Mel Greig and Michael Christian sorry for royal radio prank

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SYDNEY, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- Mel Greig and Michael Christian, the Australian radio personalities fired for a prank call to a London hospital, say they are sorry the stunt ended in tragedy.

Pretending to be Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, Greig called the hospital where pregnant Kate Middleton, Prince William's wife, was being treated for extreme morning sickness and inquired about her condition last Tuesday.

Jacintha Saldanha, the nurse who handled the phone call and unwittingly discussed the duchess' health on the radio, was found dead of an apparent suicide Friday.

"Unfortunately, I remember that moment very well because I haven't stopped thinking about it since it happened," Greig tearfully told Channel 7's "Today Tonight" program about when she learned of the death of the nurse and mother of two children. "I remember my first question was, 'Was she a mother?' ... We couldn't believe that it had worked. ... We thought 100 people before us would've tried the same thing. ... We just wanted to be hung up on. We wanted to be hung up on with our silly voices and wanted a 20-second segment to air of us doing stupid voices."

Greig admitted the prank was her idea and told "A Current Affair": "I've thought about this a million times in my head that I've wanted to just reach out to them and just give them a big hug and say, 'Sorry.' And I hope they're OK. I really do."

The Australian Broadcasting Corp. quoted Christian as saying he hopes Saldanha's family is getting "the love, the support, the care that they need."