The moment Miriam Rivera told contestants she was a transgender woman on Sky’s ‘cruel’ reality show – and they went on a rampage

This is the moment that Sky’s cruel dating show came crashing down as six male contestants were told they’d secretly been dating a transgender woman for weeks. 

The 2003 Sky1 British reality series ‘There’s Something About Miriam’ flew the boys out to a luxury four-star villa in Ibiza, with the aim of wooing the stunning Mexican model Miriam Rivera, then only 21, for a £10,000 prize and romantic yacht trip. 

Yet the punchline of the show was an incredibly cruel one. After Miriam chose her winner, she told the unsuspecting contestants that she was a transgender woman who had not undergone gender-affirming surgery. 

New Channel 4 series Miriam: Death Of A Reality Star explores the consequences of the producers’ decision to exploit the boys, and Miriam’s identity, for shock value. 

The second episode of the show, titled ‘The Truth’, airs on Tuesday night and shows the moment the producers had been waiting for – when winner Tom Rooke was finally told the truth. 

But the naïve producers had underestimated the sheer anger of the boys when they realised they’d been lied to and the emotional damage it would go on to cause. 

After choosing Tom, then 23, as her winner, Miriam told the boys: ‘I tried to be honest with all of you as much as I can. Yes, I’m from Mexico, I’m a model and I’m 21. 

‘But, Tom, I really love spending time with you. I love men and I love being a woman. But I’m not a woman, I was born as a man.’ 

Her words, which friends believe were scripted by the TV crew, were initially met with laughter from the five other boys and pure shock from Tom. 

In the reality show, described as ‘the most explosive dating experience of a lifetime’, Tom had grown close to Miriam and had even been filmed getting intimate with her and kissing her passionately. 

He was left speechless but he couldn’t contain his shock as his eyebrows raised in disbelief and he began uncomfortably scratching the back of his head.  

Crew member Leo McCrea recalled in the documentary: ‘It was so incredibly uncomfortable. It felt like all the air had been sucked out the room. 

‘And Tom, he was gasping, and looking around at all the deceit.’

Although Tom initially said he’d still go on the yacht trip because ‘we’re all good friends here,’ a behind-the-scenes interview revealed his true thoughts. 

Speaking to the camera, he said: ‘I’m very shocked, and I wouldn’t want to spend a week on a boat with someone I didn’t trust and deceived me. 

‘I was being honest in that house, and he [speaking about Miriam] wasn’t. He was lying to everybody and he doesn’t have that right.’ 

After the initial shock, the boys grew angry. Former contestant Toby Green recalled that runner-up Scott Gibson ‘went berserk’ and soon, things began to ‘spiral out of control’. 

Scott, a martial arts instructor, began to smash the set up and even chased the director around the pool. 

When psychiatrist Dr Gareth Smith spoke to the boys to try to calm them down, they chillingly blamed Miriam instead of the production crew. At one point Dr Smith even recalled one of them saying: ‘I’m going to f***ing kill her’. 

Tom, who was an actor, was worried about how the show would affect his career, reportedly telling Gareth: ‘I can’t be a gay actor.’ 

The producers had employed a series of underhand tactics to deceive the boys, including offering them an indecipherable contract, deliberately avoiding the use of pronouns, and even eliminating contestants if they began to suspect the truth. As a result, the boys were furious.  

The contestants were flown back to London, where they decided to launch an injunction to stop the show from ever being aired.  

The men alleged conspiracy to commit sexual assault, defamation, breach of contract, and personal injury in the form of psychological and emotional damage. 

They eventually settled for an undisclosed amount, and the show aired the following year. The massive scandal reportedly cost Sky TV three quarters of a million pounds, according to claims in the documentary. 

But the producers naivety was also shown in their treatment of Miriam herself, who tragically passed away in 2019, which Mexican authorities held to be ‘suicide’ – although her husband has always insisted she was murdered.  

Unlike the boys, who had a psychiatrist brought in for them, Miriam was given no support despite coming out to the world and receiving a torrent of abuse. 

Her words after the finale was filmed reveal just how vulnerable she was feeling at the time.

She said: ‘I went back to the hotel and I was shaking from the experience. I didn’t know if they were going to punch me or attack me. 

‘I wasn’t out to hurt anyone’s feelings. No one in the crew would talk to me. They were all my friends during filming and now they don’t want to know me. I feel really upset and alone.’

Dr Smith, who was brought in to offer support to the boys, reflected: ‘I had been brought in ostensibly to look after the boys. 

‘No one had given a thought to how Miriam might feel. The reveal was her coming out to the world and as far as I was aware, Miriam hadn’t been psych tested. 

‘How would she deal with rejection? Not just from who she picked, but everyone who thought trans people were freaks.

‘They sold her a dream without anybody telling her what could go wrong. I thought, she’s vulnerable, she’s had a really really hard life, like a bird with a broken wing.’ 

Miriam was already in a vulnerable position when the show was filmed in 2003 when she was 21. She had begun taking hormones aged 11 and was living as a woman by the time she was 16.

But her father Fernando Mendoza never accepted her identity, and even brought in a minister to the family home to ‘exorcise’ the ‘demons’ from her body. 

Left traumatised by the ordeal, Miriam fled home for Tijuana on the US-Mexico border, where she began working in a club. 

Despite the fact that Miriam was clearly vulnerable, the TV executives who worked on There’s Something About Miriam continue to defend their decisions in the Channel 4 documentary. 

When asked how she felt about the deception, production executive Jo Josun said: ‘I didn’t feel anything. I’m in the business of making television shows. 

‘I didn’t feel anything about the format that I felt was bad or wrong. I didn’t feel that way, I really didn’t.

‘Do I think it went beyond any moral codes of conduct? No.’ 

And speaking about Miriam, she added: ‘The whole premise of the show was the reaction.. that’s just the nature of TV programming.

‘This idea that this poor young woman was plucked out of Mexico and dumped into this situation… she was a savvy, clever woman. She knew exactly what she was getting into and why, and she wanted to be part of it.’

The show’s executive producer Remy Blumenfeld of Brighter Pictures admitted in a 2022 interview: ‘I don’t feel like I was cruel in making it. I feel like I was incredibly naïve. Our intention for the show was for viewers to watch it and to relate to Miriam’s story.’ 

Banijay, which acquired Endemol in 2020, said in a statement posted on the show: ‘Benijay does not in any way support the editorial concept or the production processes of the show. 

‘We champion inclusivity and prioritise welfare. The management responsible for this show no longer work with the company.’ 

Sky later apologised and removed There’s Something About Miriam from its platforms. 

‘The Truth’, the second episode of Miriam: Death Of A Reality Star airs tonight at 9pm on Channel 4.