It was the shocking cliffhanger no one expected, and now, CBS' The Bold and the Beautiful is poised to make history as the first soap opera to have a major transgender character on its show.

Maya's Secret Is Revealed

The March 18 episode saw the reveal that Maya (Karla Mosley) had actually been born a man, named Myron, and had transitioned at a young age before moving to L.A. -a twist no one saw coming. Now, the story concerning Maya's relationship with Forrester CEO Rick (Jacob Young) is set to change drastically.

The reveal came through Maya's younger sister, Nicole (Reign Edwards) who had been hinting since arriving in L.A. that she would reveal Maya's secret, and though Mosley has known the reveal now since December, she does admit that she was shocked at first, before realizing she had been handed something new and powerful.

Nicole Attempts To Manipulate Maya

"My first reaction was surprise, because 10 or 20 years ago, this is not a story we would be telling, and not in a way that's truthful and not sensational," she told USA Today. "My second reaction was, 'Thank you.' It's a gift, it's a privilege. It's a real opportunity to educate our viewers here and all over the world."

Head writer and executive producer Bradley Bell also spoke up about the shocking twist, saying that the goal the show has by taking this new route is to just share a story that will ultimately be about love and tolerance.

"It is about people respecting other people's differences and their uniqueness," he said in a statement obtained by USA Today. "In the end, we all want to be loved, and in order to love someone else you first have to love yourself. If you are transgender, gay, straight, it doesn't matter. It's about finding love in life. This is a love story."

While the Maya/Myron storyline isn't the first of its kind on a soap opera (ABC's former soap All My Children had a character Zarf [Jeffrey Carlson] who later came out as a Trans woman and fell in love with Bianca Montgomery in 2006), it is the first to potentially include a Trans character in a leading role. Maya has been at the front of a storyline involving her relationship with Rick for months, and is currently one of the main characters on the show.

It is also a somewhat more progressive move for The Bold and the Beautiful itself, which has seemed over the years to be more conservative than other daytime shows. While a lesbian couple is acknowledged on the show through Caroline's (Linsey Godfrey) moms, they are not currently involved in any plot points and are largely off-screen, living in New York. In comparison, Days of Our Lives on NBC has elevated couple Will Horton (Guy Wilson) and Sonny Kiriakis (Freddie Smith) to the forefront of several storylines, and aired a wedding for them in 2014. Similarly, ABC's General Hospital has recently seen several scenes discussing the love lives of gay characters Lucas Jones (Ryan Carnes), Brad Cooper (Parry Shen) and Felix DuBois (Marc Anthony Samuel).

While trans characters are becoming more common in the television landscape (Netflix's Orange is the New Black, Amazon's Transparent, and FOX's Glee all have transgender characters set as either main or recurring status), Maya is the only current character on daytime television with such a status.

The storyline is also one which Mosley assures isn't going to be quickly shuttered either, giving the cast time to explore the change and show the way their individual characters will react to the shocking news over time.

"Everyone has a different reaction," she told Us Weekly. "So even if the audience can't necessarily be on board with Maya, or if they have [certain] feelings about Maya's experience now, hopefully they'll be able to see themselves in the reactions of the people around her and we can all sort of process it together." 

The Bold and the Beautiful airs Monday-Friday at 1:30 p.m. on CBS.

Tags: The Bold and the Beautiful CBS Soap Operas