Prince Harry sued by charity for alleged cyberbullying

The Duke of Sussex is being sued by Sentebale in the latest twist in the bitter fallout over the African charity he co-founded, reports The Guardian. The charity has lodged papers in London’s High Court over defamation claims naming Prince Harry and the former Sentebale trustee Mark Dyer as defendants. The prince had been engaged in a public war of words with the charity’s chair, Dr Sophie Chandauka, after his resignation as a patron last year. Sentebale works with children and young people in southern Africa. Harry and the co-founder Prince Seeiso of Lesotho stepped down in March 2025, and trustees later quit over a dispute with Chandauka, a lawyer appointed in 2023. Sentebale said it had begun legal proceedings after ‘a co-ordinated 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’. It added: ‘The 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.’ A spokesperson for the Duke of Sussex and Mark Dyer said: ‘As Sentebale’s co-founder and a founding trustee, they categorically reject these offensive and damaging claims. It is extraordinary that charitable funds are now being used to pursue legal action against the very people who built and supported the organisation for nearly two decades, rather than being directed to the communities the charity was created to serve.’ In August 2025, the Charity Commission criticised Harry for allowing a row with the chair to ‘play out publicly’, while clearing him of racism.