On Monday, I said that I would appreciate some additional on-the-record pushback from Prince Harry and Prince Seeiso regarding this ongoing Sentebale situation. I understand the perspective of “let Sophie Chandauka punch herself out and make wild, defamatory comments on the record.” I absolutely agree with that. But in my opinion, Harry and Seeiso should make another joint statement of some kind. Instead, we have unnamed “former trustees” speaking to People Magazine, we have Prince William’s minions running around and smearing Harry, and now we have some random friend-of-Harry speaking to the Daily Mail’s Alison Boshoff. At least the friend is named, which gives this more authenticity. These comments are from Alex Rayner, who claims to have spoken to Harry over the weekend.
Rayner says Harry is happy to have him speak out: I can reveal that Alex Rayner, an old Etonian school friend of the prince, who went to the North Pole with him in 2012 and has been in contact with him over the weekend, said that Prince Harry is ‘shocked’ by the accusations made against him and ‘grief-stricken’ at the way the saga has unfolded. ‘H is very happy for me to speak for him about how he feels about this awful situation,’ said Rayner. ‘He is just beyond heartbroken and flabbergasted that the charity he founded as a teenager has been taken hostage by the chair.’
A hostile takeover: ‘It feels tantamount to a hostile takeover. He is so upset and hurt and wounded about the things that are being said about him. I think it’s too early to tell whether he will just walk away now or whether he might try and get it back. The way he feels is as if he has had one of his fingers cut off. He set up Sentebale with a schoolfriend when the death of his mum was a fresh memory. At the moment he is just in total shock about what is being said and the accusations being made.’
Rayner believe Chandauka is jealous of Meghan: Sensationally, Rayner adds that he believes some of the accusations from Sentebale chairwoman Dr Sophie Chandauka may possibly spring from jealousy of Prince Harry’s wife, Meghan. On stage during the trophy-giving ceremony, Meghan appeared to ask Sentebale’s chairwoman to move away from Harry and instead to stand to one side, on the duchess’s left, leaving the spotlight to the couple. On a now crowded stage Dr Chandauka was forced to duck inelegantly underneath the trophy to move out of the way. But Alex Rayner told me: ‘It feels like [Dr Chandauka] had her nose put out of joint because she was not the most important woman of colour on the stage. There is an undercurrent of stink here because Meghan showed up and it is coming from her [Dr Chandauka].’
Rayner on Chandauka’s wild claims that Meghan forced her way into the polo match unannounced last year: ‘The chair should never have let that narrative take hold, that Meghan had caused an issue. If that narrative did take hold, then I would argue it is down to the chair to put it right. They could have issued a statement and put a stop to it but they did not. Why? Again, the whole thing smells. It feels planned, and I suspect that the whole thing could only have come from the chair herself. Any chair should have been delighted to have Meghan there. When you have both the Sussexes there it doubles the reaction, the power of it. And yet here she [Dr Chandauka] is refusing to get hold of a negative narrative which damages Meghan. It makes you wonder where it came from?’
Meghan was always expected to attend the polo match: As for the suggestion that Meghan effectively gatecrashed the event – Dr Chandauka said she had not been expected to attend, but then turned up with Serena Williams – Rayner said: ‘It’s Harry’s charity polo match and Meghan is his wife, of course she should have expected her there.’
On Chandauka’s bizarre claims about Harry losing a polo venue because of his Netflix crew: ‘If you are a sponsor then of course you would want the exposure from a Netflix documentary, so this whole story seems simply untrue. You cannot say that Harry’s brand is of no consequence to the charity, it simply does not stack up. Yes, he has gone from being the great hope of the British Royal Family to being seen as a pariah, but he still attracts a lot of exposure. And with a TV crew in tow – what sponsor would not want the global exposure? This sounds like an excuse to cover up an administrative error at the charity. They lost the venue.’
In conclusion: ‘Let’s not get blinded by “let’s bash Harry” and by the idea that there were racial undertones in play… the situation is that she has failed to administrate her role. She was asked to step down and she refused and took over the charity.’
I have no idea if Harry truly authorized Rayner to speak out, but Rayner did a pretty good job of it, taking it point by point and saying much of the same things Sussex-defenders were already saying, that Chandauka was likely part of this “Meghan was rude at the trophy presentation” storyline, that Chandauka is bizarrely jealous of Meghan and her friends, that Chandauka has executed a hostile takeover of Sentebale.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
