The African HIV charity Harry co-founded in 2006 filed a defamation claim at the High Court
Prince Harry is facing yet another legal battle, and this one hits particularly close to home. Sentebale, the African HIV and AIDS charity he co-founded in 2006 in honor of his late mother, Princess Diana, has filed a defamation claim against him at the High Court of England and Wales. Court records made public today show the case was filed on March 24 under a claim type described as Media and Communication, Part 7 Claim, Defamation, Libel and Slander. Listed as a defendant alongside Harry is Mark Dyer, who previously served as a trustee of the organization.
How a founding partnership turned into a courtroom dispute
Harry established Sentebale nearly two decades ago alongside Prince Seeiso of Lesotho, naming the charity after the Sesotho word for forget me not, a tribute to Princess Diana, who died in a Paris car crash in 1997 when Harry was just 12 years old. The organization was built to support young people living with HIV and AIDS in Lesotho and later Botswana, and Harry remained deeply connected to its mission for years, even donating £1.2 million from profits of his memoir Spare to the cause.
The relationship began to fracture publicly in early 2025. A governance dispute involving Sophie Chandauka, who had been appointed chair of the board in 2023, escalated into a very public falling-out. Chandauka refused demands from trustees to step down, prompting the trustees to walk out. Harry and Prince Seeiso followed, both resigning as patrons in March 2025. Chandauka later accused Harry of harassment, bullying and attempting to use the charity as a vehicle to promote his wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. She also raised objections to Harry bringing a Netflix camera crew to a charity fundraiser in 2024 and to an unplanned appearance by Meghan at that same event.
What the Charity Commission found
Following an investigation into the dispute, the UK’s Charity Commission issued findings in August 2025 that assigned blame broadly across all parties involved. The watchdog found no evidence of widespread bullying or harassment, including the specific accusations of misogyny and misogynoir that had been directed at Harry. However, it did identify mismanagement in the administration of the charity, citing a lack of clarity in delegated responsibilities. It also issued a governance improvement plan and criticized all sides for allowing the dispute to spill into the public sphere in a way that damaged the organization’s reputation and jeopardized its ability to serve the communities it was created to help.
The defamation claim and what Sentebale is alleging
Sentebale’s legal action centers on what the charity describes as a coordinated adverse media campaign that it claims began around March 25, 2025, and has continued since. The charity argues that Harry and Dyer were the architects of that campaign, which it says triggered significant online harassment directed at the charity, its leadership and its strategic partners. Sentebale is seeking the court’s intervention, protection and restitution for what it characterizes as operational disruption and reputational harm. The charity has also confirmed that legal costs are being covered entirely through external funding, with no charitable money being used to pursue the case.
Representatives for Harry and Dyer had not publicly responded to the filing at the time of publication.
A legal calendar that keeps growing
The Sentebale lawsuit arrives less than two weeks after Harry’s own High Court case against the publisher of the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday concluded. That case, in which Harry and six other claimants accused Associated Newspapers of spying on them through methods including listening devices placed in vehicles and homes, is the third legal action Harry has pursued against the British press. The publisher has strongly denied those allegations.
Harry stepped back from his royal duties and moved to North America with Meghan and their children in 2020, retaining only a small number of patronages including Sentebale. Losing that connection last year was described by Harry as devastating. The defamation claim now transforms that already painful parting into something significantly more complicated.