The writer Tom Bower, whose new biography of Harry and Meghan is tellingly entitled Betrayal, has previously described his research method as “find the victims.”
The book is being serialized in the U.K. by The Times and The Sunday Times of London, and the latest extract’s “victim” seems to be the chair of the children’s AIDS charity Sentebale, Sophie Chandauka, who got into a huge fight with Harry last year and ended up accusing him of misogyny and racism.
Bower goes back over Sentebale’s early difficulties. “In 2008,” he writes, “it emerged that just £84,000 [around $100,000] of the £1.15 million raised through events, including a concert in memory of Diana and a TV documentary featuring Harry, had been spent on helping orphans with Aids. The charity’s first director had been paid £100,000 a year, plus the perks of a four-bedroom villa with staff and a private education for his three children.”
In 2021, Harry contributed £1.1 million from the profits of his memoir, Spare, but, Bower says, “making the charity dependent on the book disturbed pro-royalist donors.”
After conducting some research, Chandauka told Harry: “People don’t want to be associated with your Netflix shows and especially not with Meghan.”
Apparently, Harry replied that Johnny Depp was still a box-office star despite his battles with Amber Heard.
Bower claims that by this time, “two directors based in London, Richard Miller and Graham Leigh, were earning £350,000 plus many extras.”
Chandauka allegedly told Harry: “We need American corporates who want to be associated with your mission, not you personally. They don’t want your victimhood. We’ve got to pitch it right for the young philanthropists. It can’t be Africans with a begging bowl.”
After visiting the charity for the first time in four years in October 2024, Harry tried to regain control of Sentebale by firing Chandauka.
He failed, and in March 2025, Harry resigned from Sentebale, along with its co-founder, Prince Seeiso, and the board of trustees.
“Disgusting” claims
On Saturday, Prince Harry’s office described as “disgusting” claims made in an extract published in The Times of London, which questioned aspects of the Invictus Games and the suitability of some competitors with PTSD at the 2025 Invictus Games in Vancouver.
In the extract, Bower describes the atmosphere at one wheelchair basketball match as subdued, claiming that only 43 paying spectators attended and that about 100 people were brought in by organizers and “corralled” around Prince Harry and Meghan for photos.
Bower also describes a match in which an eight-man Nigerian team was roundly defeated by what he characterized as a group of “professionally trained Americans.” According to Bower’s account, two members of the Nigerian side had lost a leg, while the American players were said to be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Bower claims that after the game, the American team wheeled themselves into a private area, then stood up and walked away, saying none appeared to have visible physical injuries.
Representatives for Prince Harry criticized the claims, saying the book misrepresents the purpose of the Invictus Games and perpetuates misunderstanding about invisible injuries such as PTSD. The Invictus Games were founded by Harry in 2014 specifically to support wounded, injured, and sick service personnel, including those with psychological trauma.
A spokesperson for the Invictus Games Foundation said, “It is disappointing to see The Times give prominence to commentary that appears driven by a long-established agenda rather than a genuine understanding of the Invictus Games and the community it supports. The Foundation exists to support the recovery and rehabilitation of wounded, injured and sick service personnel and veterans from around the world.
“Attempts to question the legitimacy of competitors or diminish the experiences of those living with both physical injuries and invisible wounds such as PTSD are deeply disrespectful to the men and women the Games were created for. The focus should remain where it belongs—on the courage, recovery and camaraderie of those who have served.”
There is a bizarre coda to this story. One of The Royalist’s Substack subscribers wrote a lengthy comment about their sub-optimal, first-hand experience as a guest at an earlier edition of the Invictus Games.
As part of the research for this article, I tried to find it and discovered that the note had been deleted. I intend to find out why, and by whom.
We are a podcast!
Finally, the first episode of the podcast The Royalist with the Daily Beast will go live on YouTube at 5 p.m. eastern on Tuesday, before hitting Spotify and other audio platforms the next day. Please tune in.
Want more royal gossip, scoops, and scandal? Click through to follow all Tom Sykes’ reporting at The Royalist on Substack.
