Prince Harry lost a venue for his Sentebale charity after he insisted on bringing a Netflix film crew to a fundraising event, the organisation’s chairman has claimed.
Dr Sophie Chandauka accused the royal of causing the charity to lose a "generous" offer to use polo grounds in Miami at a discounted rate, due to his request to film for a Netflix production.
In an interview with Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips, Dr Chandauka said the venue was withdrawn when the owners deemed Harry’s request had turned the event into a “commercial undertaking”.
She explained: “We had a very generous family that was happy for us to use their polo grounds at a material discount and then, about a month before the event was about to take place, Prince Harry called the team and 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.'"
She continued: “And so the team called me and told me, 'Oh, Prince Harry's made this request, so we're doing the things.' I said, you can't be doing the things without seeking consent from the property owners, the sponsors, all the guests. Nobody signed up to being on a Netflix show.”
Dr Chandauka added that “draft agreements” were then made, and the venue owner laid out new commercial terms.
“We couldn't afford it. So now we lost the venue,” she said.
The chairman also accused the Duke of Sussex of "harassment and bullying at scale" and described the Sussex brand as "toxic"—allegations strongly denied by Harry’s representatives.
Her comments come after Prince Harry and Sentebale co-founder Prince Seeiso of Lesotho resigned last week, citing Dr Chandauka's leadership as “untenable”.
Asked if trustees had lost confidence in her leadership and if she was "the problem" rather than Harry, Dr Chandauka said: "It was me who was the problem, because I put a whistleblower complaint about the bullying, the harassment and the misogyny, and Prince Harry interfered in the investigation of that."
She further alleged: "And the senior independent director, who should have taken care of it, was the very same person who then delivered the news to me that I was going to be removed by the board. So it's a cover-up, and the prince is involved."
Dr Chandauka noted a "significant correlation" between a drop in charity donors and Prince Harry's departure from the UK in 2020, suggesting corporate sponsors and major individual donors had pulled support due to "uncomfortable conversations" about the Duke.
However, asked whether alleged misogyny stemmed directly from the prince or his associates, Dr Chandauka said: "Actually my experience is Prince Harry himself, fantastic actually, we have, we had a great relationship."
Prince Harry’s representatives have denied all accusations against him.
