The British royalist girls are FIGHTING! It’s wild to see this Sentebale catastrophe play out. Sophie Chandauka is doing everything she can to parrot all of the most deranged royalist talking points, and many British outlets have been doing the most to use her words to drag Prince Harry. But there’s been a hell of a lot of fight-back from the now former Sentebale trustees and Team Sussex too, I’m guessing. Now the royal reporters are doing some actual reporting on what Chandauka was doing in her less than two years as Sentebale’s chairwoman, and how much money she was wasting on bullsh-t “consultants.”
The chair of Prince Harry’s charity has spent more than £400,000 on consultant fees since she took on the post in July 2023.
Sophie Chandauka has been involved in a bitter war of words after several trustees, including the Duke of Sussex, resigned from Sentebale, the charity Harry founded in honour of his late mother. Chandauka has now shut down her social media accounts amid allegations of online bullying by racist trolls. She was called a “fraud” and accused of “jumping on a bandwagon of hate” by users professing to support the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. A spokesman for Sentebale said: “Dr Chandauka deleted her Twitter account due to the proliferation of online bullying.”
In total, between June 2023 and January 2025, the organisation spent £427,497 on media and website consultants, a higher expenditure than during previous years. It is understood that the board at the time signed off on the expenditure. The highest bill was for £185,000, which was paid to Lebec, a “woman-led strategy firm” founded by Alix Lebec, a former asset manager who has held leadership roles at the World Bank, the Clinton Global Initiative and Water.org. A source said that Lebec “convened a reception, panel discussion and intimate dinner” at the Zaytinya restaurant at the Ritz-Carlton on Miami’s South Beach in April last year to “highlight Sentebale’s impactful work”.
At the event, Alix Lebec was seen sitting alongside Harry and Chandauka in a panel discussion entitled “Potential is waiting”. Harry told guests at the Florida event that “Africa is in my heart and Africa is in my soul”. One of the guests at the dinner was Iain Rawlinson, who was appointed as a new trustee last week. Rawlinson — who on Sunday was seen sitting next to Chandauka as she told Sky News that the organisation was responsible for “harassment and bullying at scale” — has also been paid by the charity. He received £24,000 for his consultancy services and is said to be owed a further £66,000.
The Miami event was followed by an event in Johannesburg in October. The second event featured a panel discussion moderated by Chandauka and featuring Harry, Alix Lebec, Stacey Boyd, founder and chief executive of Olivela, a luxury retailer that raises money for girls’ education, and Hector Mujica, a Google executive. The event was organised “with strategic advice from” Lebec and Iain Rawlinson of Rawlinson Partners, the charity said at the time. Global Philanthrophic, a fundraising consultancy where Rawlinson had served as both the director and chair, also received £21,600 from Sentebale during this period.
Sarah Essien, a consultant who is reported to have worked closely with Chandauka at Morgan Stanley, was paid £41,451. Another consultant, Dawn Whyte, who worked at the Black British Business Awards, which was founded by Chandauka in 2014, received £26,110 during this period. Other payments included £46,124 to MM Media Consultant and £12,114 to an unnamed website consultant.
Such high spending on consultants is understood to have created tension within the organisation as it made a “transformation” to shift its focus towards Africa. A source close to the situation said: “All of a sudden there were huge amounts being spent on consultants and there didn’t feel like there was anything to show for it. It was hoped that they would bring in lots of fundraising but that didn’t happen. To spend nearly £500,000 on consultants at a charity that raises around £1.5 million a year seemed ludicrous. When a deal with a potential donor fell through in December, many of the trustees began to think that her strategy wasn’t working.”
A Sentebale spokesman said: “In November 2023, Sentebale engaged Lebec and its team of six consultants to provide tools and strategic guidance on how to better prepare for entry into the US marketplace and build credibility. Over the course of a 12-month engagement, Lebec successfully delivered against every single deliverable, including facilitating 65 key connections with potential strategic partners, connectors, advisory board members and funders. These relationships were transferred to Sentebale when Lebec completed its formal engagement in October 2024 on the understanding that Sentebale would nurture these relationships to support its fundraising and impact efforts.”
“Sentebale engaged Lebec and its team of six consultants to provide tools and strategic guidance on how to better prepare for entry into the US marketplace and build credibility.” Their chairwoman threw a tantrum on British television about the presence of Serena Williams (a Black American entrepreneur, venture capitalist and sports icon) at a Sentebale fundraiser. That seems like a terrible way for Sentebale to “build credibility” in American markets. It also seems like Chandauka was churning through Sentebale’s coffers with nothing to show for it – people were alienated by her and her bullsh-t, so “consultants” just gave her some corporate double-speak and no one actually wrote any checks to Sentebale. It absolutely looks like Prince William’s ally Iain Rawlinson saw an opening to exploit Chandauka and Sentebale one year ago and his “consultation” was mostly about helping Chandauka destroy Sentebale from within.
Photos courtesy of Getty.