Sentebale has dropped polo matches from its fundraising activities after Prince Harry walked away from the charity in a row over racism and bullying.

The African youth organization, established by the Duke of Sussex in 2006, appears to be creating some distance from him. This move follows his involvement in an unpopular Netflix documentary about the sport he personally enjoyed.

In March, Prince Harry stepped down as the patron of Sentebale. The resignation came after Dr. Sophie Chandauka, the new chair, leveled serious accusations regarding his conduct.

Polo matches that Prince Harry actively participated in have been a significant revenue source for the charity. Notably, the Sentebale ISPS Handa Polo Cup contributed 18 percent to the organization’s finances last year.

However, a recent report outlining the charity’s financials, released on Friday, showed that polo has been dropped as the main fundraising event due to high expenses and related logistical issues.

The report highlighted a revenue decline, partly because of a last-minute venue switch to meet a commercial filming request from a former patron of the charity, causing a $136,000 deficit for Sentebale.

A polo challenge was also deferred due to severe illness, resulting in the charity missing out on an estimated £500,000 of income. 

It is thought that the move is part of a wider effort to rebrand Sentebale as it approaches its 20th anniversary next year.

Prince Harry resigned as Sentebale’s patron in March, following allegations made by the new chair, Dr. Sophie Chandauka, about his behavior. They appear in a photograph together.

In an introduction to the report, Dr Chandauka (pictured with Prince Harry last year) described her tenure as chair since July 2023 as a ‘grueling and humbling period’

The charity is hoping to cut £1million annually and attract more investment from organisations, rather than through high–profile individuals and celebrities.

Sentebale previously received a £1.2million donation from the Duke of Sussex following the publication of his memoir Spare, which it said had ‘masked’ structural weaknesses in the charity’s financial model.

The report noted that the changes were ‘necessary in order to reduce dependence on events–based fundraising, particularly polo, which was heavily reliant on participation of one former patron who had expressed a desire for the charity to reduce its reliance on him for several years’.

Friday’s report revealed that Sentebale’s total income last year was £3.35million, down from £3.41million in 2023. It has already secured 70 per cent of its funding goals for next year.

In an introduction to the report, Dr Chandauka described her tenure as chair since July 2023 as a ‘grueling and humbling period’. 

She said, however, she has been left with ‘profound gratitude, pride and conviction in the future of Sentebale’.

Commenting on the accounts, Dr Chandauka said: ‘This 16–month period marks Sentebale’s bold transformation: building stronger programmes, governance, and financial resilience.

‘We tackled structural weaknesses head–on: slashing our cost base by £1m through workforce restructuring and contract renegotiations, while protecting 92 per cent of our vital Africa–based staff who power our high–performing regional team.

Dr Chandauka is pictured with the Sussexes at the Royal Salute Polo Challenge last April

Prince Harry and Prince Seeiso of Lesotho quit as patrons of the charity they had founded in solidarity with trustees who said they could not carry on under Dr Chandauka

‘We retained 100 per cent of our institutional funders and secured over 70 per cent of 2026 funding goals.’

‘As we reach our 20th anniversary next year, Sentebale is poised to soar, empowering even more children and young people across southern Africa to claim their futures,’ she added. 

Sentebale was set up to help orphans with Aids in the impoverished kingdom of Lesotho in memory of Prince Harry’s late mother, Diana, Princess of Wales.

The name means ‘forget me not’ in the country’s official language.

Prince Harry, however, walked away from the charity following a damning report into an explosive race row sparked by Dr Chandauka.

The UK Charity Commission had launched a probe into the acrimonious boardroom battle – but criticised both sides in its findings.

The probe said it could find ‘no evidence’ of ‘widespread or systemic bullying or harassment, including misogyny or misogynoir’ at Sentebale following the allegations made by Dr Chandauka. 

But it also criticised the trustees, who included Harry, who resigned en masse in March after the row was made public.

The Charity Commission criticised both sides for the ‘damaging internal dispute’. Pictured: Dr Chandauka with Prince Harry last October

Scores of donors – loyal to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex – allegedly stopped donating to the charity, costing hundreds of thousands of pounds in essential funding.

The watchdog acknowledged the ‘strong perception of ill treatment’ felt by all parties, including Dr Chandauka, and the impact this may have had on them. 

It ruled that failures leading up to, and following, the dispute had led to ‘mismanagement in the administration of the charity’.  

But, despite the Commission urging both sides in the dispute to take a step back from playing out their problems ‘in the public eye’, both sides remained entrenched.

In a further escalation of the war of words, a spokesman for the prince said it was ‘unsurprising’ that the report makes no findings of wrongdoing in relation to himself, or evidence of bullying or racism.

The statement also hit out at the Charity Commission itself whose report he claimed fell ‘troublingly short in many regards’.

In her statement, Dr Chandauka emphasised that it was she who first privately raised concerns about the charity’s governance with the Commission in February this year.

It was only after she did this, she stressed, that ‘those who resigned’ in March launched an ‘unexpected and adverse media campaign’ that had gone on to cause ‘incalculable damage’ to the charity’s work.