Meghan Markle’s awkward interaction with Sentebale chair Dr. Sophie Chandauka has resurfaced after the charity executive accused co-founder Prince Harry of “toxic” behavior.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were seen posing for photos with Chandauka at the Royal Salute Polo Challenge in Wellington, Fla., last August in a video circulating on social media.
The clip captures the couple and Chandauka holding a large trophy while standing in front of a step-and-repeat as their photos are snapped.
At first, Chandauka is seen smiling for the cameras while standing next to Harry as Markle takes his other side. But the mood quickly shifts when Markle begins barking orders for her to stand elsewhere in the photo-op.
“You want to come over here?” Markle, 43, repeatedly asked Chanduaka while motioning for her to stand next to her instead of next to Harry.
Chandauka is seen awkwardly ducking under the trophy to switch her position, prompting Markle to tell her, “Lovely.”
The lawyer revealed in a new interview with Sky News that the organization was not told that Markle would be attending the event until the very last minute.
“We would have been really excited had we known ahead of time [Meghan was coming], but we didn’t,” she said in the interview.
“And so the choreography went badly on stage because we had too many people on stage,” she explained. “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.”
Markle also showed up to the event with her BFF, Serena Williams, as well as a Netflix camera crew to film for her new series, allegedly causing even more mayhem.
Chandauka claimed that Harry asked her to issue a statement “in support” of his wife after the tense interaction went viral, but she refused.
“Not because I didn’t care about the Duchess, but because I knew what would happen if I did so, number one,” she explained. “And number two, because we cannot be an extension of the Sussexes.”
Royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams weighed in on the display, sharing that Markle’s sudden presence at the event “caused confusion” and said the onstage exchange between her and Chandauka was “awkward.”
“She refused to issue a statement in support of Meghan, there had been an awkward incident between them,” Fitzwilliams told Daily Mail Monday, adding that “the ferocious feud that has split Sentebale” will be “a bitter blow to [Harry].”
Last week, Harry, 40, announced that he was resigning from the charity he and Prince Seeiso of Lesotho founded in 2006 in memory of their late mothers, Princess Diana and ‘Mamohato Bereng Seeiso, respectively.
Chandauka claimed that “misogynoir” Harry only has himself to blame for his resignation.
“Beneath all the victim narrative and fiction that has been syndicated to press is the story of a woman who dared to blow the whistle about issues of poor governance, weak executive management, abuse of power, bullying, harassment, misogyny, misogynoir and the cover-up that ensued,” Chandauka, told the London Times last week.
She also accused Harry of launching a “damaging” attack that resulted in her allegedly being harassed and bullied.
However, a source close to the former trustees of the Sentebale charity alleged to Page Six on Saturday that Chandauka’s allegations were “completely baseless.”
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