The mystery behind one of thriller’s best-kept secrets has finally been solved.
Freida McFadden, the bestselling author of The cleaning ladyrevealed that her real name is Sara Cohen, a New York-born doctor who spent years hiding her identity to protect her medical career.
McFadden shared the first photo of his real appearance with Today.com Monday, wearing a lab coat with Sara Cohen’s name on it, along with a pair of glasses.
She explained that the decision to come forward came as the secrecy surrounding her identity began to take on a life of its own.
“It became clear to me that the mystery surrounding my real name was taking on a dimension of its own, and I decided it was time to share it,” she said.
The 45-year-old had kept his identity secret for years, publishing under a pseudonym while working as a doctor specializing in brain disorders.
His reasoning was practical.
“My goal was to keep this a secret until I was ready to step away from my job as a doctor, so that it wouldn’t be like everyone I work with suddenly found out and it compromised my ability to do my job,” she said. The United States today in an interview on April 8.
She confirmed that many of her colleagues had already found a solution but had quietly kept her secret.
Online speculation has at times veered into something more pointed, with some people online claiming to know his real name and threatening to reveal it.
McFadden was remarkably relaxed about it.
“It made me laugh because it’s not like I’m in witness protection! I just always wanted the focus to be on my books, not my identity,” she said.
She added that she was “amazed” by the public reaction since she came forward. “I read so many comments saying, ‘This is the twist I needed!’ who made me smile.”
Despite this revelation, she has no plans to stop writing under the name Freida McFadden.
“It’s always been my intention to entertain people and that’s what I will continue to do as long as you keep reading,” she said.
McFadden published his first book, The devil wears blousesin 2013, but it was The cleaning lady in 2022, this has made her a household name.
The novel was recently made into a film starring Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried, which grossed nearly $400 million at the worldwide box office. A sequel,
The cleaning lady‘s Secret, starring Sweeney and Kirsten Dunst, is already in development.
