Two Australian radio hosts prank-called the hospital where the Duchess of Cambridge was being treated this week and elicited information about her from one nurse after their call was answered by another.
The nurse who answered the call, 46-year-old Jacintha Saldanha, was found dead Friday, the New York Times reported. Her death was apparently a suicide.
The radio hosts, Mel Greig and Michael Christian, called King Edward VII's hospital Tuesday morning and posed as Prince Charles and Queen Elizabeth, the New York Times reported. After Saldanha answered the call, she directed them to another nurse who they tricked into revealing information about the Duchess of Cambridge, who is pregnant and was being treated for severe morning sickness.
According to the BBC, Saldanha, who is married and the mother of two, was not disciplined by the hospital and the royal family did not complain about the incident.
Rhys Holleran, chief executive of the company that owns the station that broadcast the show, said the event is "tragic," the BBC reported. But, he added, "I think that prank calls as a craft in radio had been going on for decades. They are done worldwide and no-one could reasonably have foreseen what happened."
According to the BBC, the station, 2Day FM, has suspended all advertisements until Monday and has taken Greig and Christian's show off the air until further notice.
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