The Traitors winner, Meryl Williams, has exposed one harsh reality of living with dwarfism.
In 2022, Meryl made her TV debut as part of the original Traitors cast, with Claudia Winkleman hosting the brand new BBC reality show for the first time.
Meryl went on to win a share of the £101,050 prize pot after she and fellow Faithfuls Hannah Byczkowski and Aaron Evans ousted all Traitors from the game.
Following her Traitors triumph, Meryl has spoken openly about her experiences with dwarfism, which, as per the NHS, is also known as restricted growth. It’s a condition characterised by unusually short height.
Sadly, this has involved being targeted in public, as she was forced to hide in the toilet on a train recently to protect herself.
Taking to TikTok, Meryl documented the unsettling moment, telling her thousands of followers that four teenagers had been sitting opposite her and ‘giving [her] abuse.’
‘Living with this condition is something that you can’t hide,’ she explained.
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‘People see you straight away; they notice you straight away, you’re just an easy target.’
She continued: ‘I got on the train, they sat opposite me because I’m sitting on the seats with tables, and so far they’ve said that I need a stepladder to get on the train, I’m a midget, they’ve watched dwarf throwing, they’ve taken videos of me, they’ve taken photos of me, they said I’ve got sausage fingers, and they’ve laughed at me.’
Meryl added that they probed her, and when she looked up, they would ‘stick their tongue out’ and laugh in her face.
‘This is all in the space of 10 minutes. I’m on my own right now,’ she detailed.
‘Everyone around me has witnessed this, heard this, and no one’s said anything. I don’t know what to do.
‘So I thought, I know they’re getting off at Durham, and they got on at Newcastle, so if you know these people, let me know, four teenagers… so I’m gonna wait in the toilet until the Durham stop, then I’ll go out.’
Despite the abuse she had suffered, Meryl ended her video on a poignant note, telling viewers: ‘If you ever see someone that’s different or with a disability, just please be kinder to them.
‘I never used to travel to London on my own; I used to only ever drive for this exact reason: because I felt safe in my car, I was protected, no one could see me, no one could laugh at me, no one could make fun of me…
‘And I’ve recently got the confidence to start going on the train.’
Confessing that she felt ‘really f***ing s**t’ after the incident, Meryl was inundated with supportive messages in the comments from friends and fans.
Fellow Traitors cast member Rayan commented: ‘i’m so sorry meryl! this is rank behaviour and i hope karma gets them big 💚’
‘Why did nobody else around you say anything? I’m so sorry this has happened to you. The world is such a horrible place to be’, commented Keira Sheppard, urging Meryl to contact the British Transport Police with a description of the youths.
‘This is awful!!! So sorry this happened❤️’, commented TikToker Hannah Lowther.
Series 1 of The Traitors was a storming success for the BBC, with the finale clocking up over four million viewers.
Since its return for series 2 and 3, the game show has only got bigger. Currently, a fresh batch of Faithfuls and Traitors are battling it out in the Scottish castle for a slice of up to £120,000.
After a Faithful victory first time around, series 2 was won by Harry Clark, who was declared the Ultimate Traitor after he stole over £95,000 from under everyone’s noses.
The Traitors airs Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
The Traitors winner forced to hide in toilet after being targeted by abusive teens