Prince Harry has resigned from a charity he founded 19 years ago after an “unimaginable
” controversy.
The Duke of Sussex and Prince Seeiso of Lesotho co-founded Sentebale, a charity devoting itself to helping African orphans and solving poverty and AIDS in Lesotho and Botswana, in 2006.
It was announced in honour of his late mother, Princess Diana. Harry said he was “in surprise” and “truly heartbroken” in a joint statement with Prince Seeiso on Tuesday evening.
The statement announced: “These trustees acted in the best interest of the charity in asking the chair to step down, while keeping the wellbeing of staff in mind.
“In turn, she sued the charity to remain in this voluntary position, further underscoring the broken relationship.
“We thank all the trustees for their service over the years and are truly heartbroken they’ve had to follow through with this act.
“What’s transpired is unthinkable. We are in surprise that we have to do this, but we have a continued responsibility to Sentebale’s beneficiaries, so we will be sharing all of our concerns with the Charity Commission as to how this came about.”
The princes said: “Although we may no longer be patrons, we will always be its founders, and we will never forget what this charity is capable of achieving when it is in the right care.”
Former trustees Timothy Boucher, Mark Dyer, Audrey Kgosidintsi, Kelello Lerotholi and Damian West announced a statement: “As a group of British and African trustees, we have made the difficult decision to unanimously resign as board members of Sentebale.
