Entertainment

‘Toxicity’ Claims Denied, Leadership Failures Blamed

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The chairwoman of Prince Harry’s charity Sentebale is speaking out against the Duke of Sussex after he, his co-founder and the board of trustees resigned
A source close to trustees and patrons at the charity has stated that her claims are “baseless and potentially defamatory”
Prince Harry set up Sentebale to assist young people affected by HIV alongside Prince Seeiso in 2006 in memory of both of their late mothers, including Princess Diana

Prince Harry’s charity, Sentebale, is embroiled in a bitter dispute between its chairwoman, Dr. Sophie Chandauka, and former patrons and trustees.

In an interview with the Financial Times on Saturday, March 29, Sentebale chair Dr. Sophie Chandauka, who took on the role in July 2023, claimed that Harry and his co-founder Prince Seeiso — who resigned as patrons of the organization earlier this week — wanted “to force a failure and then come to the rescue.”

However, a source close to the patrons and trustees tells PEOPLE that their decision to exit the charity was based on Chandauka’s handling of the charity’s finances. (In response, a representative for Chandauka previously told PEOPLE: “First and foremost, like much of the content circulated yesterday, a lot of information being shared is untrue and defamatory in nature.”)

The source adds: “The trustees tried to negotiate this privately and requested she consider her position due to their lack of trust and confidence in her as a leader, as demonstrated by the financial position she put the charity in.”

“They fully expected this publicity stunt and reached their collective decision with this in mind,” the source adds. “They remain firm in their resignation for the good of the charity and look forward to the adjudication of the truth.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Chandauka claims that public backlash following Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s royal exit hurt the charity’s ability to secure new donors and recruit senior staff.

“The No. 1 risk for this organization was the toxicity of its lead patron’s brand,” Chandauka, a Zimbabwean corporate finance lawyer, told the outlet.

In response, the source argues that Sentebale had been heavily reliant on Prince Harry’s involvement — particularly through events like the Sentebale Polo Cup, where sponsors were attracted by his participation — and that the Duke of Sussex had donated $1.5 million from his memoir Spare.

Alix Lebec, Prince Harry and Dr. Sophie Chandauka speak at a conference on April 11, 2024 in Miami Beach, Florida.

Jason Koerner/Getty

According to Chandauka, a key turning point for the organization allegedly came when tensions arose between herself and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex at a polo event benefiting Sentebale in April 2024. A viral moment that seemingly showed Meghan moving Chandauka away from Harry for a photo after he won a match generated negative attention for Meghan, and the prince allegedly asked Chandauka to publicly address the incident.

“I said no, we’re not setting a precedent by which we become an extension of the Sussex PR machine,” Chandauka told the Financial Times of the incident.

The source who spoke with PEOPLE insists that the dispute stems from governance concerns, not personal grievances. They maintain that they “only ever want the truth to be shared.”

Chandauka also accused the charity’s board of “misogyny and misogynoir,” or misogyny against Black women, for how they treated her as a leader.

The source calls Chandauka’s claims of intimidation, racial bias and gender discrimination “baseless and potentially defamatory,” citing another trustee, Dr. Kelello Lerotholi, who denies witnessing such behavior.

From left: Nacho Figueras, Dr. Sophie Chandauka, Prince Harry and Richard Miller attend Sentebale polo match on April 12, 2024.

Jason Koerner/Getty

In another interview with Sky News, which is set to air in full on Sunday, March 30, Chandauka claimed to have experienced “harassment and bullying at scale” after Harry and others left the organization.

“The only reason I’m here … is because at some point on Tuesday, Prince Harry authorized the release of a damaging piece of news to the outside world without informing me or my country directors, or my executive director,” Chandauka told Sky News’ Trevor Phillips.

“And can you imagine what that attack has done for me, on me and the 540 individuals in the Sentebale organizations and their famil[ies]?” she continued. “That is an example of harassment and bullying at scale.”

The Duke of Sussex, 40, and Prince Seeiso, 58, announced on March 26, that they were stepping down as patrons of the charity.

After the board of trustees asked Chandauka to resign, she brought a lawsuit against the charity, which supports young people in southern Africa. The Charity Commission, based in the U.K., confirmed they are investigating.

Prince Seeiso of Lesotho and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex attend a welcome event at Sentebaleâs Mamohato Childrenâs Centre featuring the non-profitâs Let Youth Lead advocates from Botswana, and a celebration of Basatho culture, on October 1, 2024 in Maseru, Lesotho.

Brian Otieno/Getty

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Prince Harry set up Sentebale alongside Prince Seeiso in 2006 in memory of both of their late mothers. The Duke of Sussex saw it as continuing the legacy of Princess Diana, who campaigned to help those with AIDS.

“With heavy hearts, we have resigned from our roles as Patrons of the organization until further notice, in support of and solidarity with the board of trustees who have had to do the same. 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,” the princes said in part at the time.

“…What’s transpired is unthinkable. We are in shock that we have to do this, but we have a continued responsibility to Sentebale’s beneficiaries, so we will be sharing all of our concerns with the Charity Commission as to how this came about.”

Entertainment

Roseanne Barr reveals heart issue, fears she’ll die during surgery

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Roseanne Barr received a stark diagnosis — a “damaged” heart — a warning that left her fearing she could “die on the surgery table.”

Barr, 73, opened up about her health while talking about the “ponytail facelift” she wanted to get.

“This doctor says I have to go get my heart checked out because it’s damaged,” the actress said during an appearance on her podcast, “The Roseanne Barr Podcast.” “So now I’m so pissed. Because I’m like, I need a new doctor.”

