Sophie Chandauka, the Sentebale chair, took several swipes at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle during a brutal interview with Sky News following Harry’s decision to step down from the charity

Claims made against Prince Harry and Meghan Markle by the boss of his charity have been branded “highly misleading” and “baseless”.

The Duke of Sussex was accused of “harassment and bullying at scale” in a sensational interview given by Sophie Chandauka, the Sentebale chair, to Sky News. She also said Harry “unleashed the Sussex machine” after the 40-year-old royal quit as co-patron last week.

But now royal sources close to the Duke have blasted the allegations. They have said Dr Chandauka’s latest comments in the row are a “deflection” and the resignation of the trustees and Harry was as a “direct result of the chair’s mismanagement”. Claims the prince’s requests were nodded through by acolytes on the board of trustees were also described as “completely baseless”.

Dr Chandauka also accused Prince Harry of allowing his Netflix show to wreck a key fundraising event and that Meghan caused a stir when she turned up with Tennis icon Serena Williams. However, again, this has been rubbished by sources close to Meghan and Harry, with the latter said to be “reeling” at how his resignation has panned out.

While Harry and Meghan have refused to comment publicly on the row, people close to the couple told Mail Online Dr Chandauka’s points are largely inaccurate. They particularly stressed her take on the fundraising event in Miami is “highly misleading”.

They suggest the original venue had already changed its terms, resulting in a rise in costs, which meant the charity had no option but to find a new site with the help of Harry’s friend and fellow polo player, Nacho Figueras. They say the decision had nothing to do with Netflix.

However, the incident, where the duchess appeared to usher the charity boss away from her husband on stage, led to media criticism of Meghan’s behaviour.

And Dr Chandauka told Sky News’s Trevor Phillips that Harry “asked me to issue some sort of a statement in support of the duchess” – but she refused. She said: “Not because I didn’t care about the duchess, but because I knew what would happen if I did so, number one. And number two, because we cannot be an extension of the Sussexes.”

Sentebale, which Harry co-founded in memory of his late mother Princess Diana with Prince Seeiso of Lesotho in 2006, dedicates itself to tackling poverty and Aids in both Lesotho and Botswana. It was plunged into chaos when he quit last week, stating he was “truly heartbroken” to make the decision but it had been reached following a breakdown in his professional relationship with Dr Chandauka. The Zimbabwean lawyer then blasted the duke in a thinly-veiled jibe, stressing she doesn’t see the charity as “a vanity project”.