There's Something About Miriam contestant says everyone who took part 'felt deceived and wronged by the programme makers'

One of the contestants in the now-notorious Sky1 show There's Something About Miriam has attacked the production company that made it for 'manipulating' all involved.

The 2002 dating show tricked six men into competing for the affections of a young model without telling them that she was transgender - and she later took her own life.

Now the controversy around the programme has revived after the airing of a Channel 4 documentary retelling the story - which has horrified viewers.

And one of the original contestants has added his voice to the chorus of critics of the show - singling out makers Endemol.

Toby Green told MailOnline: 'We all felt deceived and wronged by the programme makers who set out to deceive us. We all felt we had been manipulated.'

Toby Green (pictured), one of the contestants in the now-notorious Sky1 show There's Something About Miriam, has attacked the production company that made it for 'manipulating' all involved

The 2002 dating show tricked six men into competing for the affections of a young model, named Miriam Rivera (pictured), without telling them that she was transgender - and she later took her own life

Miriam (pictured) was found dead in her mother's apartment in Mexico in 2019

Toby, a 23-year-old post grad student with a degree in maths from the University of Sussex when he appeared on the show, went on: 'We were offered the chance to go on the programme - six heterosexual guys being offered the chance to chat up pretty women. It seemed light-hearted and I thought it would be a bit of fun.

'If I'm truthful, at the time I suspected that Miriam might be transgender though I wasn't 100% sure.'

The documentary shows that Toby shared these thoughts with the other boys before the revelation that Miriam was born a man with them laughing and one asking 'Do you still think she's a man?' before producers step in to maintain the secret.

Toby went on today: 'I was very much on the periphery and was the first voted out of the house but Scott and Tom were very much more affected and invested emotionally and it hit them hard.

'It was a terrible thing to do and it did it have an impact on everyone but especially Miriam who ultimately lost her life. She committed suicide.'

He said he would like an advisory body set up to oversee the actions of documentaries such as the Sky1 show, adding: 'TV shows always try and push the boundaries but in this case what Endemol did was totally unacceptable and we all thought it was terrible.'

Toby, who has not appeared on any TV show since and now fiercely guards his privacy, said he had chosen to speak out about it to help Miriam's family after her death.

'It's one way I can help them. I want to speak out about it for her family's sake.'

Now the controversy around the programme has revived after the airing of a Channel 4 documentary retelling the story - which has horrified viewers (pictured: the six contestants on the original show)

The moment male contestants discover they have been dating a transgender woman on the show in 2003

Viewers have also reacted angrily after watching Miriam: Death of a Reality Star.

The documentary explores the life and subsequent death of Miriam Rivera, a Mexican model who starred in There's Something About Miriam in 2003.

The show saw Toby and five other men compete to win her affections and £10,000 but they did not find out about Miriam's gender identity until the finale - which led one contestant to smash up the luxury Ibiza villa in which the contestants were staying and even threaten to 'kill' the 21-year-old model.

The documentary explores how Miriam, rather than the show's producers, were demonised after the deception was uncovered - and how the young and hopeful model who wanted to find love and become famous later disappeared into the world of sex work and drugs, before her untimely death in 2019.

As modern-day viewers look back on the dating show in the Channel 4 documentary, they have been left horrified by the premise of the programme and have accused the original production companies, and Sky, of 'throwing her under the bus'.

The viewers' horror at what Miriam experienced at the hands of the production company has been echoed by her brother, Ariel Mendoza.

'My sister was exploited, then abandoned,' Miriam's youngest brother told the Guardian.

'She was alone in a foreign country. Miriam was a tough girl but it broke her. I really think they used her. The boys got more help than Miriam.'

The documentary explores how the men, furious and humiliated after having been duped, launched legal action against the show's producers to try and take out an injunction and stop it from airing.

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.

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.'

The dating show brought Miriam, who was often known as the 'world's first transgender reality star', much notoriety - later appearing on Big Brother Australia in 2004 - but her fame came at a terrible price in the form of transphobic abuse.

This included an incident in 2007 when she was pushed out of the fourth-story window of her New York apartment, leaving her with traumatic injuries. According to her friends, the treatment she received after the show caused a steep decline in her mental health.

Miriam was found dead in her mother's apartment in Mexico in 2019.

Miriam's mother pictured being interviewed for a new documentary on the show

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

Though authorities claimed it was a suicide, her close friends and family - including her husband Daniel Cuervo, believe she was murdered.

All of her friends were shocked to hear of Miriam's death in 2019 - and they were even more bewildered to learn that she had taken her own life in Mexico.

Endemol have been contacted for comment.

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