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London: A charity co-founded by Prince Harry in honour of his late mother Princess Diana, which he quit following a high-profile dispute, is suing the British royal for defamation at the High Court in London, a court record showed on Friday.<\/p>\n
Harry, the younger son of King Charles, co-founded Sentebale in 2006 to help young people with HIV and AIDS in Lesotho and Botswana but resigned as a patron in March last year<\/a> after a public falling-out with its chair of the board, Sophie Chandauka.<\/p>\n According to a record made public on Friday, Sentebale lodged a defamation claim last month at the High Court against Harry and one of his close friends Mark Dyer, who was also a trustee of the charity.<\/p>\n The charity said it was seeking the court\u2019s \u201cintervention, protection, and restitution\u201d following an \u201cadverse media campaign\u201d conducted since last March that had \u201ccaused operational disruption and reputational harm to the charity, its leadership, and its strategic partners\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThe proceedings have been brought against Prince Harry and Mark Dyer, identified through evidence as the architects of that adverse media campaign, which has had significant viral impact and triggered an onslaught of cyber-bullying directed at the charity and its leadership,\u201d the charity\u2019s statement said.<\/p>\n Harry\u2019s spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n The lawsuit puts the Duke of Sussex in an unusual position as a defendant in the High Court.<\/p>\n For the past three years, he has repeatedly been on the other side of litigation as the leading claimant in invasion of privacy suits against Britain\u2019s most prominent tabloids<\/a> over allegations of phone hacking and unlawful snooping by journalists and the private eyes they hired.<\/p>\n Sentebale\u2019s co-founder Prince Seeiso of Lesotho and the then board of trustees also joined Harry in leaving the charity, which he helped set up nine years after Diana was killed in a Paris car crash and which means \u201cforget-me-not\u201d in the local language of Lesotho in southern Africa.<\/p>\n Editor’s pick During the public acrimony last year, Chandauka reported him and the trustees to Britain\u2019s charity regulator over alleged bullying and harassment<\/a>.<\/p>\n Chandauka told Sky News that filming for one of Harry\u2019s Netflix programs had interfered with a scheduled fundraiser for Sentebale and an incident with his wife, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, became a source of friction.<\/p>\n The 41-year-old prince said what had occurred was \u201cheartbreaking\u201d and that \u201cblatant lies hurt those who have invested decades\u201d in supporting the children in southern Africa.<\/p>\n Related Article After a review, the Charity Commission reported in August it had found no evidence of bullying<\/a>, but said there had been weak governance and criticised all parties for allowing an internal dispute to become public.<\/p>\n \u201cSentebale\u2019s problems played out in the public eye, enabling a damaging dispute to harm the charity\u2019s reputation, risk overshadowing its many achievements, and jeopardizing the charity\u2019s ability to deliver for the very beneficiaries it was created to serve,\u201d commission chief executive David Holdsworth said in a statement at the time.<\/p>\n Reuters, AP<\/p>\n Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what\u2019s making headlines around the world. Sign up for our weekly What in the World newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n![\"Sentabale](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/495f0565a089f418633ff0598d0a1f994d9b5ed1.jpeg\")
Sentabale chair Dr Sophie Chandauka.Sentabale.org<\/p>\n![\"Harry](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775807951_697_aa5f443d0f7eeb8f9cdd5aa678b63bf8d092e510.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Prince](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/b34978976d85565237d7f8a03a2126e2725efe3b.jpeg\")
Prince Harry launching the charity in Lesotho in 2006.Getty Images<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775891059_109_37f6a119ccb627c48a3e710c344270d793a729d7.jpeg\")
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