The British nurse who killed herself after transferring a hoax call from Australian radio personalities to Kate Middleton’s hospital room earlier this month reportedly had attempted suicide twice before.
Jacintha Saldanha, 46, who was found hanging by a scarf three days after the prank, attempted to overdose on pills during a family visit to India last winter, according to Indian newspapers quoted by the UK’s Daily Mail.
Nine days later, the reports said, she attempted to jump from a building and was admitted to a psych ward.
The family of Saldanha, who was prescribed anti-depressants after the failed attempts, has demanded answers from the radio station and her employer, King Edward VII’s Hospital in London.
Saldanha was said to be so ashamed she was fooled by shock jocks Michael Christian and Mel Greig that she did not tell her husband, Benedict Barbosa, 49, what had happened. “They spoke several times that week but she did not tell him or the kids anything about it.”
“The first her husband knew that she was the victim of the hoax call was when police told him she was dead. Nobody in the family knew,” her younger brother Naveen Saldanha, 42, told the Daily Mail.