A charity that Prince Harry co-founded in Africa is suing him for defamation after he stepped down as a patron last year.

Harry co-founded Sentebale with Prince Seeiso of Lesotho in 2006 to help youths with HIV in southern Africa. Last month, the charity filed suit in London’s High Court, with Harry as a defendant and another former trustee, Mark Dyer, according to court records cited by the AP.

Harry and his friend, Dyer, are being sued for either libel or slander. “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 two “categorically reject these offensive and damaging claims.”

Sentebale, which means “forget me not” in the language of Lesotho, was co-founded by Harry nearly two decades ago in honor of his mother, Princess Diana, who fought for an end to HIV and AIDS-related stigma throughout her life. Seeiso was the charity’s co-founder.

In 2023, there was a dispute over how the charity was being managed. Harry and Seeiso left Sentebale in March 2025 along with a group of trustees following a boardroom disagreement with the charity’s chair, Sophie Chandauka.

Reports said arguments over financial problems and fundraising made the situation worse for the charity.

Chandauka subsequently accused Harry of being behind a campaign of bullying and harassment to try to make her leave.

The Charity Commission for England and Wales, which investigated issues at the charity, condemned all sides for allowing the dispute to become public in a way that damaged the organization’s reputation. The watchdog also said it found no evidence of widespread bullying or misogyny at the charity, the AP reported.

“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 found fault with the commission’s report while Chandauka embraced it.