There’s a particular flavor of chaos that only reveals itself on a Friday afternoon—we even introduced a second weekly episode of Off With Their Headlines last year to contend with it. My friends, the Friday News Dump is a helluva thing, and even in the royal sphere, this week’s take on the age-old media tradition did not disappoint.
If you’re unfamiliar, the term applies to stories broken late in the weekly news cycle (say, Friday afternoon at 4:55 pm), almost as if engineered to escape serious scrutiny. Although sometimes, the explanation is less sinister: someone just really needed to clear their to-do list before the weekend.
Speaking of OWTH, our actual Friday News Dump episode from today also includes discussions of Prince Edward’s Easter visit with his “pervy older brother,” the Daily Mail+ going after Beatrice’s husband, a truly bizarre article about Meghan’s “As Ever” business ahead of her and Prince Harry’s AU tour, and so much more.
You can listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Acast, or wherever you pod.
On the broader royal front, from a defamation lawsuit filed against a duke to a crown princess appearing with supplemental oxygen at a public reception, the week ended with more questions than it started with. Pull up a chair.
Prince Harry is facing a defamation lawsuit brought by Sentebale’s board of directors. The African charity was co-founded by Harry and Prince Seeiso of Lesotho in 2006 (in memory of the charitable work done by each of their deceased mothers) and supports young people with HIV/AIDS in Lesotho and Botswana. Sentebale means “forget-me-not” in Sesotho.
Prince Seeiso of Lesotho and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, at a welcome event at Sentebale’s Mamohato Children’s Centre in Maseru, Lesotho, on Oct. 1st, 2024.
Filed at the High Court in London, the libel claim follows Harry’s March 2025 resignation as Sentebale’s patron and an ensuing public dispute regarding governance. In April 2025, both princes and a group of trustees stepped down, saying 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.
Chandauka, in turn, accused Harry of fostering a “victim narrative” and previously reported him and trustees to the UK’s Charity Commission for issues related to management, bullying, and harassment—though the investigation uncovered no evidence of such. Funny, I didn’t see that widely reported in the British media when the findings were announced last August!
The CEO of the Charity Commission, David Holdsworth, said at the time: “Sentebale’s problems played out in the public eye, enabling a damaging dispute to harm the charity’s reputation.” The report did criticize all parties for allowing an internal dispute to become so public, and identified disagreements (originating in 2023) over the organization’s future and a new fundraising strategy in the United States as the origin of the conflict.
Sentebale said that it welcomed the regulator’s findings. “We are emerging not just grateful to have survived, but stronger: more focused, better governed, boldly ambitious and with our dignity intact,” Chandauka proclaimed after the Commission’s report was made public. She called the issues at the center of the investigation just “a glimpse of the unacceptable behaviors displayed in private.”
Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, and Dr. Sophie Chandauka on April 11, 2024, in Miami Beach, Florida.
Harry’s spokesman, meanwhile, criticized the commission’s decision, saying it “falls troublingly short in many regards, primarily the fact that the consequences of the current chair’s actions will not be borne by her — but by the children who rely on Sentebale’s support.”
Following Chandauka’s own public crusade to accuse Sentebale’s trustees of bullying, misogyny, and racism, Sentebale now says it is seeking the court’s “intervention, protection, and restitution” following an “adverse media campaign.” The filing alleges that Harry’s response has “caused operational disruption and reputational harm to the charity, its leadership, and its strategic partners.”
According to a record made public on Friday, Sentebale lodged their defamation claim last month at the High Court against Harry and one of his close friends, Mark Dyer, who was also a trustee of the charity.
Harry has not yet responded to the suit or its claims publicly, but previously said the fallout with Sentebale’s board was “heartbreaking” and that “blatant lies hurt those who have invested decades” in supporting the children of Southern Africa.
In Norway today, Crown Prince Haakon, Crown Princess Mette-Marit, and their children Princess Ingrid Alexandra and Prince Sverre Magnus welcomed the Norwegian athletes who participated in the Milan-Cortina 2026 Paralympic Games for an official reception.
Mette-Marit appeared to be receiving supplemental oxygen through a nasal cannula, likely due to her pulmonary fibrosis. I also couldn’t help but notice that the breathing apparatus was carried by a palace aide… despite its portable case and shoulder strap. Or is that a leash meant to keep Mette-Marit from scurrying off to another pervy billionaire’s Palm Beach house?
This appearance followed months of intense scrutiny regarding Mette-Marit’s past links to Jeffrey Epstein, as well as a 30-minute interview with Norwegian media to discuss the communications revealed in documents released in January by the U.S. Department of Justice. Read my analysis of that interview here:
The Norwegian Heart, Lung, and Stroke Association (LHL) praised Mette-Marit’s public appearance, saying”: “Crown Princess Mette-Marit is showing important and courageous leadership when she is now open about the need for oxygen therapy… Using breathing assistance is not a sign of weakness, but of strength and the will to live an active life despite illness.”