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Royal reporter breaks Prince Harry and Meghan news while on holiday at home in Wellington

The Sun’s Dan Wootton had been working on the story for two weeks, when he decided it couldn’t wait any longer.

The journalist who broke the story of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle planning to change their royal duties and split their time between the UK and Canada was on holiday at home in New Zealand when he decided the news could not wait.

The Sun executive editor Dan Wootton has lived in the UK for 16 years but grew up in Lower Hutt, going to school at Naenae Intermediate and Naenae College.

"There is a civil war within the royal family at the moment, a lot of people have not wanted to believe that for a long time but this story today has blown it wide open," Wootton told 1 NEWS.

Wootton said he's been working on the story for two weeks while holidaying with his parents.

"Obviously it's not the ideal time to be working on a major royal story when you're having to deal with a lot of people in the UK, speaking to a lot of people at the various different palaces but for me this had got to the point where I couldn't risk sitting on the story any longer so I decided, 'I'm going to have to break it from Wellington' and I did so."

"Very often you're putting your neck out on the line when you break a story like this – we had no official statement from any of the palaces when I chose to break the story and when The Sun put the story on the front page – so what was most pleasing is the fact that they were prepared to go on the record and confirm it within just a day," he said.

Wootton said he's heard the Queen was deeply upset about the news, which she wasn't aware of, and Prince Charles and Prince William also didn't know about it and are "incandescent with rage".

Harry and Meghan will now split their time between Britain and Canada.

He said he thinks there's many aspects of the change that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle haven't considered yet.

"The British public are not just going to accept their £2 million renovations being paid for, their security being paid for out of the public purse and then the couple picking and choosing as and when they can be in the UK and when they go off to Hollywood or Canada to make a whole lot of money, so there's a lot that hasn't been thought through.

"I think the haste with which this statement came out is what has really upset many people within the royal family because you know, the family, they like to take time, they like to go through processes…"

Wootton said the "incredibly-telling" statement from Buckingham Palace, which said the issues at hand were complicated, was the closest to a public "ticking down" from the Queen to a member of her family that will ever be seen.

"It was very clear that she was expressing huge disdain for what Harry and Meghan had decided to do."

Mr Wootton said he thinks the couple want to be in a position to make money outside of the royal family through commercial deals.

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