10:44 am - 12/10/2012

Kate hoax call DJs tearfully apologize; Kate still ill

They expected a hang-up and a few laughs. Instead, the Australian DJs behind a hoax phone call to the U.K. hospital where the pregnant Duchess of Cambridge was treated were in tears Monday as they described how their joke ended up going too far.

The phone call — in which they impersonated Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles — went through, and their station broadcast and even trumpeted the confidential information received. Whatever pride there had been over the hoax was obliterated in a storm of worldwide public outrage after Friday's death, still unexplained, of the first nurse they talked to.

"There's not a minute that goes by that we don't think about her family and what they must be going through," 2DayFM radio host Mel Greig told Australia's A Current Affair, her voice shaking. "And the thought that we may have played a part in that is gut-wrenching."

She and co-host Michael Christian spoke publicly about the prank for the first time in the televised interview. A separate interview on rival show Today Tonight also aired Monday.

More under the cut...Collapse )

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cookinguptales 10th-Dec-2012 04:14 pm (UTC)
ngl, that headline is so bizarre to me. The first part is about a woman who killed herself and the second part is about...The Hobbit?

Like, I see how they sort of tied it together in the article, but...
devochkazhenya 10th-Dec-2012 04:23 pm (UTC)
i know right its so odd
jess_sayin 10th-Dec-2012 04:24 pm (UTC)
maybe they were trying to differentiate this post from the one a little while ago...?
starswept 10th-Dec-2012 04:46 pm (UTC)
Yeah, sorry. I meant it to convey the fact that Kate is apparently quite ill again, so I should have just said that, so that's what I've changed it to.
for_serious13 10th-Dec-2012 04:15 pm (UTC)
I feel like they should have come out with this the day they found out she had died. It's almost a week later
fionaapple 10th-Dec-2012 04:22 pm (UTC)
Idk tbh I'm not defending them but trauma does affect people differently and at different rates. Maybe they weren't comfortable enough to talk about it yet because it's pretty obvious they realize the severity of the situation.
smilofax 10th-Dec-2012 04:23 pm (UTC)
A week? It's been like 3 days. She died on Friday night (Saturday morning in Australia)
for_serious13 10th-Dec-2012 04:47 pm (UTC)
I thought she died on wed night? I remember seeing the news at work on Thursday she the nurse had died?
francesbcobain 10th-Dec-2012 04:16 pm (UTC)
i said this in the other post, but i honestly can't imagine how it feels to know you played a role in someone's suicide. :(
hollis1975 10th-Dec-2012 04:20 pm (UTC)
and i am not going to feel sorry for people ( the DJs) who wouldnt even be offering an apology if people werent upset.
hammersxstrings 10th-Dec-2012 04:36 pm (UTC)
sandstorm 10th-Dec-2012 05:21 pm (UTC)
lesrouges 10th-Dec-2012 08:52 pm (UTC)
swizzelstick 11th-Dec-2012 08:38 am (UTC)
oh so you have been to that other parallel universe where people arent mad at them? I'm sure they are only feeling guilty and hate themselves because people are mad at them and not because of the outcome of the prank. sure.
fwee_prower 10th-Dec-2012 04:22 pm (UTC)
wait so the the thing wasn't even going to be aired but the studio execs made it happen?

shouldn't they get the blame too?
rctshack 10th-Dec-2012 05:21 pm (UTC)
Thank you. This is the Producers fault, not the DJ's... this is like blaming Ryan Seacrest for American Idol making him do something wrong... it's not Ryan calling the shots, it's someone above them telling them it's their job. And this radio station is throwing these DJ's out to the wolves and not taking responsibility themselves.
fwee_prower 10th-Dec-2012 07:39 pm (UTC)
its more of the producers part cuz it really wasn't going to air AT ALL. but then the execs of the company told them to air it.
shannenb 10th-Dec-2012 04:22 pm (UTC)
"The joke 100 per cent was on us," he said. "The idea was never, 'Let's call up and get through to Kate,' or 'Let's speak to a nurse.' The joke was our accents are horrible, they don't sound anything like who they're intended to be."

"The entertainment value was in us," Greig added. "It was meant to be in our silly accents. That's where it was meant to end."

Ehh, I don't know about that. If that was the case, they wouldn't have called the hospital and spoken to actual people outside the show.

For example, my local station did something similar (making fun of this prank call situation--before someone died over it obviously) where they said they had gotten the number of the hospital from one of their London radio contacts that they'd met while covering the Olympics. They called it, but it actually just rang into the studio of the woman who reads the news, and she pretended to be one nurse, then transferred it over to the female producer, who pretended to be Kate herself. In that case, the joke was the girls' terrible English impressions and accents, topped off with the producer as Kate reading a funny list of things Kate planned to do that day.

If the joke was meant to be the DJ's terrible accents, etc, it would have been a situation where they called people they had hired to pretend to be working at the hospital.
fraubluecher 11th-Dec-2012 08:08 am (UTC)
Idk Sometimes the joke can be on the ridiculous behaviour of the comic but it's made more funny by a "straight man" witnessing it. Which is why you need a "straight man" in fictional comedy too. The joke works much better when someone is giving the ridiculous person the side eye.

