Prince Harry has donated his Diana legacy funds to an African elephant charity instead of long-term recipient Sentebale, the charity he co-founded in her memory to help orphans.
The prince, who now shares the annual income of the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund with brother William, opted to switch his donation to Elephants Without Borders in Botswana after years of supporting Sentebale.
The elephant charity has now named two elephants after the prince’s two children Archie and Lili in tribute to his support.
Its founder Dr Mike Chase, who has known the Duke for more than two decades and is counted among his so called ‘African family’, said his support has always been a ‘tremendous honour’.
He confirmed that the money donated has been used to fit satellite-tracking collars to two ‘magnificent’ elephants in the Okavango Delta in northern Botswana with Archie choosing a blue collar for the elephant named in his honour and Lili choosing a purple one.
Dr Chase told today’s Telegraph that he was ‘deeply grateful’ for the support through the Diana Memorial Fund and hoped the Duke’s ‘very strong passion for the Okavango Delta, Botswana, its people, and its wildlife’ would be inherited by his children.
‘It means a great deal to us and to the elephants we are working so hard to protect,’ he said.
‘We wanted to pass on that legacy to the kids, in the hope that his passion for Okavango and Botswana would rub off on them, and to allow them to monitor the elephants in real time across the world.’
Prince Harry has donated his Diana legacy funds to an African elephant charity instead of long-term recipient Sentebale, the charity he co-founded in her memory to help orphans
The prince, who now shares the annual income of the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund with brother William, opted to switch his donation to Elephants Without Borders in Botswana after years of supporting Sentebale
The Duke of Sussex with founder of Elephants Without Borders Dr Mike Chase, during a tree planting event with local schoolchildren, at the Chobe Tree Reserve, Botswana. PA Photo. Picture date: Thursday September 26, 2019
The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund was founded shortly after her death in 1997 and was closed in 2012. It is now legally controlled by the Royal Foundation.
Although it no longer actively fundraises, it still receives some legacies and donations. An agreement was made to divide future proceeds between the two brothers for charities of their choosing when Harry and Meghan quit royal duties in 2020.
Annual accounts filed by the Royal Foundation of the Prince and Princess of Wales, show Sentebale has received £43,866 from the Diana fund since 2020, with the last payment of £16,743 made in 2024.
The latest accounts reveal that in 2025, for the first time, Prince Harry’s share, which was then £5,432, went to Elephants Without Borders.
Meghan, who enjoyed a romantic break to Botswana with Prince Harry shortly after they met, when the pair joined Dr Chase in tracking and tagging the animals on World Elephant Day, has also previously donated to the charity, giving her fee for narrating the Disney film Elephant to them.
The charity switch follows Harry’s explosive and very public fallout with Sophie Chandauka, Sentebale board chairman, which has led to him being sued for defamation.
Ms Chandauka has accused him of ‘operational disruption and reputational harm’ to the charity he co-founded in 2006 to support young people living with HIV and Aids in Lesotho and Botswana by conducting an ‘adverse media campaign’.
A court action was filed in the High Court against Harry and another former trustee, Mark Dyer, in March this year.
Harry has rejected the allegations as ‘offensive and damaging’.
Once so close to Harry’s heart, he even gave Sentebale an extra donation of £1.2m from the profits of his no-holds barred memoir Spare.
But a bitter public power struggle ensued for control over the charity after a dispute with Sophie Chandauka which led to Prince Harry and his fellow founder Prince Seeiso along with a group of trustees resigning from the charity in March 2025.
However, the Charity Commission strongly criticised all sides when it published a report into the row, rapping them for playing out the dispute in public.
The regulator said all trustees contributed to a ‘missed opportunity’ to sort out the issues, potentially causing wider damage to the charity sector by eroding public confidence.
Pictured: Prince William Meets With His New Housemaster Dr. Andrew Gailey At Eton College, Accompanied By Prince Charles,Diana Princess Of Wales And Prince Harry
Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, Royal Patron of Tusk and President of United For Wildlife, lends a hand to rangers lifting the head of Kenya bull elephant tranquilised from a helicopter co-piloted by the Duke to allow the fitting of a new radio tracking collar in 2016 in Lewa, Kenya
However, while it acknowledged ‘the strong perception of ill treatment’ felt by some parties involved, it found no evidence of systemic bullying or harassment, including misogyny or misogynoir at the charity, which Ms Chandauka had alleged.
A source said in August 2025 that Harry had been left emotionally devastated by the events, after 19 years of working with the charity.
In a statement when the case was filed, Sentebale said it was seeking the court’s ‘protection’ because its work had been undermined ‘following a coordinated adverse media campaign conducted since 25 March 2025 that has caused operational disruption and reputational harm’.
It said Prince Harry and Mark Dyer had been ‘identified through evidence as the architects of that adverse media campaign’, adding:
‘Sentebale has experienced the adverse media campaign as false narratives circulated through the media about the charity and its leadership, attempts to undermine its relationships with staff, existing and prospective partners, and the forced diversion of leadership time and resources into managing a reputational crisis not of the charity’s making.’
When the case was filed, a spokesperson for Prince Harry and Mark Dyer said the charity should be focusing its efforts on the communities supported by Sentebale, rather than pursuing legal actions.
