Royal fans are convinced Meghan Markle blanked Sentebale boss Dr Sophie Chandauka at a charity polo match last year – before the notorious awkward trophy moment.
The Duchess of Sussex appeared to force Dr Sophie Chandauka to duck under the trophy so she could stand next to her husband Prince Harry as he celebrated the Royal Salute Polo Challenge in Wellington, Florida.
Now in footage of the event filmed by Hello!, which was shared on X, formerly known as Twitter, Meghan is seen grabbing her friend Delfina Blaquier’s hand as they walked away together, and ‘completely ignoring’ Dr Sophie as she walked past.
The poster @RVealingthenarc claimed it was ‘mean girl behaviour’, saying: ‘If you were ever bullied in school, you recognize this move instantly. Cling to one woman to freeze out another.’
The video, which racked up over 500,000 views, was flooded with comments from people who were convinced the clip proved that Meghan ‘blanked’ Dr Sophie., who became chair of Sentebale in mid-2023.
One person said: ‘Straight up high school mean girl behavior.’
While another added: ‘I don’t know how anyone can say she is warm and welcoming. Genuine they say. Genuine bully.’
Someone else wrote: ‘She did see her and ignore her but it was the other girl that grabbed her hand and seemed to pull her along.’
Royal fans are convinced Meghan Markle blanked Sentebale boss Dr Sophie at the charity polo match last year -before the infamous awkward trophy moment
The video showing Meghan moving Sophie away from her husband has taken on new importance after it was claimed the polo event was gatecrashed by the former Suits star with Serena Williams and a Netflix crew in tow.
The footage of Meghan and Dr Sophie with Harry at the centre has been watched millions of times online in the past year but is being viewed again in a new light after Dr Chandauka’s bombshell interview with Sky News where she discussed the notorious clip.
Meghan had caused ‘disruption’ and a very crowded stage after turning up at short notice and bringing her ‘very famous friend’ Serena Williams, the chair of Harry’s charity claimed. Dr Chandauka also called their brand ‘toxic’ and accusing Harry of ‘harassment and bullying at scale’ – a claim that is denied.
She also claims that, prior to the charity Polo event in April 2024, Meghan confirmed she would not be attending. But she then arrived with her tennis legend friend Serena.
Speaking to Sky News’ Trevor Phillips, Dr Chandauka recalled the events of the chaotic event, telling him: ‘We would have been really excited had we known ahead of time [Meghan was coming], but we didn’t.
‘And so the choreography went badly on stage because we had too many people on stage. The international press captured this, and there was a lot of talk about the Duchess and the choreography on stage and whether she should have been there and her treatment of me.
‘Prince Harry asked me to issue some sort of a statement in support of the Duchess, and I said I wouldn’t.
‘Not because I didn’t care about the Duchess, but because I knew what would happen if I did so, number one. And number two, because we cannot be an extension of the Sussexes.’
In new footage from Hello, which was shared on X, Meghan appeared to tightly grab her friend Delfina Blaquier’s hand as they walked away together, ‘completely ignoring Dr. Sophie’
+14 View gallery
The poster @RVealingthenarc claimed it was ‘mean girl behavior’, saying: ‘If you were ever bullied in school, you recognize this move instantly. Cling to one woman to freeze out another’
The video, which racked up over 500,000 views, was flooded with comments from people who were convinced the clip proved that Meghan ‘blanked’ Dr Sophie., who became chair of Sentebale in mid-2023
The former actress could be seen in video footage from Hello requesting that Dr Chandauka move to another spot in the group, insisting that she be in the middle of the huddle next to her husband.
It has since been claimed that Dr Chandauka has been accused of ‘playing the race card’ amid a bitter fallout at the heart of the organisation.
Sophie has accused the board of bullying, harassment, misogyny, and misogynoir – a form of prejudice directed at black women.
It is alleged one of Sentebale’s trustees compared her chairmanship to the white minority rule of Rhodesia in the 1960s.
Ms Chandauka has also claimed Harry used the charity, he set up almost 20 years ago to help AIDs orphans in Lesotho, as an extension of the Sussex PR machine.
The trustees, including the duke, have resigned en masse, demanding that Dr Chandauka steps down as the relationship between them is broken beyond repair.
But now a source close to the board has claimed Dr Chandauka, a Zimbabwe-born lawyer, used racism to regain control of the charity when she realised things were not going her way.
