Royal Prankster

Meet The DJ Who Pranked The Queen

Mel Greig and her sidekick Michael Christian, the two Australian radio presenters who made the prank call to Kate Middleton’s hospital with Greig pretending to be the queen, are both recent hires by the radio station 2DayFM which broadcast the call.

Michael Christian joined the Hot30 show just a few days ago, after labouring for several years in relative obscurity presenting a breakfast show on a local Melbourne channel, and Greig herself has only been a host on the radio show since March last year.

They have issued an apology, of sorts, following a furore which erupted in the UK following broadcast of the call, with Prince William very much not amused by the breach of his wife’s medical privacy. The duo said in a statement: ‘We were very surprised that our call was put through. We thought we'd be hung up on as soon as they heard our terrible accents. We're very sorry if we've caused any issues.’

Mel, 30, is more famous in Australia than Christian, having appeared on a reality TV show called The Amazing Race in which she was reunited with her sister who she had not seen in over a decade and the two crewed on a boat in a round the world race.

Mel ran away from home at the age of 15, and effectively ended her relationship with younger sister, Alana, and the rest of her family.

As the two sisters were getting reacquainted, Alana “decided to fast-track re-connecting with her big sister” by applying to come on the round the world race according to the show’s website. They finished in seventh place.

“I knew Mel would be into it and it was my idea to enter so that we could share something incredible and start forming a proper adult sister relationship,” said Alana at the time, while Mel commented, “I’ve always been the rebel and Alana’s always been the nerd. And nothing’s changed as we’ve gotten older.”

Greig has Latvian heritage and dates Australian rules footballer boyfriend Steven Pollock, who has recetly moved to Sydney to be with her.

The station 2Day FM is already serving two five-year license probations after serious breaches of the Australian regulator's code.

The broadcaster was handed the first reprimand in 2009 after a 14-year-old girl was attached to a lie detector and then said live on air that she had been raped.

The girl and her mother featured in a segment called ‘Lie Detector’ on 2Day FM's breakfast show hosted by Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O'Neil Henderson.

The mother asked the daughter: “Have you ever had sex?” The 14-year-old replied: “I've already told you the story about this ... and don't look at me and smile because it’s not funny.”

After a pause, she raised her voice with frustration and said: “Oh okay, I got raped when I was 12 years old.”

After a long pause, Sandilands then asked “Right ... is that the only experience you've had?" before the mother admitted she knew of the rape “a couple of months ago".

Her daughter yelled, “Yet you still asked me the question.”

The regulator again ruled against the station when it found that 2DayFM's Kyle & Jackie O Show breached decency codes when broadcaster Kyle Sandilands called a female journalist a "fat slag" in November.

ACMA, said the comments were "deeply derogatory and offensive"

He was reported as saying: "What a fat bitter thing you are, you deputy editor of an online thing. You've got a nothing job anyway. You're a piece of s**t,' he said.‘You’re a bulls**t artist, girl. That's what you are. You should be fired from your job."

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Tom SykesEuropean Editor at Large

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