TV show apologises to little girl after freaking awful prank.

Well this is just freaking awful.

A 13 year old girl in Cambodia has been tricked on national television into thinking she was about to see her estranged mother.

Autumn Allen is a singer originally from the US. She moved to Cambodia when she was five, and hasn’t seen her mother since.

On Mother’s Day, she gave a special performance of one of her songs on Cambodian talk show Like It Or Not:

After her performance, the hosts came on stage and said they knew about the situation with Autumn’s mother, and had arranged to fly her to Cambodia as a Mother’s Day surprise. Autumn immediately begins to cry at the thought of being reunited with her mum after so many years:

Then, in what is equal parts bizarre and cruel, the hosts bring a man dressed in drag out on stage instead. Everybody laughs, and after initially looking a shellshocked and confused, Autumn politely laughs at the ‘funny’ prank:

After audience outrage, the station, MYTV was forced to apologise in a letter, which she posted on Facebook. Autumn also graciously released a statement saying that she’s sure “was no harm intended.”

“Thank you for the enormous show of support regarding the ‘Mother’s Day show,’” she wrote. “I am sure there was no harm intended and I had fun on the show.”

She has certainly handled it better than most of us would.

Watch the full clip here: