If you think about how many PR crises the Duke and Duchess of Sussex face on a weekly basis, it’s no wonder they have such a high staff turnover (an estimated 18 staff members have left since they got married in 2018). The minute one story about them dies down, another appears like a whack-a-mole – which is exactly what has happened this week.

When Meghan Markle’s Netflix series about cooking, gardening and the art of hosting, With Love, Meghan, came out at the start of March, she faced a predictable influx of criticism calling her everything from ‘boring’ to ‘disingenuous’ and ‘tone-deaf’. This, by the way, was their new chief of communications, Meredith Maines’ first week on the job.

It was then announced that the series has been renewed for a second season, but the news was quickly overshadowed by new rumours that Markle was in a ‘breakfast war’ with fellow celebrity lifestyle guru, Gwyneth Paltrow, who happens to live down the road from her.

Despite Paltrow’s best efforts to shut down any rivalry rumours in her cover interview with Vanity Fair, yesterday the linen-loving duo firmly put them to bed with a joint Instagram Story filmed at Paltrow’s kitchen table. In response to a question about their alleged ‘beef’, Paltrow said, ‘I genuinely do not understand this at all, whatsoever, do you understand this?’ before panning to a giggling Markle who was tucking into a pie.

However, less than a day after that mild reputational fire was safely put out, a much larger one appeared. Following a fallout between the trustees and the chair of its board, Prince Harry resigned ‘in shock’ from a charity he set up in 2006.

The Duke of Sussex co-founded Sentebale, meaning ‘forget me not’ in Sesotho, to help young people living in southern Africa living with HIV and Aids, in honour of his mother Princess Diana. His co-founder, Prince Seeiso of Lesotho, also stepped down because the relationship between the board of trustees and the chairwoman Dr Sophie Chandauka ‘broke down beyond repair’.

Chandauka had been asked to resign following questions that emerged about whether she was fit for the role but reportedly refused to do so. Instead, the chairwoman filed a lawsuit against the trustees and reported them to the UK Charity Commission, claiming she had ‘blown the whistle’ about issues including the abuse of power, bullying, sexism and racism.

The Charity Commission said it was ‘aware of concerns about the governance’ of Sentebale and is looking into them. The former board of trustees and the princes have not yet responded to her allegations.

The board of trustees has since resigned with the founding princes doing the same ‘in solidarity’. However, this is not a story that is likely to disappear overnight. Chandauka has released her own statement in response to the resignations and said,‘There are people in this world who behave as though they are above the law and mistreat people and then play the victim card and use the very press they disdain to harm people who have the courage to challenge their conduct,’ she said.

While it is unclear who exactly she is referring to, given that Prince Harry has come into several well publicised blows with the press in the past, many people are likely to assume it’s him.

According to Chandauka, this a ‘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 [discrimination against black women] – and the coverup that ensued’.

She concluded her statement by confirming that she will stay on as chairwoman and said her work with the charity is ‘not a vanity project from which I can resign when I am called to account’.

It’s certainly been a baptism of fire for the Sussex’s chief of communications who will no doubt be dealing with much of the fallout. While Maines said she was ‘honoured’ to be working with the couple and keen to highlight the ‘amazing work they are doing through Archewell, their broader business portfolio, and nonprofit work’, a scandal within the prince’s charity slate is not something anyone saw coming.

The jury might always be out on their roles as royals, celebrities, reputable entrepreneurs and, indeed, lifestyle show hosts, but their work as philanthropists has always been fairly safe territory.

Not only is the prince’s sudden resignation from a charity he held so dearly likely to open up a can of worms, but it poses questions about what he did or did not know about the alleged ‘coverup’, or whether his involvement in Sentebale was just a ‘vanity project’ after all.

In a joint statement with Prince Seeiso, the Duke of Sussex said he was resigning with a ‘heavy heart’. ‘It is devastating that the relationship between the charity’s trustees and the chair of the board broke down beyond repair,’ they wrote, ‘creating an untenable situation.’

They both maintain that the trustees ‘acted in the best interest of the charity’ by asking Chandauka to step down and that her decision to take legal action was ‘further underscoring the broken relationship’. The former trustees echoed this sentiment and said the charity could not withstand the ‘legal and financial burden’ of Chandauka’s lawsuit.

What led to such a hostile and untenable situation has not yet come to light, but the public are likely to have questions. What really happened at Sentebale? And will the prince offer more of an explanation about why he resigned from a charity so close to his heart? Either way, it’s likely Maines will wish she could wind back the clock to when a fake ‘breakfast war’ was the worst of her problems.