I'm really hoping this isn't what it appears to be. It was only a couple of days ago that news broke about two Australian radio pranksters who managed to call up Kate Middleton's hospital room and get her nurse to divulge information about her pregnancy sickness. The nurse told the two radio DJs, who were posing as Prince Charles and the Queen (and not doing a very good job of it), about how Kate seemed to be on the mend, and how Prince William had visited her the night before.
The call caused outrage that the two would invade the Duchess's privacy like that. And now here comes very strange, very horrible news: The receptionist who was duped into thinking she was putting the Queen through to Kate's room has been found dead outside the hospital.
No one seems to know yet exactly what happened or what she died from, but at least one source is reportedly telling the Daily Mail that she committed suicide.
The woman's body was reportedly found only yards from King Edward VII hospital, where she worked and took the unfortunate phone call. Could she have killed herself out of guilt for falling for this prank?
It all started when a call came through early in the morning on Tuesday to the hospital. When the receptionist answered, Mel Greig, one of the radio hosts, put on her best Queen accent (which was laughably bad) and said, "Oh, hello there. Could I please speak to Kate please, my granddaughter?"
The receptionist bought this hook, line, and sinker for some reason and said, "Oh yes, just hold on ma'am," and put her through to the nurse's station in Kate's room. Apparently having no reason to believe that the call wouldn't be legitimate since it was put through to the room, the nurse began blabbing.
I can only imagine that the receptionist and the nurse were spoken to by hospital officials. No word on whether they were being punished in any way. But this does make you wonder: Did the fallout from the prank call somehow cause this to happen? If the receptionist did commit suicide, was it because of her guilt or shame over the call? Or because her job was in jeopardy? Or maybe it was just the attention and stress due to the call?
This does make you wonder about unintended consequences of pranks. I'm sure the DJs never dreamed in a million years they would actually get through to Kate or her nurse -- you can hear the disbelief in their voices on the radio program. I really don't blame them for this, but sometimes things have consequences that you couldn't have foreseen, and perhaps they should have thought a little more about the employees at the hospital and what trouble might be caused for them with a prank like this.
Do you think the call is to blame for the receptionist's death?
Image via Getty
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Comments 26
I totally agree that it is stupid that people are obsessed with royalty. Why do Americans care about some outdated government system and these people?
Whoever made this nurse feel pressured and bad enough about herself for this mistake is to blame... Not exactly the djs.
Although, they did cross the line... They called the hospital for medical information on a private individual... It was an invasion of privacy.
I coulnd't believe this when I read it. This poor woman, and now her children. No doubt the Crown 'had a word' with her, since she was Kate's private nurse; the hospital doesn't employ her. There is always death surrounding royals. I hope William and Kate take their handlers to task, and make them pay a large settlement for the nurse's children's care, and issue an apology. No body kills themself for no reason.
Kaerae, you're so right.
The two "radio hosts" were still bragging about their prank on Twitter as of this morning. No doubt their despicable actions let to the nurse's death.
**Ok, the hospital employed her, but the Crown either runs or owns it. They said something to her to cause her to feel so bad for this "breach" of information.
I always feel bad for the employees in situations like this. I can't imagine that they both didn't get a strong reprimand (if not fired) for the incident, which is just so sad. Everyone makes mistakes and honestly it sounds like the hospital needed to have stonger security measures in place to prevent this sort of thing (I mean, how hard would it have been to setup a code word - there aren't that many people who would be legitimately calling the prince and dutchess).
I think that the combination of insane coverage of the story, the extreme professional and personal embarrassment and the pressure of suddenly being in the middle of a media storm probably had a lot to do with her suicide (if it was a suicide.) I know that as US Citizens it's hard to imagine taking royalty to seriously (bc her they really are just celebs) but for GB and specifically the English, they represent centuries of cultural heritage. They are essentially their national identity and they arn't a country in which freedom of speech has allowed things like this in the past.