Three years after her highly publicised fall from grace in the wake of the "royal prank" phone call, radio presenter Mel Greig has returned to the airwaves, co-hosting the breakfast show on Wollongong station 96.5 Wave FM.
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She made a positive start to her comeback on the four-hour Hot Breakfast program alongside Travis Winks, fielding several high-profile calls including one from Kyle Sandilands and Jackie Henderson from KIIS 1065.
Sandilands, no stranger to controversy himself, passed on advice to Greig about her return and dealing with the legacy of the prank call.
"From time to time you make some mistakes and you can either ride the wave out and keep doing what you do or you can bury your head in the sand like what Mel did and disappear for years and come back a stronger person," offered Sandilands.
Greig agreed the road back had been far from easy but that she wanted to start her new job without being "aligned" to the 2012 prank call.
"It's been so tough," she said. "People just won't give me that chance. The biggest problem is we didn't want to be aligned with that prank call. You know, if you start somewhere we're going to get that bad reputation, we're going to get people talking about it and rehashing it [but] it hasn't happened with this. The press has been incredibly supportive and positive."
Earlier, actor Sophie Monk, who starred with Greig in Celebrity Apprentice called in to lend her support, describing her friend as "organised, loyal and awesome".
Announcing her new job just before Christmas, Greig was clearly happy at the prospect of getting back behind the microphone.
"I'm thrilled to be joining the team at Wave FM and I'm so grateful to be given the opportunity to return to what I love," she said.
"To have the ability to use your voice to inspire others or to help people by sharing your own experiences is a rewarding and incredible job to have.I can't wait to start on air and to start exploring the South Coast and discovering everything it has to offer. I'm pretty sure this big goofy smile that I currently have on my face will be firmly planted for months to come."
The infamous prank call on December 4, 2012 was made by Greig and her co-host at the time on 2Day FM's breakfast show, Mike Christian, to King Edward VII Hospital in London where the Duchess of Cambridge was a patient.
Jacintha Saldana, the nurse who took the call, later suicided, leaving a note blaming the hoax for her death.
The show was cancelled amid widespread condemnation and a series of inquiries followed.
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