Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex during a visit to the Kasane Health Post, run by the Sentebale charity, in Kasane on day four of their tour of Africa on September 26, 2019 in Chobe National Park, Botswana. (Photo by Dominic Lipinski - Pool /Getty Images) Harry, the younger son of King Charles, co-founded Sentebale in 2006 in honour of his mother Princess Diana nine years after she was killed in a Paris car crash. Sentebale means 'forget-me-not' in the local language of Lesotho in southern Africa.
Co-founder Prince Seeiso of Lesotho, as well as the board of trustees, joined Harry in leaving Sentebale following a dispute with chair Sophie Chandauka, who has taken legal action to try to retain her position.
"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 published on Sky News on Wednesday.
Harry, who lives in California with his wife Meghan and two children, stopped working as a member of the royal family in 2020. He has been heavily involved in causes in Africa for many years and visited Nigeria last year.
The trustees had acted in the best interests of the charity in asking the chair to step down, the joint statement said.
"Although we may no longer be Patrons, we will always be its founders, and we will never forget what this charity is capable of achieving when it is in the right care," it added.
Reuters has contacted Britain's Charity Commission and Sentebale for comment.
(Reporting by Sarah Young; Editing by Kate Mayberry)