LONDON (AP) — A charity co-founded by Prince Harry in Africa to honor his late mother, Princess Diana, has sued him for defamation after he stepped down as a patron last year.
Sentebale, which supports young people living with HIV in Botswana and Lesotho, filed suit last month in London’s High Court, according to court records viewed Friday. Online filings show Harry and his friend, Mark Dyer, a former trustee at the charity, are being sued for either libel or slander. No documents were available.
“The charity seeks the court’s intervention, protection, and restitution following a 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,” Sentebale said Friday in a statement on its website.
A spokesperson for Harry and Dyer said the pair “categorically reject these offensive and damaging claims.”
The lawsuit puts the Duke of Sussex in an unaccustomed position as a defendant in the High Court. Over 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's most prominent tabloids over allegations of phone hacking and unlawful snooping by journalists and the private eyes they hired.
Harry co-founded Sentebale, which means “forget me not” in the language of Lesotho, about 20 years ago in memory of his mother, who was a prominent advocate for treatment of HIV and AIDS and helped reduce stigma around the disease. Prince Seeiso of Lesotho was the co-founder.
Disagreements at the charity surfaced in 2023 over a new fundraising strategy, and the two founders stepped down as patrons in March 2025 in support of trustees who had quit.
At the time, they said the relationship between the board and its chair, Sophie Chandauka, was beyond repair. Chandauka later accused Harry of orchestrating a campaign of bullying and harassment to try to force her out.
As the dispute unfolded, Chandauka told Sky News that filming for one of Harry's Netflix programs had interfered with a scheduled fundraiser for Sentebale and that an incident with his wife, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, became a source of friction.
The Charity Commission for England and Wales investigated and criticized both sides for allowing the issue to become public and damaging the organization’s reputation, but found no evidence of widespread bullying or misogyny at Sentebale.
“Sentebale’s problems played out in the public eye, enabling a damaging dispute to harm the charity’s reputation, risk overshadowing its many achievements, and jeopardizing the charity’s ability to deliver for the very beneficiaries it was created to serve,” commission CEO David Holdsworth said in a statement in August 2025.
Harry’s spokesperson had criticized the commission’s report while Chandauka welcomed it.
Gerald Imray in Cape Town, South Africa, contributed to this report.
FILE - Britain's Prince Harry arrives at London's High Court to lead a group accusing the Daily Mail's publisher of privacy invasion through unlawful tactics in a trial that is part of a wider phone hacking scandal in London, Jan. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File)
Stocks drifted mostly lower on Wall Street and oil prices slipped ahead of planned U.S.-Iran talks following a shaky ceasefire agreement. The S&P 500 fell 0.1% Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.6%, and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.4%. Trading remained choppy ahead of high-level talks between negotiators from Iran and the U.S. planned for Saturday in Pakistan. The U.S. government reported a sharp spike in inflation in March because of the biggest monthly jump in gas prices in six decades, but the increase wasn’t quite as bad as economists were expecting. Treasury yields rose in the bond market.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
Stocks wavered on Wall Street Friday and oil prices eased ahead of planned U.S.-Iran talks following a shaky ceasefire agreement.
The S&P 500 fell 0.1% in afternoon trading, on pace for a weekly loss. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 271 points, or 0.6%, as of 3:21 p.m. Eastern. The Nasdaq composite rose 0.4%.
Major indexes have been gaining ground over the last two weeks amid optimism that the war with Iran could be heading toward a resolution. The S&P 500 has erased most of its losses from March and is just 2.3% short of its all-time high set in January. The market is still prone to big swings on developments around the war.
Trading on Wall Street remained choppy. Most companies in the benchmark S&P 500 were losing ground, with health care stocks driving much of the decline. Eli Lilly and Co. fell 1.8% and Johnson & Johnson slid 1.3% lower.
Technology stocks with hefty values helped offset losses elsewhere. Nvidia rose 3% and Broadcom rose 5.3%.
Markets in Asia gained ground while markets in Europe were mixed.
Oil prices have been behind many of the stock market’s sharp movements. Oil prices have surged as shipping through the vital Strait of Hormuz essentially stalled since the war began.
Brent crude oil, the international standard, has gone from roughly $70 per barrel before the war in late February to more than $119 at times. Brent for June delivery fell 0.8% to $95.20 per barrel Friday.
A barrel of U.S. crude oil for May delivery dropped 1.3% to $96.57.
Negotiators from Iran and the U.S. are preparing for high-level talks on Saturday. The situation remains uncertain. Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim news agency claimed that talks wouldn’t happen unless Israel stopped its attacks in Lebanon.
The conflict is behind surging inflation in the U.S. in March. The government reported the biggest spike in inflation in four years as prices at the gas pump jumped. But, the inflation increase was just short of what economists expected.
Bond yields held mostly steady following the latest inflation update. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.31% from 4.29% late Thursday.
Inflation has been a lingering concern for economists. Prices on a range of consumer goods and services are already stubbornly high, in part from the impact of extensive global tariffs. Higher gas prices are immediately felt by drivers at the pump, but they could eventually raise prices on everything from food to airfare as companies pass along higher costs for shipping and fuel.
Analysts are warning that there might be a drawn out impact from the oil supply shock in the months ahead.
“While I’m glad to see the effects to be less than expected in March, the effects in April are now more likely to be worse,” Jamie Cox, managing partner for Harris Financial Group, wrote in a research note.
Consumer sentiment slumped 10.7% percent in April, according to a closely watched monthly survey from the University of Michigan. It also shows that consumers are growing more worried about inflation, with year-ahead expectations surging to 4.8% in April from 3.8% in March.
Inflation remains a major concern for the Federal Reserve, which has signaled more caution amid worries about inflation reheating. The rate of inflation remains above the central bank's 2% target. The threat of rising inflation will likely mean the central bank continues to hold interest rates steady. Several Fed officials have also said a rate hike may be needed if inflation doesn’t cool.
Lower interest rates help boost stocks and other investments by lowering borrowing costs. Interest rate cuts also risk worsening inflation.
Bobby Charmak works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
John Mauro works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Philip Finale works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top center, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top center left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, April 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top center, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top center left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, April 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
A screen showing Asia markets indexes at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, April 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Currency traders stretch near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), right, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, April 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