“He’s always sending me to other doctors to check me out,” she added. “And I’m like, why do I have to go find something wrong when nothing’s wrong and then get in shape just so I can have surgery and die on the surgery table?”

Barr doubled down, saying the prospect of surgery didn’t make sense to her.

“I mean, it doesn’t make any sense,” she said. “I would rather not get ready for any sort of surgery ever again in my life and just, you know, get a heart attack or a stroke and then just be put into the home. What do they call that place? Hospice.”

The candid remarks offered a glimpse into her mindset on aging and end-of-life care, a contrast to the more grounded, day-to-day life she’s built in recent years. Barr opened up about her move to Texas and the joys she’s experienced since making the lifestyle change and being outdoors in a recent interview with Fox News Digital.

Although it has been a “dream come true” for the “Roseanne Barr is America” star, Barr shared that while mowing her property, her tractor fell on top of her and trapped her underneath the weight of the machine.

“I’m doing a lot of mowing. I’ve got a really fantastic tractor out here, and I’m mowing. The only problem is I don’t clear the trees quite as good as I should, and I’m always hitting a tree and knocking it over, and it always hits me in the head.

“So, I’ve had several injuries recently. I had this one tree … I knocked it and a great big old branch fell right on my head and trapped me in my tractor,” Barr said. “So I knew I had to get out of there, and it weighed about a hundred pounds.”

Barr explained that it took her an hour to move the tree “inch by inch” before she was able to flip it over.

Ahead of the release of the documentary, “Roseanne Barr is America,” in 2025, Barr told Fox News Digital that her life is a representation of the American experience.

“I went from poverty to wealth through comedy. That’s a typical Jewish-American experience in my generation and a few other generations for minority people that are funny. I think it’s typical, you know,” she said.

A stand-up comic turned household name, Barr skyrocketed to fame with her hit ABC sitcom “Roseanne.” In 2018, Barr was essentially canceled after tweeting a racist remark about Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett.

Barr faced an onslaught of backlash for the tweet, leading to smears from her co-stars and ABC canceling the revival of her hit namesake show “Roseanne,” instead televising the spin-off series “The Conners.”

The comedian admitted she doesn’t keep in touch with any of her former co-stars.

“No, I’m not friends with none of them,” Barr told Fox News Digital. “They’re all in the past. I have pleasant memories of what fun we had — wish them all the best. And no, we don’t talk. I’ve moved on from that horrendous ending and chapter of my life, but you know, I don’t hold any bitterness or nothing to them, but my God, what fun we had on that show.

“And I was sorry they f—ed it all up with their greed and ridiculous stupidity to f— all that up. F— them, but I wish them well,” she said.

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Entertainment

Amanda Peet exposes ‘desperation galore’ behind Hollywood fame

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Amanda Peet is pulling back the threadbare curtain on life underneath the spotlight.

The 54-year-old actress called out Hollywood as nothing but “smoke and mirrors.”

“It’s ridiculous,” Peet told Fox News Digital when asked about the “biggest misconception” of stars having a “perfect life” in Hollywood. “It’s smoke and mirrors. There’s no there there. I mean you name the aphorism, it applies to us. It’s desperation galore. ‘What are they doing over there? Why don’t I have that? Why don’t I look like that?’ That’s the bad part.”

She continued, “In Hollywood, it’s hard to — I’m gonna just sound corny. It’s competitive, and it’s hard to get out of that really sort of competitive mindset where the piece of cheese on the island is too small and there are too many people going after it.”

The “Something’s Gotta Give” actress added that aging in the youth-obsessed industry isn’t easy either.

“I’m older, so I have much more peace about it, but it’s really, really hard to find that, and it is hard not to want to chase your own buzz if you are lucky enough to have any, and instead, just be like, ‘What do I really want to do when my alarm goes off in the morning? What do I want to be doing? Is this really what I want to be doing? Is this really helpful or useful to anyone?’”

Peet is starring in the second season of Apple TV’s “Your Friends & Neighbors,” which premieres on Friday, April 3 with one new episode each week through June 5.

She said fans can expect a “lot more” from Season 2.

“Then also there’s the issue of Coop having this secret life,” Peet said of Jon Hamm’s character who plays her ex-husband on the show.

“And I think this season, one too many people are starting to get an inkling that something’s going on with Coop,” she continued. “And so it gets more and more dangerous for him to keep doing what he’s doing, which is incredibly exciting. And then [her character] Mel and Coop are still in this kind of like, will they, won’t they? They’re so p—ed off at each other, but they still seem to wanna f— each other. So yeah, it’s just really a whole big hot mess.”

Peet said she also appreciated a storyline where her character deals with going into menopause, which she said was cathartic for her.

“It was very cathartic to be able to put my own menopausal frustrations and rage into an appropriate situation, namely be acting out as a character instead of in my own life,” Peet revealed.

The actress has also been open about her breast cancer diagnosis, which she announced earlier this month.

She told Fox News Digital that when she first heard the news, her thoughts were filled with “terror.”

“My children and terror,” she admitted.

Peet said she made the decision to not tell her dying mother “because she wasn’t well for so long that it was, you know, fairly obvious that I, you know, on the off chance that she would have been able to understand, I wouldn’t have wanted to scare her.”

“So, it wasn’t a hard decision, it was just sort of hard in a more global way because I had been so close to her all my life.”

Peet revealed her breast cancer diagnosis in a New Yorker essay last Saturday, saying that she is stage I and doesn’t need chemotherapy, but will undergo a lumpectomy and radiation.