A year to the day after two Australian DJs placed a prank call to a London hospital where Kate Middleton was being treated for acute morning sickness with tragic results when the nurse who connected the call later committed suicide, one of the DJs, Mel Greig, has resigned.
Greig launched a claim against Southern Cross Austereo in July, claiming it failed to maintain a safe workplace.An SCA statement today said the dispute had been "amicably resolved".
Greig and her co-presenter Michael Christian made a prank call to the King Edward VII hospital in December last year and tricked staff into putting their call through to a ward where the Duchess of Cambridge was receiving treatment for severe morning sickness. The two had pretended to be the Queen and Prince Charles.
Nurse Jacintha Saldanha, who put the call through, took her own life a short time after the prank was broadcast.
In a statement on Wednesday evening, Southern Cross Austereo said it and Greig had “amicably resolved all aspects of their dispute”.
Greig wanted it “made clear” that she was not responsible for the decision to broadcast the call and that before the broadcast she had made suggestions for changes.
SCA also clarified that the company had “at all times taken complete responsibility for the hoax call and the company maintains its view that the recording and broadcast of the call was not unlawful”.
Greig will still give a statement to the UK coroner’s inquest into Saldanha’s death. SCA added it would also be co-operating with the inquiry.
“Southern Cross Austereo greatly regrets the unforeseeable tragic aftermath of the call and the company and all of its people remain deeply saddened by the death of Jacintha Saldanha,” said the statement.