No excuse to prank call a hospital or air it after they came through, but that argument I buy.
devochkazhenya 10th-Dec-2012 04:22 pm (UTC)
I know this is a bit cold hearted but I don't really have a lot of sympathy for them right now
hahahey 10th-Dec-2012 04:22 pm (UTC)
fuck that, even if they didn't know they'd be put through it wasn't live. They chose to air it afterwards, they deserve all the backlash and hate that comes with the stupid prank.
ghost_busting 10th-Dec-2012 04:23 pm (UTC)
Whatever, I have little sympathy for them. Prank calling a hospital (or any other emergency service) is pathetic and the kind of thing you get told not to do in junior school.

And with the amount of stress nurses are under at the moment, this was probably the last thing anyone working on that ward needed.
icallitwormlog 10th-Dec-2012 04:23 pm (UTC)
I posted this earlier in a reply, but I've seen other comments saying that same thing--that she must have had a bigger, underlying problem. I don't know why so many people are eager to believe this. Sometimes people are totally fine, and then a crisis happens and they lose it. A small percentage of suicides are totally impulsive, from people who have no depression or anything at all.

I mean have any of you had lives turned upside down by a serious loss, trauma, etc.? One day you can be fine and the next you're entertaining thoughts of suicide. Usually in these cases with time a person recovers, but not if they actually kill themselves.

I don't know, I just sort of find it a little insensitive that so many people are like, "she must have had other problems." It sort of undermines the pain and humiliation that she was experiencing.
hollis1975 10th-Dec-2012 04:28 pm (UTC)
exactly. and i read that her family said she would have felt intense shame over this happening.what was she supposed to do? laugh her ass off for being made a fool of in front of the whole world? poor woman. and even IF she did have personal underlying issues that NO WAY detracts from the fact that those DJs are asshats and only assholes prank call places like that.
buncha_cruncha 10th-Dec-2012 04:32 pm (UTC)
This exactly.
ghost_busting 10th-Dec-2012 04:32 pm (UTC)
I get what you're saying. Most of the time I'm "fine" (I have some anxiety but it's not crippling), but there have been a couple of situations (one involving someone spreading a rumour about me that was pretty humiliating) that have made me lose it and consider suicide.
deceitful 10th-Dec-2012 04:40 pm (UTC)
Right? A friend of mine was being very flippant "oh she must have had other issues" as if humiliation (public, co-workers, friends, family) isn't a big enough stresser. She probably felt cornered and scared.
na_utical 10th-Dec-2012 04:43 pm (UTC)
69love_songs 10th-Dec-2012 04:59 pm (UTC)
Perfect comment.
crystalzelda 10th-Dec-2012 05:02 pm (UTC)

You don't know how big crises can shake someone up and cause them to go into a tailspin they can't pull out of.
richinlaughter 10th-Dec-2012 05:03 pm (UTC)
soul_amazinn 10th-Dec-2012 05:04 pm (UTC)

I can't believe people are quick to say "She must have been depressed and this just pushed her over the edge." "People don't kill themselves over prank calls. She must have had a mental illness."

People reacted to situations differently.
icallitwormlog 10th-Dec-2012 09:23 pm (UTC)
"People react to situations differently." Exactly. lol, look at the comment a few down. Monica Lewinsky didn't kill herself, so...? Lots of people experience the things that drive others to suicide and don't kill themselves because humans are different and experience things differently? It's not that complicated.
curse_of_avalon 10th-Dec-2012 06:20 pm (UTC)
I don't get those ppl either. Its like the kid that's bullied and then one day its just once too many.

It doesn't matter if the kid was already upset beforehand. If it was you that made them snap then you are part of it and the biggest maybe.
thishollywood 10th-Dec-2012 07:12 pm (UTC)
b/c ppl have been suddenly put "in the spotlight" for much worse things and they didnt kill themselves. ex: monica lewinsky
lesrouges 10th-Dec-2012 08:53 pm (UTC)
xliquidskiesx 10th-Dec-2012 09:02 pm (UTC)
thank you!
all these ontd psychologists in these posts....
_folieadeux 10th-Dec-2012 09:03 pm (UTC)
Yep agree 100%
sdpt 10th-Dec-2012 04:26 pm (UTC)
Kate hoax call DJs tearfully apologize; Kate will probably be unable to attend Hobbit premiere

uh what?
mingemonster 10th-Dec-2012 04:27 pm (UTC)
Everyone who says this couldn't possibly have caused her suicide should have a look at https://www.google.se/search?q=public+humiliation+suicide&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:sv-SE:official&client=firefox-a&channel=fflb
duckyduck92 10th-Dec-2012 04:29 pm (UTC)
With the anxiety problems I have, and how awful I feel when I make the dumbest mistakes, I understand how the pressure of all of this pushed this nurse to commit suicide. I don't know how I would handle one of my mistakes being shown around the world constantly for everyone to laugh at. I feel so bad for her and her family.
buncha_cruncha 10th-Dec-2012 04:36 pm (UTC)
Why should she expect it? This woman was neither a celeb nor a royal, and she'd probably never in her life dealt with the media like this. Maybe William and Kate might expect it, but not this random woman.
vehiclesshockme 10th-Dec-2012 04:48 pm (UTC)
Just because people have prank called a hospital in the past doesn't make it any less tacky and wrong.
naveedchick 10th-Dec-2012 04:37 pm (UTC)
Good thing that they are suspended now
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