Former 2Day FM radio presenter Mel Greig, who famously staged a prank call with co-host Michael Christian to a London hospital in 2012, posing as the Queen to gain information on the condition of the then-pregnant Duchess of Cambridge‘s condition, has penned a brave recount of the months following the incident’s backlash, after nurse Jacintha Saldanha took her life days after receiving the prank call.
Jacintha Saldanha named Mel Greig and Michael Christian in her suicide note, after global news coverage swelled over the presenters’ ability to glean information on Kate Middleton despite their self-described “woefully bad” guises.
In a piece for News Corp magazine Sunday Style today, Greig reveals the media backlash that engulfed the prank following Saldanha’s suicide, recounting her severe depression and regret after learning of the prank’s tragic repercussions.
When I received the news of Jacintha’s suicide, the first question I asked was, “Was she a mother?” The answer was yes; she was 46, married with two teenage children. Waves of emotion overwhelmed me – shock, shame, disgust at myself and utter devastation that this woman had taken her own life.”
Greig recounts the flurry of death threats, security lockdown and media frenzy that followed, recounting her reaction to the news: “I felt as if I was hovering over my body, my soul fractured. My mind couldn’t comprehend, or even begin to accept, what had happened. All I could do was cry.”
Mel Greig also tells of her own contemplation of suicide, a stalker’s hate campaign against her, precautionary life insurance arrangements before heading to London to attend the inquest into Saldanha’s death, and the difference between Michael Christian’s reaction to the news, and hers.
“For about four months, I went completely numb; I couldn’t feel any emotion at all. I felt dead inside.”
While recounting her struggles with finding a job and entering public life, Greig ends on a note of closure, writing, “I know I’m not a bad person. I’m a good person, who became involved in a terrible situation.”
You can read Mel Greig’s piece in full over here.
If you need support or immediate assistance, call Lifeline on 13 11 14. For further information about depression, contact beyondblue on 1300 22 4636, headspace or Sane Australia or talk to your GP, local health professional or someone you trust.
