Royal phone hoax DJ Mel Greig today spoke of her pain at the suicide of nurse Jacintha Saldanha, saying: “I won’t ever fully forgive myself” and claiming she became a recluse and lost a year of her life.
Greig said she blamed herself for the death of the nurse, who put the prank call through to the Duchess of Cambridge’s ward at Edward VII hospital in Marylebone during her pregnancy in 2012.
The DJ said she would always have the knowledge Mrs Saldanha referred to her in a suicide note. “Nothing will change the fact Jacintha thought of me before she took her own life,” she told Woman’s Day magazine in Australia.
Miss Greig, 32,said she became a recluse, was unable to leave her house or even her bed, and gained 14kg as a side-effect of anti-depressants.“There’s a good 12 months there that I don’t remember,” she added, saying she had not wanted to be touched by anyone, including fiancé Steven Pollock.
She travelled to London last month to apologise to Mrs Saldanha’s husband and children at the inquest: “We had eye contact the whole time, which was a very surreal moment … to be looking them in the eye and to say sorry. They could see that it was genuine.
“I won’t ever fully forgive myself but I’ve found a way to accept it. Now it’s time to move forward. It’s time for everyone to move on.”
Mrs Saldanha, of Bristol, was found hanged on December 7, 2012, days after putting through the call by Greig and fellow DJ Michael Christian, who pretended to be the Queen and Prince Charles. Greig left Sydney’s 2Day FM last year. She will speak at the UK Radio festival in London this week.
