LONDON — A UK-based HIV/AIDS charity with deep royal roots has launched high-profile legal action against its own co-founder, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, alleging he orchestrated a coordinated negative media campaign that caused severe reputational and operational damage amid a months-long public governance feud. The organization, Sentebale, which the prince launched in 2006 alongside Lesotho’s Prince Seeiso to honor his late mother Princess Diana, filed its defamation claim on March 24, 2026, with the High Court of England and Wales.
Court documents name Prince Harry — the younger son of King Charles III — and former Sentebale trustee Mark Dyer as co-defendants, identifying the pair as the masterminds behind the damaging media push that began in late March 2025. In an official statement provided to AFP, Sentebale said the viral campaign has not only disrupted its day-to-day work supporting youth living with HIV and AIDS across southern Africa, but also sparked a wave of targeted cyberbullying against the charity’s current leadership and key strategic partners. The organization is seeking court intervention, injunctive protection and financial restitution for the harm inflicted.
The public conflict stems from a 2025 leadership standoff that ultimately pushed Prince Harry and Prince Seeiso to resign from the charity they founded nearly 20 years prior. The dispute erupted after Sentebale chair Sophie Chandauka, appointed to the voluntary role in 2023, refused a demand from the sitting board of trustees to step down, prompting the entire trustee body to resign. Chandauka later publicly accused Prince Harry of orchestrating a campaign to force her out, and levelled additional claims of institutional bullying at the organization in March 2025.
By August 2025, the UK’s Charity Commission concluded a formal inquiry into the allegations. While regulators found no evidence of widespread or systemic bullying, harassment, misogyny or misogynoir that Chandauka had alleged, they did confirm significant governance failures at the charity: the investigation confirmed unclear delegation of responsibilities had led to tangible administrative mismanagement, and the watchdog criticized all parties for airing their private conflict in public, noting the open feud had already done severe damage to Sentebale’s standing. The commission issued a mandatory action plan requiring the charity to address its structural governance weaknesses. Chandauka said she welcomed the inquiry’s findings, arguing they validated the governance concerns she first raised privately in early 2025.
Beyond the leadership deadlock, public records show additional friction between Chandauka and Prince Harry over a 2024 fundraising event. The chair publicly criticized the duke for bringing a Netflix documentary camera crew to the event, and objected to an unplanned guest appearance by his wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, at the function.
For Prince Harry, the lawsuit marks the latest chapter in his string of high-profile legal battles with UK institutions and media outlets, coming less than two weeks after his third case against a major tabloid publisher wrapped up in the same High Court. The duke, who stepped back from official senior royal duties and relocated to North America with his family in 2020, has only retained a small number of personal charitable patronages, with Sentebale long counted among the most meaningful — the organization’s name, Sentebale, means “forget me not” in the Sesotho language, chosen as a permanent tribute to Diana, who died in a 1997 car crash when Prince Harry was just 12 years old. Sentebale originally launched to support vulnerable young people living with HIV and AIDS in Lesotho, later expanding its work to neighboring Botswana.
In the recently concluded tabloid case, Prince Harry and six other co-claimants accuse Associated Newspapers, publisher of the *Daily Mail* and *Mail on Sunday*, of carrying out unlawful surveillance against the claimants, including planting listening devices in private homes and vehicles. The publisher has vehemently denied all allegations of wrongdoing.