Prince Harry’s co-founded charity Sentebale has announced that they are to axe their annual polo matches after a row with the Duke of Sussex earlier this year. Sentebale’s chairman Sophie Chandauka made claims of harassment and misogyny, triggering the resignation of Harry as patron as well as several trustees. Speaking of the decision, Iain Rawlinson, who is a member of Sentebale’s board of trustees, told the Telegraph: “These polo games, which attract great generosity from high-net worth individuals or funds who want to support the charity – those events definitely have their place. We’re not being critical about that as a concept.The reason for [dropping it] is it puts quite a lot of pressure on individuals, and it can mask structural weakness in the financial model of the charity.”
He then cited Harry’s £1.2m donation from the proceeds of his memoir, Spare, as masking “the fault lines in the financial model which had really been producing losses since 2017”. Discussing Harry, he added: “Those problems can be summarised by saying there was a very narrow but very loyal donor base for the charity. But it also masked the very high level of cost…where those costs could only be borne by the virtue of the generosity of Prince Harry.” The charity matches had been held annually, with the latest one taking place in April 2024. Harry’s wife Meghan Markle was also in attendance.
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