Sir Mo Farah has revealed he was illegally trafficked to the United Kingdom when he was a young child and forced to work as a domestic servant.
In an upcoming documentary by the BBC and Red Bull Studios, the four-time Olympic gold medalist spoke of his tragic childhood that saw him taken away from his family at a young age.
The legendary runner told the BBC that his real name is Hussein Abdi Kahin and that the Mohamed Farah name was given to him by those that flew him over from Djibouti.
Farah had previously claimed that he had made the journey to the UK from Somalia with his parents as a refugee, however, his parents had never been to the United Kingdom.
Instead, he and his family had lived on a farm in the breakaway state of Somaliland, and his father had been killed in civil violence by stray gunfire when Sir Mo was four years old.
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As part of the documentary, he says: “Most people know me as Mo Farah, but it’s not my name or it’s not the reality.
“The real story is I was born in Somaliland, north of Somalia, as Hussein Abdi Kahin. Despite what I’ve said in the past, my parents never lived in the UK.
“When I was four my dad was killed in the civil war, you know as a family we were torn apart.
“I was separated from my mother, and I was brought into the UK illegally under the name of another child called Mohamed Farah.”
Sir Mo says he was taken from his family at around eight or nine years old by a woman he had never met, who claimed she was taking him to live with relatives in Europe.
She gave him the name ‘Mohammed Farah’, and when they arrived at the flat in the UK she took the contact details of his relatives and tore it up.
Sir Mo details the domestic housework and childcare he was forced to do in order to survive, with the woman blackmailing him to keep his mouth closed about the situation if he ever wanted to visit his family again.
When he was allowed to enter the education system in Year 7 at Feltham Community College, teachers were told he was a refugee from Somalia.
It was in his PE classes that his talents for running shone through and allowed him an escape from the reality he was living in.
Eventually, he confided in his PE teacher, revealing his true identity and the family he was being forced to work for.
His teacher contacted social services and helped Sir Mo find another Somali family to live with.
The change and stable environment allowed him to flourish as an athlete throughout his high school years, and he eventually became a British citizen in 2000.
"I still missed my real family, but from that moment everything got better," Sir Mo says in the documentary.
"I felt like a lot of stuff was lifted off my shoulders, and I felt like me.
"That's when Mo came out - the real Mo."
Jayden Collins