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The Duke of Sussex is being sued by Sentebale in the latest twist in the bitter fallout over the African charity he co-founded.<\/p>\n
The charity has lodged papers in London\u2019s high court over defamation claims naming Prince Harry<\/a> and the former Sentebale trustee Mark Dyer as defendants.<\/p>\n The prince had been engaged in a public war of words with the charity\u2019s chair, Dr Sophie Chandauka, after his resignation as a patron last year.<\/p>\n Sentebale works with children and young people in southern Africa. Harry and the co-founder Prince Seeiso of Lesotho<\/a> stepped down in March 2025, and trustees later quit over a dispute with Chandauka, a lawyer appointed in 2023.<\/p>\n Sentebale said it had begun legal proceedings after \u201ca coordinated adverse media campaign conducted since 25 March 2025 that has caused operational disruption and reputational harm to the charity, its leadership and its strategic partners\u201d.<\/p>\n It added: \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 cyberbullying directed at the charity and its leadership.<\/p>\n \u201cSentebale 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\u2019s making.<\/p>\n \u201cThe charity should not continue to use its resources to manage and address the damage this adverse media campaign has caused to its operations and partnerships. This must stop. The board and executive director have taken this legal action to secure that protection. The costs of doing so are met entirely by external funding and no charitable funds have been used.\u201d<\/p>\n The claim was filed on 24 March, according to HM Courts and Tribunals Service, though further details were not available.<\/p>\n Harry\u2019s representatives have been approached for comment.<\/p>\n In August 2025, the Charity Commission criticised Harry for allowing a row with the chair to \u201cplay out publicly\u201d, while clearing him of racism.<\/p>\n After his resignation was made public, Chandauka said she had been targeted by people who \u201cplay the victim card\u201d. She described the dispute as a \u201cstory 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] \u2013 and the cover-up that ensued\u201d.<\/p>\n In its compliance case ruling, the regulator criticised all those involved in the dispute for \u201callowing it to play out publicly\u201d. It said the then trustees\u2019 failure to resolve disagreements internally had \u201cseverely impacted the charity\u2019s reputation and risked undermining public trust in charities more generally\u201d.<\/p>\n The commission found that a serious dispute between Chandauka and Harry followed the formulation of a new fundraising strategy in the US.<\/p>\n In response at the time, a spokesperson for Harry \u2013 who was not a trustee and established the charity in memory of his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales \u2013 criticised the commission, saying its report had fallen \u201ctroublingly short\u201d.<\/p>\n They said: \u201cUnsurprisingly, the commission makes no findings of wrongdoing in relation to Sentebale\u2019s co-founder and former patron, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex.<\/p>\n \u201cThey also found no evidence of widespread bullying, harassment or misogyny and misogynoir at the charity, as falsely claimed by the current chair.<\/p>\n \u201cDespite all that, their report falls troublingly short in many regards, primarily the fact that the consequences of the current chair\u2019s actions will not be borne by her \u2013 but by the children who rely on Sentebale\u2019s support.<\/p>\n \u201cSentebale has been a deeply personal and transformative mission for Prince Harry, established to serve some of the most vulnerable children in Lesotho and Botswana<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n