There has been so much speculation in the years since Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, stepped down as working royals about whether Prince William and the Princess of Wales (formerly known as Kate Middleton) might be able to reconcile with the Duke of Sussex.

Royals fans remember how close the three used to be and how sad it has become to see the late Princess Diana’s only sons at odds. But it seems as more time goes by the chances of them healing their rift get slimmer and slimmer. Now, a royal expert is claiming that Harry and the Waleses doing so is all but hopeless and that’s because the duke’s attacks against his sister-in-law after she tried to heal things is unforgivable.

Commentator says Kate had hoped at one point that the brothers could have reconciled

Former BBC correspondent and royal commentator Jennie Bond said that the Princess of Wales thought she may have been able to heal things early on as we saw the day of Prince Philip’s funeral.

Bond told OK!: “When you come from a happy, united family — as Catherine does — it’s incredibly hard to understand how people can become estranged.

“I think she believed the rift could be fixed and, after Prince Philip’s funeral, we saw her talking with Harry and obviously encouraging William to do the same. But we now know that it didn’t work. In fact, William and Harry had a blazing row right after the funeral.”

But the princess trying to bring William and Harry together that day was before the release of Harry and Meghan’s Netflix docuseries and the duke’s memoir Spare, both in which Kate was not safe from the Sussexes’ line of fire.

“There comes a point when you just have to accept that happy families are not a game,” Bond explained. “Catherine has been hurt and insulted by things that Harry and Meghan have said, but she and William are a very strong team, and I suspect that, together, they’ve come to the conclusion that the rift with Harry cannot be fixed in the foreseeable future. They’ve closed their minds to that possibility and decided to get on with their lives.”

Kate Middleton, Prince William, and Prince Harry arrive on the Long Walk at Windsor Castle to view flowers and tributes to Queen Elizabeth II | Chris Jackson/Getty Images

Those thoughts are in line with what Prince William’s friends have shared

Bond’s feelings are actually in line with what sources close to the Waleses have said before, stressing that William and Kate aren’t focused on the Sussexes at all anymore. Given the challenging year the princess has had following her cancer diagnosis and treatment, moving forward her health and her children are her main priorities certainly not Harry and Meghan.

And one of William’s friends told the Daily Beast that the Prince and Princess of Wales have not spoken to and have no plans to speak to the duke anytime soon, saying: “They have come to terms with the estrangement from Harry and are content to let sleeping dogs lie.”