Inside the Sussex spiral as Harry is left heartbroken and alone

Meghan’s marriage to Harry gave her the X-factor she needed to transfer from the B-list to the A-list, but as Harry swapped royalty for celebrity, a ‘life of service’ is proving to be harder for him outside protective palace walls. As his African charity implodes, he is looking more lost than ever, writes Tessa Dunlop

Ooof. The messy implosion of Prince Harry’s Sentebale charity is, in his own words, “devastating”. Poor Haz. Indicative of the extent of this gut punch is the duke’s decision to rescind his patronage of an organisation the prince co-founded to honour his late mother in the land he loves most, Africa.

This being, of course, the continent where Harry first fell in love (Chelsy, not Meghan) and found peace, space and meaning in the wake of Diana’s death and his own self-destructive behaviour. The creation of this Lesotho-based charity, focused on children orphaned by the Aids epidemic, proved the ideal fit. No one was surprised when Sentebale (direct translation: forget-me-not – Diana’s favourite flower) remained on the Sussexes’ charitable portfolio long after their royal patronages and charitable affiliations had been severed.

Alongside Invictus, Sentebale was an easy shorthand for understanding what makes Harry tick. It was at a fundraising dinner for the latter in January 2020, that the prince gave his farewell speech before he and Meghan left Britain and the royal family behind: “We are taking a leap of faith,” he said, “so thank you for giving me the courage to take this next step.”

Five years on and the current maelstrom within the ranks of Sentebale is a reminder that leaps of faith in a “life of service” outside the gilded royal cage are rarely straightforward. There is a dark irony to this particular crisis that has engulfed Harry’s charity, co-founded in 2006 with Prince Seeiso of Lesotho.

The new chair, Dr Sophie Chandauka, appointed in July 2023, has not only refused to step down at the behest of a board chock-full of Harry’s establishment old guard but has pushed back, reporting the trustees to the Charity Commission while taking a public swipe at their leadership. She derided those who think they are “above the law” and “then play the victim card and use the very press they disdain to harm people who have the courage to challenge their conduct”.

Harry’s own actions and words have been weaponised against him and his trustees, by a former lawyer and woman of colour, appointed an MBE in 2021 for services to diversity in business, who now claims she’s the victim of “bullying, harassment, misogyny, misogynoir”.

Dig a little deeper, and the identity and direction of Sentebale appears to have been in flux for some time. Chandauka is focused on embedding the charity into a more exclusive African-based remit and changing its mission from a development organisation focused on saving children in Lesotho and Botswana to “one that is addressing issues of youth, health, wealth and climate resilience in southern Africa”.

You can imagine Harry’s long-term mentor and trustee member, ex-Welsh Guards officer and King Charles’s former equerry, Mark Dyer, shuddering at such new-fangled jargon. On Monday, Dyer resigned from Sentebale’s board after almost 20 years. It might also explain the earlier departure of Harry’s former employee and one-time polo manager, Andrew “Tucks” Tucker, from the charity last year, ditto the resignation of Sentebale’s chief executive Richard Miller.

24 April 2006: The Prince launches his charity called 'Sentebale', which means 'Forget me not' in memory of his mother Diana Princess of Wales. (AFP via Getty Images)

That Harry and Prince Seeitho have followed suit suggests they too believe the charity’s “transformative” leadership has gotten a little ahead of itself. In the month that Donald Trump slashed America’s aid for international development and declared he didn’t have a clue where Lesotho was, they may well have a point. The small, land-locked southern African country still needs all the help it can get. Now, he is without both and appears somewhat rudderless.

Sentebale’s current turmoil is a reminder that “serving” is no longer enough. Optics are all important, likewise the managerial depth to contain any untoward implosions. The royal family are not immune to tensions associated with unfortunate missions across the Commonwealth (Kate and William’s Caribbean tour of 2022 anyone?), so too are managerial mishaps and unfortunate headlines par for the course. But unlike lonesome Harry, the institution of monarchy has the depth and support to withstand critical blows and cast out in new directions.

William and Kate during a visit to Daystar Evangelical Church in Great Abaco, Bahamas, during their 2022 tour (Getty)

Nearly 20 years on from the founding of Sentebale (and assuming the resignation of his patronage becomes permanent), it will be harder for Harry to begin again in Africa (if that is what he chooses to do). Our current foreign minister, David Lammy, is not the only person to have pointed out that Britain’s historic white saviour complex (in Lammy’s case, the target was Stacey Dooley and Comic Relief) holds back perceptions of Africa as a continent with a large diaspora and a track record of helping itself. Quite where this narrative leaves Harry as a white privileged man who wants to do good on the continent and beyond remains to be seen.

His princely offerings of polo fundraisers and diplomatic glad-handing already feel a little dated. Recent successful trips to Nigeria and Colombia suggest that the duke has the connections to find new ways forward, but Meghan’s presence as a woman of colour on both those tours was transformative. However, these days, the duchess has considerably less time on her hands to lend her husband a helping hand.

Indeed, Meghan’s extraordinary professional resilience only serves to further highlight her Harry’s current lost-boy status. Seemingly imperturbable, facing down the trolls on Gwyneth Paltrow’s Instagram feed and announcing a second series of With Love, Meghan as the hate-watchers pushed her first series into Netflix’s global top 10, the duchess is currently unstoppable.

Piece of cake: Meghan with makeup artist Daniel Martin on her Netflix show (AP)

She has found her presenting niche: it is high impact, profitable, and the perfect fit for a Californian princess talking to a perfection-obsessed Californian society.

Meghan’s marriage to Harry gave her the X-factor she needed to transfer from B-list actor to A-list celebrity. Sadly, the same cannot be said for Harry. When he married Meghan and left the British monarchy, he swapped royalty for celebrity – and naively believed that a “life of service” would prove a straightforward affair outside protective palace walls.

The reality suggests otherwise, with the Invictus Games Harry’s one significant remaining triumph. In an increasingly dangerous world full of war and poverty, it is tragic that our most able prince of hearts finds himself not only without his honorary military roles – but is now minus his flagship charitable mission in one of Africa’s poorest regions.

Tessa Dunlop and Iain Dale co-host the new Global podcast ‘Where Politics Meets History’