In Sophie Chandauka’s Financial Times interview, she made a curious claim about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. In the middle of her (frankly) ridiculous, nonsensical rants, she claimed that there was an incident between herself and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex last April. Which would have been the polo match in Florida, where Harry and Meghan looked amazing and Harry played a charity polo match which was NOT called the “Sentebale Polo Cup.” At the time, the lunatics claimed that Meghan was mean or inappropriate with Chandauka when it came time for the polo team to pose for photos. Chandauka went to pose on Harry’s right side and Meghan simply asked “do you want to come over here?” motioning to her (Meghan’s) left. Dan Wootton made a big deal about it, which should tell you a lot about how stupid this controversy was. Well, according to Chandauka and unnamed sources, this was the incident which changed everything.
Firing the latest salvo in an extraordinary boardroom row, Sophie Chandauka said she had been asked by the Prince’s team to defend Meghan, his wife, in the face of negative media coverage. “I said no, we’re not setting a precedent by which we become an extension of the Sussex PR machine,” she told the Financial Times.
The Telegraph understands this devastating breakdown in trust was fuelled by an awkward moment captured on camera last April, during an annual Sentebale charity polo match in Miami, when the Duke captained the winning team. As the players and their partners gathered on the podium for a post-match photograph, Meghan appeared to instruct Ms Chandauka to move away from Harry as he celebrated his win. The Duchess was filmed asking the Zimbabwe-born lawyer, who stood on Harry’s right, to move to her left side away from her husband, as he kept his arm tightly around the Duchess, forcing her to duck under the trophy to switch position.
The brief encounter generated huge publicity and behind the scenes, the Sussexes were said to be furious. One well-placed source said this moment was the catalyst for the falling out with Ms Chandauka. “Ultimately, it comes down to that polo match and the awkward moment with Megan moving her out the way,” the source said. “Harry then demanded that she make a statement to the press, basically saying ‘Megan wasn’t mean to me’, and she refused to do that.”
The source alleged that the Duke “behaved inappropriately in asking her to talk to the press” and later joined with the trustees in seeking to remove her. “Ever since that point, they’ve tried their best to move her out, using the trustees in order to undermine her, demean her and try and force her hand,” the source said.
So Chandauka’s story is that she refused to say anything in defense of Harry and Meghan even as the British smear campaign ramped up and used Chandauka as their latest evidence that Meghan is mean/bossy/what have you. Almost as if Chanduka was already in league with the very same people. And no, this is not “the reason” why things fell apart in Sentebale. Speaking of smear campaigns, this woman ran to Sky News to give another f–king interview:
The chair of the charity set up by Prince Harry has accused him of “harassment and bullying at scale” after he and several others quit the organisation earlier this week. The Duke of Sussex was said to have initiated the campaign by the “unleashing of the Sussex [PR] machine”.
Sentebale chair Dr Sophie Chandauka told Trevor Phillips on Sky’s Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips: “The only reason I’m here… is because at some point on Tuesday, Prince Harry authorised the release of a damaging piece of news to the outside world without informing me or my country directors, or my executive director. And can you imagine what that attack has done for me, on me and the 540 individuals in the Sentebale organisations and their family? That is an example of harassment and bullying at scale.”
Sky News contacted the Duke and Duchess of Sussex about the contents of the interview and they declined to offer any formal response.
A source close to the former trustees of the Sentebale charity has described as “completely baseless” Dr Chandauka’s claims that she was bullied and harassed, briefed against by Prince Harry, or that the Sussex machine was unleashed on her.
“At some point on Tuesday, Prince Harry authorised the release of a damaging piece of news…” What is she talking about? I looked at the past week’s timeline… Tuesday was the day Prince Harry and Prince Seeiso formally resigned as royal patrons for the charity they founded, and they did so because Chandauka ran to England to sue the board of trustees rather than acquiesce to the board’s request for her resignation. It was the next day, Wednesday, when sources close to the Sentebale told People Magazine why the board lost faith in Chanduka – because she was blowing through $600K on “consultants” and her actions/behavior had lost them a major sponsor. But nevermind – we know what she is now, we know how she’s being used, we know who provided her with these talking points. This is all so despicable.
Wth, she’s accusing the #Sussexsupporters of bullying her, because Harry released a statement! pic.twitter.com/shAsseWB7T
— Jozaphen_ Imisioluwa,oluwasegun Sussex (@jozzzaphen) March 29, 2025
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
