Surely, this isn’t the kind of publicity that Meghan Markle needs right now, as she’s been fervently trying to rebrand herself as a happy-go-lightly California lifestyle guru and the podcasting champion of female empowerment and women’s entrepreneurial ambitions.

Yet a little over a week before Meghan launches her podcast, “Confessions of a Female Founder,” the American Duchess of Sussex has been implicated in the “bullying and harassment” allegations leveled against her husband, Prince Harry, by Sophie Chandauka, the Zimbabwe-born chair of his African AIDS charity.

In a statement and in interviews over the past week, Chandauka, known as an accomplished London-based attorney, has gone on the offensive against Harry and his wife’s “Sussex (PR) machine.” Chandauka has presented herself to the global media as a “whistleblower” who has tried to expose “abuse of power, bullying, harassment, misogyny, misogynoir” — prejudice against Black women– within the “vanity” organization that the duke co-founded in 2006.

WELLINGTON, FLORIDA – APRIL 12: Nacho Figueras, Dr. Sophie Chandauka, Chair of Sentebale, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Richard Miller, CEO, Sentebale attend the Royal Salute Polo Challenge benefitting Sentebale at Grand Champions Polo Club on April 12, 2024 in Wellington, Florida. The annual Polo Cup has been running since 2010, and to date has raised over £11.4 million to support Sentebale’s work with children and young people affected by poverty, inequality and HIV/AIDS in southern Africa. (Photo by Jason Koerner/Getty Images for Sentebale) 

Chandauka’s extraordinary boardroom dispute with Harry became public knowledge last week, after the son of King Charles III dramatically announced that he and other trustees were stepping down from Sentebale, citing concerns about Chandauka’s leadership of the board of trustees.

But in a Sky TV interview Sunday, Chandauka, who became board chair in 2023, said the “Sussex machine” was unleashed on her in part because she refused to do reputation damage control on behalf of Meghan — who herself has been the focus of multiple workplace bullying allegations over the years, going back to her time as a working member of the British royal family.

Chandauka told Sky TV host Trevor Phillips that she has “documentation” to bolster her claims that Harry has been trying to “eject” her from Sentebale “for months” through “bullying and harassment.”

Chandauka explained that the drama surrounding Harry and Meghan’s acrimonious departure from the British royal family in 2020 had become the “No. 1” threat to Sentebale’s ability to raise money to help children in Lesotho affected by HIV and AIDS. She cited “the toxicity” of Harry’s “brand” and said a financial audit revealed a “significant correlation” between the charity’s worsening finances and Harry’s move to California and his public criticism of his family members in his memoir “Spare.”

While Chandauka acknowledged that Harry’s participation in polo matches could still bring in money, she and Iain Rawlinson, another board member interviewed by Sky TV,  said that the organization needed to broaden its base of donors in order to remain sustainable and grow.

Chandauka also described how both Harry and his wife created disruptions before and during a polo match outside Miami last April, Chandauka said. First, she said, the initial location of the polo match had to be moved because Harry insisted on bringing a camera crew that was filming a documentary for Netflix, with which the couple has a production deal.

Then, on the day of the match, Meghan suddenly announced that she would be attending, after saying she wouldn’t be there, Chandauka said. And, Meghan announced, she would be bringing a famous friend, who turned out to be tennis star Serena Williams.

When it came time to award the winning team, Meghan was brought up on stage to participate. But her awkward encounter with Chandauka was was caught on video and sparked headlines. Meghan appeared to ask Chandauka to move aside so that she could stand next to her husband and be center stage. That required Chandauka to duck under the trophy as she moved to stand next to Meghan.

People on social media interpreted Meghan’s request as  “rude” and “disrespectful” to another woman, while Chandauka said on Sky TV  that “the choreography went badly 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,” Chandauka said.

The media attention around Meghan’s treatment of her prompted Harry to ask Chandauka to issue a statement in support of the duchess.

“I said I wouldn’t,” Chandauka said. “Not because I didn’t care about the duchess, but because I knew what would happen if I did so.” Chandauka said she did not think that Sentebale should be used “as an extension of of the Sussex PR machine.”

The Telegraph also reported Monday that Harry himself fired off a direct message to Chandauka — “unpleasant” and “imperious” in tone — that demanded that she “explain” herself. A Sentebale spokesperson confirmed that Harry had sent the message.

Chandauka said on Sky TV that the only reason she was going public with her bullying allegations against Harry is because of the way he resigned from the board, releasing a “damaging” statement to the media before he informed her or Sentebale executives.

“And can you imagine what that attack has done for me, on me and the 540 individuals in the Sentebale organisations and their family?” she asked. “That is an example of harassment and bullying at scale.”

The Sussexes have not directly responded to Chandauka’s allegations, which are under investigation by the UK Charity Commission. A former trustee, Dr Kelello Lerotholi, told Sky TV that he did not “recognize” any of the allegations against the duke.

But Chandauka has again raised concerns about the professional conduct of Harry and Meghan. Ahead of the release of Meghan’s Netflix lifestyle show, “With Love, Meghan,” the couple most recently were the subject of a lengthy, 8,000-word report in Vanity Fair about how they were conducting themselves professionally in the United States.

Unfortunately for Meghan, the Vanity Fair story appeared to confirm previous reports in the Times UK, the Hollywood Reporter and the Daily Beast, which variously described her as a “terrible,” “difficult” and even “bullying” boss to her employees in the U.K. and the United States.

While Harry can be “charming,” if giving off the air that he “has no inner life” other than polo, Vanity Fair reported that Meghan tended to engage in retaliatory behavior against “people so below her in status.” The report, by writer Anna Peele, also famously cited “several” former employees who left their jobs or underwent long-term therapy after working with Meghan.

One person told Vanity Fair: “I think if Meghan acknowledged her own shortcomings or personal contributions to situations rather than staying trapped in a victim narrative, her perception might be better.”