Following Prince Harry’s exit from Sentebale, drama ensued — including a man falsely claiming to be the brother of cofounder Prince Seeiso of Lesotho.
After the man’s inaccurate claims made headlines, Us Weekly learned that Principal Chief Khoabane Theko is not Seeiso’s brother and has no connection to the charity.
Among the allegations Theko claimed to The Telegraph on Wednesday, April 16, was that Harry could have visited Lesotho “more often.” Harry’s 2024 visit to Lesotho marked his first in six years (including two years at the height of the global COVID-19 pandemic). He had previously traveled there four times between 2010 and 2015.
Theko, for his part, claimed he was “perturbed” to see Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, taking a trip to Africa in September 2019 without going to Lesotho. (During the trip, the couple had a busy itinerary with meeting Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a tour of the District Six Museum, a trip to Monwabisi Beach and planting trees at the Chobe Forest Tree Reserve, among other things.)
“When [Sentebale] was launched, I remember his words quite vividly, because he was very strong in saying ‘my mother, [Princess Diana], this place, her passion about Africa’ and all that,” Theko alleged. “He’s a loved figure because of his openness, but his loss of interest has totally killed the spirit of the Sentebale’s survival. I haven’t seen [Harry] since he got himself married.”
Us Weekly reached out to Harry’s rep for comment.
Harry tied the knot with Markle in 2018, with the couple going on to welcome son Archie, 5, and daughter Lilibet, 3.
Harry and Seeiso launched the charity in 2006 to support children in Lesotho dealing with poverty and HIV/AIDS. The charity included a nod to Diana, with the name translating to “forget-me-not” — her favorite flower. (Diana died in 1997 at the age of 36.)
In March, Harry and Seeiso announced they stepped down from the charity. The move was in solidarity with several trustees, who had announced their exits amid tensions with chair of the board Dr. Sophie Chandauka.
“It is devastating that the relationship between the charity’s trustees and the chair of the board broke down beyond repair, creating an untenable situation,” Harry and Seeiso said in a joint statement obtained by multiple outlets.
Harry and Seeiso alleged that Chandauka sued the charity after being asked to leave her position.
“We are in shock 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 [U.K.] Charity Commission as to how this came about,” the statement added.
Chandauka, for her part, accused the charity of “poor governance, weak executive management [and] abuse of power” in a statement to Us.
“There are people in this world who behave as though they are above the law and mistreat people, and then play the victim card and use the very press they disdain to harm people who have the courage to challenge their conduct,” Chandauka said. “Discerning readers will ask themselves: why would the Chair of the Board report her own Trustees to the Charity Commission? Why would the High Court of England and Wales accept her application to hear the matter at all if the case had no merit?”
She continued, “Well, because beneath all the victim narrative and fiction that has been syndicated to press is the story of a woman who dared to blow the whistle about issues of poor governance, weak executive management, abuse of power, bullying, harassment, misogyny, misogynoir — and the coverup that ensued.”
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