They said the tipping point was when she was challenged over the loss of a major sponsor of the annual Sentebale polo cup that raises funds for the charity.
+14 View gallery
The ‘highly awkward’ moment between Meghan Markle and Sophie Chandauka at a fundraising polo match for Sentebale in the US last year
+14 View gallery
Prince Harry pictured in conversation with Dr Chandauka during an event in Miami last April
+14 View gallery
Dr Chandauka is pictured with the Sussexes at the Royal Salute Polo Challenge held in Florida in April last year to raise funds for Sentebale
‘She’s definitely playing the race card and openly,’ an insider said according to The Telegraph.
‘This is her plan. As soon as anyone turns against her, she brings the race card in and she comes for you.’
The newspaper also quoted a source close to Dr Chandauka that branded the allegation as ‘horrific’ and ‘extraordinarily ironic’.
Harry and Meghan have themselves previously accused the Royal Family of ‘unconscious bias’ when it comes to race.
Moreover in their 2021 Oprah Winfrey interview, the Duchess said an unnamed royal had expressed ‘concern’ about Archie’s skin colour.
Speaking on the latest episode of the Daily Mail’s YouTube show Palace Confidential, Richard Eden said: ‘Let’s be clear. Dr Chandauka claims will be deeply painful for Harry, they really will sting.
‘To be accused of, essentially, to be accused of racism and misogyny. I mean, my goodness, you know what goes around, comes around.
‘Remember that that is the toxic accusation that they were levelling at the Royal Family during the Oprah Winfrey interview.
‘I really do think that that’s going to come back to bite them.’
It comes as the charity boss was today forced to close her public social media accounts after a huge pile-on led by the so-called ‘Sussex Squad’.
However, sources have said while the trolling is unpleasant, Ms Chandauka, has no intention of stepping down from her position and is focusing on the charity’s work.
In interviews at the weekend, she called the Sussexes’ brand ‘toxic’ and accused Harry of ‘harassment and bullying at scale’, a claim that is strongly denied.
Much of the issue centres on a charity polo match in Miami last year, which Ms Chandauka says was derailed by the prince’s insistence on bringing along a Netflix film crew with him to shoot scenes for a documentary he was making.
She believes it resulted in the charity losing the venue.
And when the event was re-organised, Ms Chandauka says, Meghan turned up unannounced, bringing along with her a friend, tennis star Serena Williams.
+14 View gallery
Dr Chandauka (pictured) has accused Sentebale and its trustees of racist, sexist and bullying conduct
+14 View gallery
Ms Chandauka was seemingly elbowed out by the Duchess of Sussex in a highly awkward exchange that was caught on camera
+14 View gallery
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are seen during the Royal Salute Polo Challenge to benefit Sentebale
Then at a prize-giving ceremony, the chaos ensued with Ms Chandauka seemingly elbowed out by the Duchess of Sussex in a highly awkward on-stage exchange.
It is alleged Harry asked her to make a statement ‘in support of the duchess’ which she refused, saying it was important that the charity wasn’t seen as an ‘extension of the Sussexes’.
The Mail understands that the Duke subsequently sent an ‘unpleasant’ message to Ms Chandauka demanding to know how she was going to deal with the public debacle.
Sources have described the message as ‘basically very unpleasant’, ‘imperious’ and ‘fairly extraordinary’ in tone, and asking her ‘how are you going to deal with this?’
It is understood the message ‘would reinforce others people’s ideas that he is used to people being subservient to him’.
In a recent interview, Ms Chandauka claimed she first felt tension between Harry and herself a year ago.
She said at one point she was asked by his team to defend Meghan against negative publicity, but she refused.
Then in an extraordinary interview on Saturday, she raised the stakes even further saying the Sussexes’ ‘brand’ had hindered the charity.
‘The number one risk for this organisation was the toxicity of its lead patron’s brand,’ Dr Chandauka told the Financial Times.
She argued that controversy surrounding Prince Harry since his move to the US had an impact on the charity’s ability to diversify its donor pool and make senior hires.
‘When you start to interview people, they’re asking questions about, well, these mixed messages around the patron,’ she said.
Elsewhere she accused Harry and fellow co-founder Prince Seeiso of Lesotho of trying to ‘force a failure’ of the organisation only to then come to its rescue.
