Sentebale #2

[Words]

Second thread .

Well, @Hwi this is quite the derail.
If you're genuinely interested in the Royal Family's romantic history you could always start a thread.
There seem to be a lot of well informed people on here who could no doubt answer your questions for you..

From an American perspective, marrying the daughter of Prince Andrew and Fergie is NOT bettering your status.

But crucially it shows what a wise woman the Queen was, despite attempts by antimonarchists through the years to portray her as a brainless, emotionless cipher. She KNEW this shit wouldn't work.

And, presumably, knew Harry. And probably summed up Meghan fairly swiftly.

I wonder if there have been signs of relief among the men in grey suits. 'Thank God they buggered off. Christ knows what kind of shitstorm they'd have stirred up in the Commonwealth if they'd stayed.'

Prince Philip was as royal as, if not more royal than, the BRF. As he pointed out to a courtier who tried to patronise him, his mother was born at Windsor Castle. (I find his genealogy fascinating, but that's another topic.)

@GiveMeSpanakopita I agree. Specifics don't mean we are getting the whole story and there is bound to be another side to it. Dr C's approach to building her case will be thorough and evidence-based, though, and that's a problem for the princes and ex trustees. It sounds as though things have been run for years on a 'we're all chums' basis, with conversations and agreements not documented. Dr C's core story is one of poor governance and she has already started to share the evidence - decisions not minuted, trustees appointed without regard to due process, partners and donors trampled on.

😂😂😂
I think that's not just an American opinion!

@GiveMeSpanakopita
"Older women know shit"
That is exactly why some men try to stop young women learning from older women and keep the ageism fires alight..
We Know Stuff.

@Puzzledandpissedoff what would do to Harry's mental state doesn't bear thinking about
However the cause matters (or should) more than any individual, so here's hoping it contains people with sufficient integrity to act.

👏 I do not want to see Harry in a parlous mental state, I truly don't. But you can't tip toe around a patron of a charity if their actions / image whatever are to the detriment of the charity. They are two separate things. (I'm very much agreeing with you here)

Indeed!!! I have no idea what that post even means!!!
very peculiar attempt at a derail!!!

i don’t get the subtext here. Is Chandauka saying Harry should have stayed in the Royal Family to continue getting donations for Sentebale? It’s a shame if donors stopped donating after Harry moved to the USA, but hardly his fault?

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/mar/30/donors-quit-prince-harry-charity-left-uk-sentebale-chair

it was his son who broke with tradition in marrying Lady Diana Spencer who was not European Royalty)

Neither was the Lady Elizabeth Bowes Lyon. Not to mention Anne Hyde, 4/6 of Henry VIII's wives, Elizabeth Woodville....

In 1947 it probably would have been difficult to find another European Prince who was the right age, was a Protestant, and hadn't been on the wrong side in the war.

People sneered at Prince Albert too, but he was (also) an intelligent, hard-working man who contributed a lot to the monarchy and the nation.

What did the Queen do or didn’t do?

She’s saying that Harry out of the RF wasn’t of much interest to wealthy donors so donations dried up to quite an extent.

I have taken this not as Harry should have stayed within the WRF at all. I think the point she is making is that Harry as a member of the WRF compared to Harry who moved to California and is a Prince at arms length to the BRF (and the Netflix / Spare type things - my addition there ) are two completely different propositions for a patron. & she observed that after Harry distanced himself from the BRF donations etc dropped off.

Edited to add - Ooops cross posted with @Weepixie

Agreed and it’s a definite shame for Sentebale. But not sure Harry can be blamed for it.

Superb, fair and balanced posts as ever, @GiveMeSpanakopita, though on "His team are going to have to work harder and come up with a proper narrative to seize back control of the narrative" I'd just ask ... what team? Does he have one any more?

Certainly he's not got the RF's "grey suits", and while I could easily be wrong it doesn't look to me as if he's listening to anyone else with experience and gravitas - hence the unwise reactions

Like many others I'm just waiting to see if Ms Chandauka has evidence for her serious claims, but if so it's hard to see how Harry can recover what remains of his credibility and where things would go from there

She is stating facts, Sentebale donations dropped off when Harry exited the royal family. She didn't mention he should have stayed in the RF.

Ultimately, what that shows is that Harry only had the credibility he had, because of his Royal Status, when he chose to burn that RF bridge with Oprah, Netflix and Spare, donors chose to find somewhere else to put their money.

Prince Philip did not have a pot to piss in - Nancy Mitford brilliantly described this sort of 'royalty' in her The Pursuit of Love - penniless, fortune hunters, permanently hungry. N.M.took particular delight in lampooning this sort of European 'royalty' - the poor King Constantin of Rumania (her spelling) was the same as Philip.

What she’s saying is that Harry being in the room prevented an open discussion about the loss of funders following his acrimonious departure from the UK.

If you’re looking for subtext, I would suggest it is that she thought he shouldn’t be in the room full stop.

This.
Harry doesn't seem to realise that people listen to him, give him status and respect because he's a royal prince. He seems to think it's because of him personally. It's not.

If that’s true then that’s poor and not how a patron should behave.

What would the discussion have been about, finding new donors? Or how to win back the previous donors?

Well, the earlier ones of those were not well thought of at the time/caused crises.

But things changed by the 20c. I think George VI and Queen Elizabeth wanted the then Princess Elizabeth to marry a British peer. But her heart was set on Philip.

What on earth has this to do with the subject of this thread????
what are you trying to get at???
if you genuinely wish to discuss this topic , make your own thread about it!
otherwise I’m assuming this is a deliberate derail.

Is it not that she's (diplomatically?) referencing Harry's behaviour and choices around him broadcasting "his truth" about his family before, during and after his exit that affected donors? I mean if he brought in money on the back of being a Prince I'm guessing these donors were pro the FF rather than anti?

Your guess is as good as mine. I think it’s pretty feeble of the trustees not to have the discussion with him in the room if that’s what was needed.

Harry doesn't seem to have make the connections in the West Coast to encourage American donors. There is the famous scene of Meghan having the mike pulled away at the Kevin Costner event. He was booed at the Pat Tillman awards - videos were online at one point. Hollywood celebrities who actually fly may not have agreed with aviation award. Also, any celebrity who ever spent time in midtown in Manhattan would be dubious about that car chase. Not to mention the whole visa issue.