'My mother will never be OK, she's lost two children to suicide - how do you get over something like this?' World's first trans reality star Miriam Rivera's family are 'so devastated' after Mexican model's suicide that they will 'never recover'

The parents of Britain's first trans reality star Miriam Rivera have been left so devastated and heartbroken after she committed suicide in mysterious circumstances that they will never recover, her family have told MailOnline.

Miriam shot to fame in a controversial dating show watched by millions around the world in which six men competed for her affections before it was revealed in the finale that she was transgender.

The Mexican model was found dead in Mexico in 2019 and was only 21 years old in 2003 when she starred in There's Something About Miriam, which, despite sparking controversy, was a huge hit on Sky One in the UK and Channel 10 in Australia.

Miriam's body was discovered by her mother Maria Jesus in an alleyway adjoining the family home in the city of Hermosillo. It was virtually in the same location where 13 years earlier, Miriam's eldest brother also committed suicide.

Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, Ariel Mendoza, 40, Miriam's youngest brother said: 'My mother will never be OK, and she will never recover from this. She has lost two children to suicide, how can you get over something like this?

'My mother was especially close to Miriam. When she was a child, she was always holding her, and they were always together. She is still barely able to speak about it because this is something that she will never recover from.'

Miriam's father Fernando, 69, believed that she was a 'sinner' and even carried out an exorcism on her after discovering female clothing, shoes and wigs in her bedroom while she was a young teenager.

Ariel said: 'My mum was trying to understand because at the end of the day this was her favourite child and she loved her. But my dad was very macho and religious, he was very angry and blamed my mum. He believed that there was something wrong with Miriam.

'He now realises that he should have been a better person. He blames himself and hasn't been able to come to terms with what happened.'

Miriam was named Hugo Cesar at birth and was one of four brothers who were brought up by Maria Jesus, 64, a housewife and Fernando, who worked in a glass workshop. Her eldest brother was called Louis and she had two younger brothers: Oscar and Ariel.

Recalling Miriam's childhood, Ariel said: 'As Hugo she was a very shy, gentle child who was very attached to my mother. But after she became Miriam, she became a lot more outgoing and confident because that's the person she really was meant to be.'

Her parents have now separated with Ariel blaming the stress of the 'Miriam situation' as being too much for them.

He said: 'It caused a lot of tension between them, and my dad faced a lot of abuse from local people. He didn't understand anything about trans issues, had no support and it led to the breakup of their marriage. He just became more and more religious.'

Miriam left home at the age of 14 and eventually settled in the US, where she found her niche on the New York ballroom scene and also worked as a model.

The premise of the Sky One show in which Miriam starred proved to be incredibly contentious and remains so to this day.

After they found out the truth, some of the contestants tried to sue and make sure it never aired, feeling they had been duped by producers.

But Ariel and other members of Miriam's family maintain that she was the real victim and was 'used' by the show's producers to increase ratings.

He said: 'She called us one day and said that she was going to be on a TV show and was very excited about that.

'When they finished filming, she sent us the videos in the post and my mother watched them. She still has them. My mum was very proud of her and also excited because she felt that her daughter was now a famous TV star. But my father never watched it.'

But he added: 'The programme makers used Miriam, they took advantage of the fact that she was trans and wanted to be famous. She was just a child, in her early 20s and if you ask anyone that age 'do you want to be in a television programme?' they would say yes.

'We thought that they would protect Miriam from all the negative stuff, but they were just interested in using her to make the programme as controversial as possible.'

Ariel is one of several friends and family of Miriam's to feature in a new Channel 4 documentary series Miriam: Death Of A Reality Star which airs on 29 April and is set to delve into her extraordinary, life, death and legacy.

Ariel said: 'I took part in the programme because I feel that for many years Miriam has been unfairly portrayed. A lot of people saw her as the one who conned these men and fooled them. But nobody has really understood the impact it had on her and the rest of the family.

'I want people to know that there was more to her than just being a trans person who was on TV. She was a wonderful human being and I want her to get the recognition she deserves.'

He added: 'It wasn't easy to see the way Miriam was mocked and the way in which the participants reacted to her, when she declared that she was born as a male. I've never seen the show but for my mother, it was very painful.'

Ariel revealed that after the show aired Miriam returned to visit the family in Mexico for two weeks but she 'was never the same.'

He said: 'Her life began to go downhill after the show. She came home and said that there were problems and that the contestants were trying to sue her. It really affected her, and things started to fall apart.'

Miriam returned to the US and began to suffer with declining mental health. She also developed a drug problem, became a sex worker and was involved in the dark underbelly of the city.

In 2007 she was pushed out of the window of her fourth-storey New York apartment. She later disappeared for six months, claiming she had been kidnapped at gunpoint.

Ariel said: 'She told us that somebody tried to rob her apartment and that's how she fell. But we also heard another version, that an ex or some other people did it and that they were after her. There were lots of different stories and like her life at the time, it was all very confusing and disturbing.'

Unable to get her life back on track, Miriam returned Mexico in 2016 and lived with her mother in the family home.

Ariel said: 'She was suffering from depression and there had been a lot of chaos going on in her life. The final years were very hard for Miriam because she went from living her dream in New York, being on an international TV show and then finding herself back in Hermosillo.'

Following her death, some of her close friends and family including her husband Daniel Cuervo, believe she was murdered.

Ariel said: 'There are very different opinions amongst the family on whether this was suicide or not.

'Miriam had very limited mobility in her right arm, she could barely brush her hair. 

'But she was suffering from a lot of mental health problems, was very depressed and in my opinion, she committed suicide.'