“The truth is I’m not who you think I am,” Farah, 39, told the BBC in a documentary called “The Real Mo Farah”.
Farah, who became the first British track and field athlete to win four Olympic golds, says her children have inspired her to be truthful about her past.
“The real story is that I was born as Hussein Abdi Kahin in Somaliland, in the north of Somalia,” he told the BBC. “Despite everything I’ve said in the past, my parents have never lived in the UK
“When I was four years old my father was killed in the civil war, you know we were torn apart as a family. I was separated from my mother, and I was left with another child named Mohammed Farah. The name was illegally brought into the UK.”
During the documentary, Farah said that she thought she was going to Europe to be with relatives and recalled passing a British passport check under the guise of Mohammed after traveling with a woman at the age of nine whom he knew. Didn’t know before.
“I had all the contact details for my relative and once we reached his house, the lady snatched it from me and tore it up in front of me and put it in the bin and at that point I knew I was in trouble,” They said.
The athlete traveled to his childhood home in west London, recalling “not the great memories”, where he was not considered as part of the family.
Farah eventually told the truth to teacher Alan Watkinson and went to live with her friend’s mother, who took care of her and lived there for seven years.
It was Watkinson who applied for Farah’s British citizenship, which he described as a “long process”. Farah was recognized as a British citizen in 2000.
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