MyTV prank draws anger

Separated from her mother for more than a decade, Autumn Allen, 13, thought they were finally going to have a long-awaited reunion on national TV on Sunday.
But the emotional moments leading up to the reunion turned out to be the setup for a bizarre Mother’s Day prank that has been met with outrage on social media and left the producers promising to make an on-air apology.
Autumn, a singer who has performed on television several times before, was invited onto a special Mother’s Day edition of the MyTV variety show Penh Chet Ort (Like It or Not) and told her “dream to meet her mother would come true”. Wiping away tears, Autumn told the presenters of her only memories of her mother, who stayed in the US when Autumn was brought to Cambodia by her father.
“She held me and kissed me and told me that she would always love me,” she said.
But after a drawn-out build-up, it was cross-dressing comedian and Penh Chet Ort judge Chuop Rolin that emerged from backstage instead of the young singer’s mother.
“What are you thinking, did you think it was real?” one of the presenters then asked the girl.
“I don’t know,” Autumn replied, giggling.