Spare us from these privileged narcissists
Harry, Meghan and Sophie Chandauka all look to weaponise victimhood
Rarely have three people deserved each other more than Prince Harry, Meghan Markle and Sophie Chandauka, the director of Harry’s charity, Sentebale. The dispute currently engulfing Sentebale continues to throw up claims and accusations. But all that is really clear is that this bunch of privileged narcissists have been far too busy weaponizing their own victimhood to spare a thought for the impoverished young people in Southern Africa that Sentebale is supposed to help.
Whatever its founding principles, Sentebale’s most recent objective seems to have been raising the profile of Chandauka and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, rather than supporting vulnerable children or those suffering with AIDS in Lesotho. Not convinced? Watch Meghan and Chandauka squabbling over who should stand next to the ginger Prince in an award ceremony for a fund-raising polo match. Footage from the event that took place this time last year shows a rictus-grinned Meghan, hands perma-locked onto Harry, directing Chandauka to the sidelines.
Unsurprisingly, this awkward clip went viral. With Meghan coming under fire for being bossy and hogging the limelight, Harry apparently asked Chandauka to speak publicly about the incident - presumably, to reassure the world she was delighted to play second fiddle to the Duchess. But she refused. ‘I said no, we’re not setting a precedent by which we become an extension of the Sussex PR machine,’ Chandauka has since told The Financial Times. Good for her. But this was not the end of the dispute between the pair.
This year, amid claims that Chandauka’s leadership had become ‘untenable’ as a result of falling donations and large sums of money apparently being spent on consultants, Sentebale’s trustees asked her to step down. But Chandauka is no novice. She is an Oxford-educated lawyer whose wealthy family were the third largest donors to Sentebale. Before heading up Harry’s charity, she held senior corporate positions at Meta and Morgan Stanley. Whatever the trustees intended, she was never likely to have gone quietly. Having refused to resign, Chandauka launched legal proceedings against the charity in the High Court. At this point Harry, along with Sentebale’s co-founder Prince Seeiso of Lesotho and all the charity’s trustees, resigned. From here, things begin to get really messy.
Chandauka has used her legal case to present herself as a ‘whistleblower’. In an official complaint sent to the Charity Commission, she claims to have exposed ‘poor governance, weak executive management, abuse of power, bullying, harassment, misogyny [and] misogynoir’. Then, in an interview this weekend with Sky News, she appeared to suggest that Sentebale was a ‘vanity project’ for Harry, Seeiso and the trustees. All of this was followed up with by accusing the Duke of ‘harassment and bullying at scale’. Clearly, Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.
It’s almost enough to make one feel sorry for Harry. But let’s not forget we’ve been here before. It’s not that long ago that it was Harry and Meghan throwing around accusations of racism and bullying against the Royal Family. Through their Oprah Winfrey interview, interminable Netflix series and Harry’s biography Spare, we’ve had to put up with their privileged tales of hardship and abuse. And whereas the erstwhile Queen could only declare ‘recollections may vary’, a ‘source’ apparently ‘close to’ Sentebale’s trustees is reported to have said that Chandauka only alleged racism when on the defensive: ‘She’s definitely playing the race card and openly.’ Quite the accusation.
So what to make of all of this? Is it Harry who is the bully and Chandauka who is the racist? Or the other way round? One thing seems to be clear. Chandauka may be keen to present herself as a victim but she is no stranger to elite circles. And among today’s wealthy progressives, victimhood is the weapon of choice. Their allegations of racism, misogyny, bullying and the made-up prejudice ‘misogynoir’ are not statements about reality but verbal bombs designed to silence opponents and attract sympathy to the accuser. It’s an ugly spectacle to watch playing out.
Meanwhile, whoever wins in this elite battle, it is the children of Lesotho who lose out. First they were made to represent suffering for Prince Harry’s western photographers and then they had to see money pledged to help them wasted on consultants.
And let’s not forget Meghan in all of this. As Harry and Chandauka slog it out in the press, she is busy peddling her posh jam, honey and ‘flower sprinkles’. If the jam, or rather ‘raspberry spread’ seems a tad pricey, Ms Antoinette reassures us we can use the ‘keepsake packaging’ to hold ‘love notes or special treasures’ so we can ‘remember this pivotal moment’ in her life. Nevermind a jam jar, a sick bucket might be more useful.
Harry, Meghan and Chandauka are all cut from the same cloth. These horrible, privileged people, only too happy to weaponize accusations of racism and bullying for their own gain, absolutely deserve each other. I just wish they would spare the rest of us.
An edited version of this article was published at Spiked: https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/04/04/spare-us-the-drama-over-prince-harrys-charity/