Nurse in Kate Middleton hoax found dead from likely suicide

I was shocked to hear on Friday that the nurse involved in the Kate Middleton radio hoax was found dead in a likely suicide.

2DayFM radio DJs Mel Greig and Michael Christian pretended they were Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles to get information about the Duchess of Cambridge’s hospital stay. The nurse accepted the call and transferred the call to a fellow nurse, who gave the DJs confidential information about the health of Middleton. The nurse who first accepted the call was found dead three days later.

Embarrassment is a strong emotion. And sometimes, while in that embarrassing situation, it’s hard to look forward and see a time when your ordeal is not a talked about topic. For this nurse, Jacintha Saldanha, she was publically embarrassed. And not just embarrassed locally – but around the world. Maybe she was scared of repercussions – scared she would get fired for transferring the call or scared the hospital would lose the royal family’s business.

Many people have taken a stand against the radio show, which was recently taken off the air indefinitely. And many strangers are now supporting this woman. If only she would have known that people didn’t blame her for what happened. Maybe then the outcome would have been different.

Whenever you hear about someone being in an embarrassing situation – maybe a secret relationship getting out, a fall in economic status, a mistake made, personal photos leaked or being ridiculed for no reason – make sure to be there for them. Let them know that everyone makes mistakes and you don’t think any differently of them because of it. Show them that this will blow over and, soon, everyone will have new gossip to talk about.

I also want to caution people – don’t put so much blame on the radio hosts. Don’t send them nasty emails.

It’s not rare for radio hosts to do prank calls. I hear local radio hosts do it all the time. But, most of the time, pranks don’t take such a wrong turn.

This situation is exactly why I have never liked pranks – publically humiliating someone for sport. But there’s no way these two radio hosts could have known this would be the outcome. In interviews following the nurse’s death, the hosts said they had no idea their call would even go through. This same thing could have happened to any radio host. But it didn’t. It happened to these hosts who are now facing public hatred.

The tables are turned and the two radio hosts are the ones receiving the public humiliation. And I, for one, hope they don’t go down the same path as this nurse – wanting to escape the embarrassment. Because no matter what happened, they don’t deserve that.

Read more: Radio hosts in Duchess Kate Middleton hoax tear up, apologize

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