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THE TWO RADIO DJs behind the viral prank call to the London hospital where Kate Middleton was receiving treatment last week have apologised to the family of a nurse who died by apparent suicide following the incident.
Mel Greig and Michael Christian, who were taken off the air in the aftermath of the hoax call, gave an emotional interview to the Nine Network’s A Current Affair yesterday.
Breaking down in tears, Christian said they were both “shattered, gutted and heartbroken” about the nurse’s death.
“Our deepest sympathies are with the family and friends, and all those affected. Mel and myself are incredibly sorry for the situation and what’s happened. We hope they are doing OK and get the love and support they need right now.”
“There’s not a minute that goes by that we don’t think of her family and what they must be going through,” added Greig. “The thought that we may have played a part in that is gut-wrenching.”
Both presenters said that nobody could have foreseen or predicted the outcome of the show’s decision to make the call.
“The phone call itself…there was no malice on our behalf,” said Christian. “It wasn’t to agitate, or to offend or to dig at all. It was…the joke was our accent. We just assumed that the same phone call was made 100 times that morning.”
Asked whether the call should have been aired, the pair distanced themselves from the decision-making process, stating it was taken out of their hands.
“We did everything we normally do when we make those prank calls,” explained Greig. “We didn’t have that discussion. We just handed it to them and they had the discussion. I don’t know the process. There’s a whole team of people who work with us.”
“People far above us [make those decisions],” continued Christian. “We’re not privy to what happens. This call was no different to anything else. It’s the same process. I’m not aware of the filters. It’s passed on and we’re told yay or nay.”
Greig told A Current Affair that she does not want to “even think about going back on air”. Christian added that they were still trying to get their heads around the situation and it was “too early to tell” what would happen.
The call, which heard Greig and Christian posing as Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles, sparked outrage across the world after the 46-year-old nurse and mother-of-two was found dead. She had taken the initial call and, as there was no receptionist on duty in the early morning, she put them through to a colleague who divulged details of the Duchess’s condition.
The broadcasting company, which owns 2Day FM, has now suspended all prank calls across its networks. However, chief executive Rhys Holleran has said he was satisfied that the appropriate checks were conducted before the pre-recorded segment was broadcast. The stunt was also vetted by lawyers.
In a statement to the Australian stock exchange, Southern Cross Austereo confirmed it was also suspending advertising across 2Day FM and Greig and Christian’s Hot 30 show.
According to the company, “several attempts were made by the production team to discuss the segment with the hospital, but with no success”.
Holleran said a “detailed and rigorous review” of its policies and procedures will now be undertaken.
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A quarter of all births to foreign mothers……
Thanks Fianna Fail for the ;
-unecessary cultural dilution,
-unecessary pressure on resources (like language teachers),
-and unecessary pressure on the social welfare system
Are you serious?? Cultural dilution!!! Are foreign people ruining your version of the Aryan race!! Get a grip Früher!!
” There are currently enough children born in Ireland to ensure the “long-term replacement” of the country’s population.”
Bet you won’t be complaining when those children of foreign mothers are paying taxes to cover your social welfare costs when your retired!
Another Irish Nazi who won’t show his face only his discriminatory ideas!
m
the man is correct people who paid tax all their life cannot get social wselfare when circumstances go bad for them and the people who paid nothing get all, the indigenous people are the one,s bee discriminated against here now all you do gooders let me here your insults i,ll not
be afraid to show my face
Barry, children born here tend to grow up well immersed in Irish culture and competent in English. The language teachers are more usually needed for those born outside the country.
I agree with you barry r having had 2 kids in the last few years i see a big change in these hospitals since having my son a few years before that.from trying to get an appointment,which on one of my kids i would have had to wait till i was nearly 7 months gone,so had to go else where,to being asked quistions when filling out forms like are you white irish and what etnic group are you apart of.when you went for your visit you where lucky to get a seat as men wouldnt get up to let you sit down and so a nurse had to waste her time telling them to stand and yes most where non irish.you had the language situation and que skipping.when i had my last child me and another woman where the only 2 irish woman in the labour ward and yes all non irish got to see the socail worker for free this and free that.listen lads unless you have been through it you really dont know what your talking about.poor mid wives and nurses rushed off their feet and some of the non irish where so demanding,they spoke to staff as if they where dirt,throwing dirty nappies on the floor and spitting and excepting them to clean up after them.now in these hospitals you can only have 1 visiter per person because non irish where abusing the visiting hours.one man would come up in the morning and leave his other kids there all day.they would run around screaming and jumping on the beds while their mother talked on the phone or went missing.the nurses where meant to look after them too.it was a night mare and heres one that wont be going back
Seriously you cant tarnish everyone with the same brush and say that all non-irish people are getting social welfare for free. And I don’t need to have a child to understand the racist tone in some of these comments.
That is one of the most racist statements I have read in a long time. I can just imagine you resisting the urge to use the words ni***r or hun while writing that. Some of the nicest people I know are foreign nationals and the most obnoxious people I have ever had to deal with, professionally or personally, have always been Irish.
I hope your children manage to grow up not to develop the same sickening brand of racism as yourself.
Hmmm well I gave birth to my twins 2 years ago…on trains, on buses, in the hospital waiting room it was more often than not a non national who who give up his seat…i find your attitude absolutely appauling to be honest…I never once seen a person spit on the floor or throw diapers on the floor.
