Content warning: The below story contains references to suicide. This content may be triggering for some readers.
The world rejoiced in December 2012 when news broke that Prince William and Princess Kate were expecting their first child. Although the royal had been hospitalized with Hyperemesis gravidarum, a severe form of morning sickness, both mom and baby were doing well at King Edward VII’s Hospital in London. But tragedy struck just days later after a nurse died by suicide—and according to a new book, the prince and princess were “left stunned.”
In William and Catherine, The Monarchy’s New Era: The Inside Story, royal journalist Russell Myers writes that Prince William made a secret gesture to the family of nurse Jacintha Saldanha after the tragedy. On December 4, 2012 Saldanha answered the phone when a pair of Australian DJs called the hospital pretending to be King Charles (then Prince Charles) and Queen Elizabeth.
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Saldanha then transferred the call to another nurse, who divulged information about Princess Kate’s condition to the DJs. The incident, which gained worldwide media attention, “distressed” Saldanha greatly. Although Myers notes that there had been “no mention of disciplinary action” for the nurses who were caught in the “nasty trick,” Jacintha was found dead on December 7, a day after Kate left the hospital.
Prince William and Princess Kate are pictured leaving King Edward VII’s Hospital on December 6, 2012.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
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William and Catherine: the Monarchy’s New Era: the Inside Story
“William and Catherine were left stunned and deeply saddened when told that Jacintha, who they had both met during her stay at the hospital, had taken her own life,” Myers writes in the royal biography, to be published March 10.
The biographer continues that Prince William “immediately” sent “a handwritten note” to Jacintha’s husband and family expressing his “profound sorrow” at her death.
“I am just so sorry that someone who cared for others so much found themselves in such a desperate situation,” his letter read, in part. “This letter comes with my thoughts and prayers to you all.”
Prince William visits his wife in the hospital on December 3, 2012.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
William and Kate’s former private secretary Ed Perkins told Myers that the gesture “was typical of William, and Catherine for that matter.”
“Behind everything people think they know about them, they are human,” Perkins said. “Everyone was devastated for Jacintha’s family when we heard the tragic news, it was a dark episode and put into context once more the lengths that certain people are prepared to go to access their lives and the effect that potentially has on others.”
DJs Michael Christian and Mel Greig, who were removed from their station in the aftermath of Saldanha’s suicide, received death threats for their role in the hoax call.
“William didn’t tell anyone he planned to write to Jacintha’s family and nor should he,” Perkins added. “It was a personal moment to offer his sympathies and something that speaks to both of them as people who care.”
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