Prince Harry has accused the Charity Commission’s recent investigation into a charity he co-founded of falling “troublingly short” in its findings.
The prince was cleared of any “overreach” by the commission’s report into Sentebale, which is registered in the UK and supports young people in the southern African country of Lesotho, but it also criticised him and others for allowing the charity’s internal disputes to play out in the “public eye”.
The regulator opened a compliance into Sentebale in April this year after Prince Harry and fellow co-founder Prince Seesio of Lesotho stepped down as patrons over a disagreement between the charity’s former trustees and chair Sophie Chandauka.
In a report of its findings published in August, the regulator criticised “all parties to the dispute for allowing it to play out publicly.”
The regulator also found that the trustees’ failure to resolve disputes internally severely affected the charity’s reputation, and risked undermining public trust in charities more broadly.
This week, the prince’s spokesperson told the Independent: “Unsurprisingly, the commission makes no findings of wrongdoing in relation to Sentebale’s co-founder and former patron, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex.
“They also found no evidence of widespread bullying, harassment or misogyny and misogynoir at the charity, as falsely claimed by the current chair.
“Despite all that, their 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.”
Charity to shift from Prince Harry-focused events
In its recently published accounts for the 16-month period ending 31 December 2024, Chandauka wrote: “Sentebale has emerged stronger from thorough engagement with the UK Charity Commission, welcoming the August 2025 conclusion of its compliance review as a pivotal opportunity for positive transformation and renewed trust.”
The accounts also noted that the charity will now seek to move away from its current financial model, which relied in part on money donated by Prince Harry and his associated fundraising events when he was patron.
The accounts said: “The 16-month period to December 2024 included the third and last year of the charity’s drawdown of the one-off donation of $1.5m [£1.13m] made by its former patron, Prince Harry, in 2021 – representing a proportion of proceeds from his memoir, Spare and allocated towards investment in the quality of programmes over a three-year period reported between 2022 and 2024”.
However, the accounts stated that this support reportedly “masked two important long-term structural weaknesses in Sentebale’s financial model”, which had remained unaddressed.
These were described as a “narrow unrestricted funding base” and the “high cost of events-based fundraising” alongside a “significant” UK-headquartered cost base.
Sentebale now aims to raise more “unrestricted funding from a wider range of partnerships and supporters” and move away from “fundraising from events centred around the former patron, Prince Harry”, according to the accounts.
The charity recorded an annual income of £3.35m for the period, against an expenditure of £4.97m.
Sentebale has been contacted for comment.
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