“I don’t think they could ever have the same closeness that they had before,” Levin noted, mentioning that while the brothers’ current situation is unpleasant, their relationship may be able to heal a bit when Harry, 36, returns to the U.K. this summer for the unveiling of a memorial in honor of their late mother, Princess Diana.

“Prince Harry told me that William was the only person he could really trust and the only person he could say anything to because of their unique experience of losing a mother,” Levin, who interviewed Harry extensively for her 2018 book Harry: A Biography of a Prince, said. “They have a lot in common, although they’re very different personalities. But I think it’s gone too far.”

The siblings’ relationship has been rocky for quite some time. According to Carolyn Durand and Omid Scobie’s book Finding Freedom, the rift began in 2016 when the Duke of Cambridge, 38, expressed concern over how quickly his younger brother’s relationship with his now-wife Meghan Markle was moving.

Harry confirmed the brothers’ discord in an October 2019 ITV documentary, admitting that they were “certainly on different paths at the moment.”

In January, royal expert Katie Nicholl told Entertainment Tonight that the princes connected via video call in an attempt to repair their relationship. Still, things turned sour again following Harry and his 39-year-old wife’s tell-all CBS interview on March 7 in which the pair shared several damaging claims about the royal family.

Earlier on Tuesday, Gayle King said on CBS This Morning that Harry had been in contact with his older brother for the first time since the sit-down aired.

While Levin told Us that the conversation was private, she said William is upset over things that were said about his wife, Duchess Kate, in the interview. The elder prince is also hurt by the allegation that he is racist, although his name was not specifically mentioned by the couple.

“He’s out there with a dark cloud hanging over him, as is Prince Charles,” the journalist said. “I mean, if you make an accusation like that, which is really atrocious to say that somebody in the royal family is [racist], for them to be able to respond to it — they can’t really. Their positions won’t let them.” William, however, did tell a Sky News reporter during a Thursday, March 11, visit to a London school, “We’re very much not a racist family.”

In their primetime interview, Harry and Meghan revealed that racism played a large role in their 2020 decision to step away as working members of the royal family.

The former Suits actress, who is biracial, said that when she was pregnant with the pair’s 22-month-old son, Archie, there were “concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he’s born” within the royal family.

Buckingham Palace released a statement to Us on March 9 in the wake of the CBS interview, saying that the “concerning” claims “are taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately.”

This story originally appeared on: US Magazine - Author:Sophia Vilensky