Radio hosts taken off air after death of royals' nurse Jacintha Saldanha
Australian presenters are 'deeply shocked' by suspected suicide of nurse who took their call
Two Australian radio presenters who made a hoax call to the English hospital treating Prince William's pregnant wife, Catherine, were taken off the air yesterday after the nurse who took the call was found dead in a suspected suicide.
Jacintha Saldanha, 46, answered the phone when presenters from Sydney's 2Day FM called pretending to be Queen Elizabeth and William's father, Prince Charles, before passing it on to a colleague who divulged details of Kate's condition.
Saldanha was found dead on Friday, with police saying her death was not being treated as suspicious. Results of a post-mortem exam were due this weekend.
News of the death prompted a furious outpouring against the radio station and the two presenters involved, Mel Greig and Michael Christian, who are said to be "deeply shocked" by the turn of events.
"It's fair to say they are completely shattered," Rhys Holleran, chief executive of Southern Cross Austereo, which owns 2Day FM, said of the pair, who had only been presenting together for a couple of weeks.
Holleran said the station and the hosts had decided their show would not return "until further notice out of respect of what can only be described as a tragedy".
He also said in Melbourne the station did not believe it had broken the law with the prank call, the Australian Associated Press news agency reported.