UNMASKED

Best-Selling Author Reveals Her True Identity After 23-Year Double Life

She created the pseudonym to protect her career as a doctor and even wore a wig out in public.

A bestselling author has revealed her true identity after 23 years of writing under a pseudonym. In an interview with USA Today, Sara Cohen, 45, revealed that she is the real-life Freida McFadden, author of The Housemaid, which was adapted into a movie starring Sydney Sweeney. She has balanced writing with a career as a doctor treating brain disorders, and has even gone to the lengths of wearing a wig to conceal her identity. “I’m at a point in my career when I’m tired of this being a secret. I’m tired of people debating if I’m a real person or if I’m three men,” she told the newspaper. “I am a real person and I have a real identity and I don’t have anything to hide.” The author of Never Lie said she initially used the McFadden persona to balance her medical career. “My whole goal was to keep it a secret until I was [ready to] step back from my doctor job, so it wouldn’t be like everyone I work with suddenly knew and it compromised my ability to do my job,” she said. She added her own life is “so much more boring than anything that happens in my books.”