In 2006 I accompanied Prince Harry during my first visit to Lesotho, the dusty, land -surrounded African kingdom that had imprisoned his heart during his gap year two years earlier.
He had just founded the charity Sentebale, which means that I do not mean in the local dialect Sesotho, in memory of his deceased mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, after he was moved by the plight of a generation of children and young people who grew up there in extreme poverty and with the stigma (as it was).
One afternoon I was bent on an Earth Bank with a view of what a new accommodation block would be and tapped my story on my laptop, when I became aware of someone who peered over my shoulder and tried to read what I had written. It was Harry.
He had always been obsessed with what people said about him (and this time was no different), but he also wanted to talk to me about his passion for Lesotho and his children – and how determined he was to change their lives.
You could hear the intensity in his voice, an almost desperate determination to be taken seriously about this issue, to prove that the notorious party prince (now 21 years old) had a heavier goal in life.
I returned two more occasions to cover his visits, while I saw Harry playing football with the media (just like sniping at us – there was always enough!), Help a new school to build his armymates, bakers and throw heart and soul in everything he could surprise in a way that his critics could surprise.
How sad then that all his hard work apparently came to an end, only a year short of Sentebale's 20 -year anniversary in the midst of a storm of controversy and fears for the survival of charity.
Sad, but not completely surprising. Although he last visited Lesotho in October 2024, it was actually the first time that the prince had actually been there for six years. Even his regular fundraising events for charity, usually with Polo, were particularly delayed.
The Rebecca English of the post with Prince Harry – with a sentebale Polo -shirt
The prince and his co-founder, Prince Seeiso of Lesotho, have now stopped taking care
Neither (I would claim considerably in the circumstances) if he ever brought his wife, Meghan, to visit. Instead, they have focused their efforts since they leaving royal tasks on high -profile tours to Colombia and Nigeria, as well as their lives as professional victims of the royal family.
I hesitate to say that Harry's dedication has decreased. I think that is probably unfairly seen what I know as his real passion for this beautiful but desperate poor Bergkoninchrijk, recently mocked by Donald Trump as a country 'Nobody has ever heard' while he has lowered his auxiliary budget.
But it has long been clear that something was not quite right. And like so many of Harry's long -standing projects, it seems that his work has been stagnated in this area since leaving the royal family, where he would have had a whole team of experienced private secretaries and press officers from Palace to correct his philanthropic efforts.
It is also worth noting that this is not the first scandal that flooded the charity, no matter how well -intended Harry the intentions of Harry.
In 2008 (only two years after Sentebale was founded) it turned out that only £ 84,000 of the £ 1.15 million were collected (by events, including a concert in memory of his deceased mother and a controversial television documentary on his travels there), had actually been spent on helping the AIDS orphans who had resolved Harry.
In the meantime, around £ 250,000 had been spent on personnel costs, plus tens of thousands more about new offices and a fleet of brand 4 x 4 vehicles. The first director of the charity had earned an eye-watery £ 100,000 a year (a huge amount in mind that this was a young goals two decades ago) and enjoyed a package of benefits that included a villa with four bedrooms with staff and even a training allowance for his three children to visit foreign private schools.
The subsequent scandal almost brought Sentebale down. A new CEO was then installed and a complete change of the reputation of the charity and the fortune reigned for a while (I was again a small group of media that traveled with him two years later to show us how much had changed).
But talking about conflict and dismissal behind the scenes have never been far away and in recent years have quickly escalated with a series of high -profile supporters and executives that stop.
Rebecca English (far left) with Harry in Lesotho in 2008
This newest, devastating blow comes in the midst of a complex row with the current chairman -based chairman, who now turns the charity about movements of his managers (who contain a number of good friends and supporters of Harry) to lower her.
In an excited statement, she has struck back and claims that there has been a 'cover -up' in the charity and the accusation of 'weak management, abuse of power, bullying, intimidation, misogynia and misogynoirs [discrimination against black women]”Against her as a whistleblower.
The irony that Harry will now be pursued at the Supreme Court – his own favorite location for fighting in recent years – will not be lost in anyone.
The prince and his fellow founder founder, Prince Seeiso of Lesotho, the younger brother of the current king of the country and in whose own mother's memory have now also been put into solidarity that describe the situation as 'unthinkable' and 'untenable', making it clear how they are. They have also firmly placed the blame on Mrs. Chandauka.
Their statement does suggest that the situation may not be permanent, but the future is far from insured – not least because Sentebale is now confronted with the prospect of an investigation into a charity committee in the UK.
It is a desperate sad situation that personally gave Harry's good intentions when he set feet in the country at the entire age, longing for his very public sins and proves that he was not the superficial playboy who assumed that he was.
But it is – and make no mistake about the seriousness of this – also a deeply humiliating set for the now adult prince who, although his wife clearly goes to work to bring the financial bacon home, has put his own sights to become a global humanitarian.
Instead, he finds himself an ex-Charity pattern with a very toxic melt on his hands, one that threatens to overshadow one of the few real success stories of his life and his dreams to perform a career as a much-beaten philanthropic crusader.