In her first interview since the dispute erupted, Dr Chandauka issued an impassioned defence of her record.
In another bombshell allegation, Dr Chandauka accused the Duke of Sussex ‘harassment and bullying at scale’.
+14 View gallery
Prince Harry pictured on a visit to Lesotho with Ntoli Moletsane of Sentebale in October last year
Dr. Chandauka accuses Harry of interfering in bullying investigation
+14 View gallery
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
In a separate interview on Sky’s Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips she said the Duke authorised the release of a statement revealing that he and other trustees had quit the charity, which she described as ‘unleashing of the Sussex machine on me’.
Mr Philips asked her: ‘What you’re essentially saying is that the Duke of Sussex is guilty of harassment and bullying and improper conduct in the governance of the charity?’
In response, she said Harry’s release of ‘a damaging piece of news to the outside world without informing me or my country directors’ was an ‘attack’ and ‘an example of harassment and bullying at scale’.
She added: ‘And so if the world didn’t want to believe that there’s such a thing as bullying, this unleashing of the Sussex machine on me and the 540 employees, at Sentebale, who received this and have had to defend it….’
At this point Mr Phillips interjected, asking what she means by the Sussex machine.
Dr Chandauka replied: ‘The PR machine that supports Prince Harry’s efforts, the only way we discovered of his decision was through the Sussex machine activating newspapers.’
Sources categorically deny suggestions the charity is close to collapse as a result of the boardroom battle and stress that both Ms Chandauka and the teams on the ground are getting on with their work.
Ms Chandauka herself said at the weekend that she had ‘a great relationship with Harry’ and sources close to the charity insist that he remains ‘respected and admired’ in Lesotho for the work he did there ‘and no-one can take this away from him’.
But it is clear that the trustees, now backed by the prince, ‘want Sophie out’ over her attempts to bring the command structure of the charity away from London and ‘back to Africa’.
‘Times have moved on and what was good 20 years ago isn’t the best operating model now,’ a source told the Mail.
‘Local leadership is the correct way to run a charity focused in Africa.
‘The trustees couldn’t seem to accept this.’
Ms Chandauka herself has stated that Prince Harry hadn’t been to Lesotho for five years before his last visit in October 2024, which came at her request.
Observers have described this as ‘quite telling’ and questioned how much his focus had been on Sentebale since moving to the US and setting up his and Meghan’s join philanthropic and commercial arm, Archewell.
There is also strong anger at comments made in the Mail today by Alex Rayner, a friend of the prince who claims he has been in contact with him over the weekend and been ‘authorised’ to speak for him, who claimed: ‘It feels like [Ms Chandauka ] had her nose put out of joint because she was not the most important woman of colour on the stage’.
+14 View gallery
Meghan asked Dr Sophie Chandauka not to stand next to Prince Harry for a picture after he won
+14 View gallery
Dr Sophie Chandauka (pictured), the chair of Prince Harry’s beleaguered charity Sentebale, said she had been asked to defend Meghan Markle against negative publicity
Sources have described the claims as ‘outrageous’ and ‘offensive’ and come from someone who ‘would say ‘woman of colour’ and pat himself on the back for doing so’.
‘She [Ms Chandauka] is a determined person and will look after herself, but for her it’s about the charity. What she is concerned about is the wellbeing of the staff. It’s unfortunate and unfair they are being subjected to this and she wants to focus on the work being done,’ the source added.
It is understood that one upside to the furore is that new sponsors and donors have been coming forward.
Four new trustees have also been appointed, suggesting that Sentebale’s work will continue, regardless of the ongoing row.
While the Duke of Sussex has not commented on the allegation that he sent an ‘imperious’ text to Ms Chandauka, sources have suggested that many of the recent claims made have been attempts at ‘deflecting from the serious matters at play here’.
It is understood that the patrons and trustees have questioned whether she is acting ‘in the best interests of the charity’ and if so ‘why is she using her platform to target Prince Harry specifically’.
A source close the Netflix production team has also described the claimed version of events as ‘misleading’ and that video of Meghan and Ms Chandauka on stage has been ‘misrepresented’ and ‘weaponised’.
A source close to trustees and patrons says they ‘fully expected this publicity stunt and reached their collective decision with this in mind. They remain firm in their resignation, for the good of the charity, and look forward to the adjudication of the truth’.