Prank DJ ‘should have tried harder’

One of the Australian DJs who made a prank call to the hospital where Britain’s Duchess of Cambridge was being treated during her pregnancy has admitted she "should have tried harder" to stop the call going to air.

Mel Greig revealed she and her family had received death threats after the hoax was linked to the death of nurse Jacintha Saldanha, and said she felt she had been living a “stranger’s life” since the controversy.

Speaking to the Sunday Night programme on Australia’s Channel 7 network, she said: “When this first happened, I absolutely blamed myself, 100%.

“I felt like I’d failed as a human being, to make someone feel that way, enough to take their own life.

“I’m slowly learning that it’s not all my fault, but it’s going to take me time to get to that point. I should have tried harder not to let that prank call air.”

Greig and 2Day FM co-host Michael Christian made a prank call to London’s King Edward VII Hospital in December 2012 where Kate Middleton was being treated for severe morning sickness. The presenters — pretending to be Queen Elizabeth and the Prince of Wales — were put through to her ward by Bristol mother-of-two Saldanha, who was found hanged three days after the hoax was widely publicised in the media.