My partner is a non national and I couldnt ask for a better father for my kids ….maybe you’ll stop tarring everyone with the same brush!!!!!
I hope Australians have a different opinion on the Irish living there!
Just because you haven’t seen these incidents doesn’t mean they don’t happen. Mary is referring to her own personal experiences so calling her racist is ridiculous and small minded. Get a grip. The most valid point is that you can’t tar everyone with the same brush but that’s exactly what both sides have done here; ALL foreigners are dirty, rude, queue skippers etc or NO foreigners are like this and I married one! Hypocrisy!!
I bet they speak better English than you do. And I’m pretty sure our own native drunks fucking up a&e rooms is probably the biggest strain on the system.
Mary, going by your theories, the only nice people on the planet are the 4 million odd “ethnic Irish” who live here. Every other person – more than 99.9% of humanity – is discourteous, dirty and aggressive.
ARE YOU FOR REAL??
Well said David. This is how myopic these people are. In every article no matter what the subject, they find an excuse to spout their xenophobia.
this is what i have wittnessed,none of this is hearsay,its what i have seen with my own two eyes
Again, you cannot tarnish everyone with the same brush. I came to Ireland as a foreigner with very poor English, but I educated myself on your language and your culture and I have worked my arse off every day to make a good life for myself here. By the looks of it I have worked harder at learning English than you have – your grammar sucks!
I then gave birth to my two sons here in Ireland and I am raising them here as Irish citizens, respecting Irish culture and language.
So just because I am a foreigner does not mean that I treat the nursing staff badly or put myself in front of Irish mothers in the queue. I work just as hard as you to pay my taxes, so I am just as entitled to give birth to my children in an Irish hospital as you are.
While I believe that you have had bad experience with certain “foreigners”, we are not all the same.
I don’t treat every Irish person I come across like the one that burgled my house last month, so why would you speak of every foreigner in Ireland as if they are the same?
I do think we have enough immigration for the next 50 + or so years.
If we do continue to have mass immigration it will unfortunately breed hate against migrants.
In saying that the overwhelming majority of immigrants we have in Ireland are fantastic people.
I find this extremely racist.. There are many Irish people who behave a lot worse than those of different ethnicity.. Yes I understand it seems frustrating when the country is so tight with funds at the minute that these people get the same social help as most of us white Irish but that’s because they are clued in.. they know what they are entitled to. If all Irish people knew what they were entitled to there would be a lot less of this nit picking..
I have heard about the rudeness towards nurses and midwives from certain people of different ethnicity but to me personally I think its because people tend to remember these things just because it was a foreign person..
Gents,
it would be more helpful for me if you addressed your response to my message, rather than to me personally.
Barry, you made the comment. So take ownership of it. What you say speaks for your attitudes. I’m not saying you are a bad bloke, but I find this scapegoating of foreign born people disingenuous and quite honestly dangerous. The last thing this country needs is more social division.
That’s welfare payments for you!
i have friends of all colours and races,mainly woman and the scarey thing is they agree with me,be they black ,white,yellow they say the same
That is a typical racist statement:
“I have friends of all colours, and they all hate…”
“I’m not a racist, but…”
Just face it, you are a racist. You have clearly shown this above. The worst racists of all are the ones that don’t realise it.
I think people like Mary should first of all remember that if there’s one nation that’s scattered around the world it’s the Irish. They had to emigrate and be second class citizens in some countries and you should never forget that. Remember the signs in the UK “no Irish, no blacks”? Thinking like you and some others do will increase the possibility of that happening here. What happened to the thousand welcomes?
Another point I find alarming is that over a quarter of birds are by caesarean section. Why is this? I believe it’s because the hospitals simply don’t have enough staff, money and time to give women the time to deliver their children.
Jeroen i had my twins by emergency section…my consultant was determined to make me give birth naturally where all the signs eg my son being posterior fontelle and my daughter being breech pointed to me having to get a section…after being in the labour ward for 12 hours and labouring for 4 i was brought in and they tried to vaccuum my son out….i demanded a section!!!! my daughter was taken from my stomach flat (no heartbeat, not breathing) had to be resuscitated…in some cases they dont give a section until its too late…im glad i demanded the section bcos i dont think id have my daughter now if i hadnt insisted!!!
Most people at work can’t afford babies
Design for Market, you’re quite correct, so I’ve amended the first sentence to what it should have read. Thanks for pointing that out.
Thanks Aoife. Very interesting article.
“THERE ARE MORE babies born in Ireland per year than in any other country in the European Union.”
There were 678,000 births in Germany last year against about 75,000 in ireland so, no, there were not “more babies born in Ireland per year than in any other country in the European Union”.
Cheap nite – it’s fun and free (at least at the time).
everything was fine when there was no crises! foreigners came here to work and earn more money… no need to be racist! there was no complain during the celtic tiger. and now… irish ppl are emigrating coz of unemployment. but foreigners are still here.. n they will be there… coz they are sure that they life is not is easy in their countries as ireland. unfortunately carl marx was right: ppl are equal when the economy is good…
Sure we can’t afford to go out any more, nothing on the TV !
Mixing up the gene pool is no bad thing. We are prone to a number of genetic illnesses due to our similar genes notably diabetes, cf, haemochromotosis. these are reducing with the inter culture marriages . I hear all sides and we shouldn’t forget we once broached the shores of more affluent nations to seek a better life and are doing so again now.
have your say