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Online Trolls 'Forgot I Was Human' After Royal Prank: Mel Greig

The radio presenter was the target of threats and abuse for two years following the hoax.

Radio presenter Mel Greig has said online trolls "forgot [she] was human" during the backlash she received after the 2012 Royal Prank Call scandal, which left her in a "deep depression".

Appearing on Channel Ten's The Project, Greig said she isolated herself from the world after the incident and received online abuse for her involvement in the prank for up to two years afterwards.

"After the prank call I went into a deep depression and into lockdown. I was isolated from the real world. All I was doing was reading online comments. I was getting trolled heavily for two years," she said.

"When you're mentally weak and people are saying 'go hang yourself', 'blood on your hands'. You believe it. One tweet said, 'eye for an eye. I am going to kill you and then I'm going to kill your mum'. That made me think, that's not an opinion, that's abuse. That's the difference with trolling."

The scandal revolved around a prank call made by Greig and then 2Day FM co-host Michael Christian to the hospital of then-pregnant Duchess of Cambridge posing as the Queen and Prince Charles.

The nurse who answered the call and blamed herself for details of the Duchess' medical conditions being released, Jacintha Saldanha, was found dead in her apartment days after the call with many taking to social media around the world to directly blame Greig and Christian for her death.

Greig told The Project the reaction online generally came from people who considered their comments towards her to be anonymous and left her "absolutely broken."

"They think they're writing it to someone that's anonymous... In fact, through the whole Royal Prank people forgot that I was human, that I was going through a deep depression," she said.

"I was broken, I was absolutely broken and shouldn't have been doing interviews. I shouldn't have been out of bed."

The radio presenter has now created an initiative, which will be launched on Friday, with the Bully Zero Australia Foundation called Troll Free Day. She called it her opportunity to help others in solidarity against online trolls.

"I went through something terrible but I have learned from that. I'm going to help others," she said.

"We need to do something. Tomorrow for Troll Free Day, we stand together, we stand for the victims and let them know we're here to support them."

The day will coincide with the seventh National Day of Awareness against Bullying which promotes anti-bullying policies, strategies and programs within schools to try and reduce bullying and violence.

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