Prince Harry has strongly rejected claims lodged against him in a High Court defamation suit by the African charity he helped to found but sensationally quit after a boardroom battle.
The Duke of Sussex said the claims made against him by Sentebale of running an ‘adverse media campaign against them’ which led to ‘false narratives circulating’ were ‘offensive and damaging’.
The charity’s board of trustees is suing him and his former equerry Mark Dyer, who also walked out as a trustee of the charity, in a claim listed on 24 March as ‘defamation – libel and slander’.
A spokesman for both men said: ‘They categorically reject these offensive and damaging claims.’
The Duke’s bullish response is a clear sign he is determined to fight any suggestion that he caused ‘operational disruption and reputational harm’ to the charity he co-founded in honour of his mother, Princess Diana, in 2006.
Sentebale was set up to support young people living with HIV and Aids in Lesotho and Botswana and was known to be close to Harry’s heart.
He even gave the charity an extra donation of £1.2 million from the profits from his no-holds barred memoir Spare.
But a bitter public power struggle ensued for control after a dispute with its chair Sophie Chandauka, which led to Harry and his fellow founder Prince Seeiso, along with a group of trustees, resigning from the charity in March last year.
The Charity Commission strongly criticised all sides when it published a report into the row, rapping them for playing out the dispute in public.
The regulator said that all trustees contributed to a ‘missed opportunity’ to sort out the issues, potentially causing wider damage to the charity sector by eroding public confidence.
However, while it acknowledged ‘the strong perception of ill treatment’ felt by some of the parties involved, it found no evidence of systemic bullying or harassment, including misogyny or misogynoir – discrimination against black women – at the charity.
A source said in August last year that Harry had been left emotionally devastated by the events, after 19 years of working with the charity.
In a statement, Sentebale said it was seeking the court’s ‘protection’ because its work had been undermined ‘following a coordinated adverse media campaign conducted since 25 March 2025 that has caused operational disruption and reputational harm’.
It said that Prince Harry and Mr Dyer had been ‘identified through evidence as the architects of that adverse media campaign’.
It added: ‘Sentebale 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’s making.’
