Sir Mo Farah has admitted he lied about his background and his name is not real.
The four-time Olympic champion, 39, previously claimed to have joined his dad in the UK, but he was actually killed in the Somalian civil war.
Farah, real name Hussein Abdi Kahin, has told a BBC TV documentary he was trafficked to the UK to work as a servant, and now fears losing his UK citizenship.
Married dad-of-three Mo said: “There’s something about me you don’t know. It’s a secret that I’ve been hiding since I was a child.
“I’ve been keeping it for so long, it’s been difficult because you don’t want to face it. Often my kids ask questions – ‘Dad, how come this?’ And you’ve always got an answer for everything, but you haven’t got an answer for that.
“That’s the main reason in telling my story because I want to feel normal and not feel like you’re holding on to something.
“To be able to face it and talk about the facts, how it happened, why it happened, it’s tough. The truth is I’m not who you think I am. And now whatever the cost, I need to tell my real story.”
The admissions were made in a BBC1 documentary titled ‘The Real Mo Farah’, which will be shown on Tuesday night. (12.07.22)
Farah has decided to keep his assumed identity and had insisted his father was an IT consultant called Muktar born and brought up in London.
He claimed his father moved to Mogadishu and met his mother before he came back to Britain, followed by his son when the Somalian civil war worsened.
But his dad was a farmer called Abdi killed in the conflict when his son was four.
His mother Aisha later sent him to neighbouring Djibouti for his safety, but one of his own relatives may have helped to illegally smuggle him to the UK through a mystery woman.
Farah said: “The hardest thing is admitting to myself that someone from my own family may have been involved in trafficking me.”
