynoir – and the coverup that ensued.”

Harry, who lives in California with his wife, Meghan, and two children, stopped working as a member of the royal family in 2020. While he gave up his military appointments and royal patronages when the couple stepped back from royal duties, he maintained many of his private causes and patronages, including Sentebale.

Stepping away from the charity will be a blow to the prince, as the project is particularly close to his heart.

He was inspired to set up Sentebale while visiting the kingdom of Lesotho during his gap year in 2004. The small African nation has some of the highest rates of HIV and AIDS in the world.

Harry spoke passionately in 2020 about being “struck by the hardship and challenges so many children faced” and how the charity was set up “as a memory of both Prince Seeiso’s mother as well as my own.”

He has traveled back to Lesotho a number of times over the years, most recently in October when he joined a fireside discussion to hear how Sentebale had improved people’s lives. It’s one of a number of causes Harry has worked on in Africa.

Britain’s Charity Commission said in a statement reported by PA that it was “aware of concerns about the governance” and was “assessing the issues to determine the appropriate regulatory steps.”

Sentebale said in a statement to PA that it had not received resignations from its royal patrons and described the “recalibration of the board” as “part of Sentebale’s ambitious transformation agenda.”

This story has been updated with developments by Lauren Said-Moorhouse and Max Foster, CNN, and Reuters