Mo Farah in the Men's 10,000m Final during Day 1 of the Muller British Athletics Championships at the Manchester Regional Arena on 25 June 2021.
(CNN) --
Legendary long-distance runner Mo Farah told the BBC he was trafficked in the UK as a child and was forced to work as a domestic worker.
The revelation occurs in a new documentary from the British network that will be broadcast this Wednesday.
In it, Farah also says that his real name is Hussein Abdi Kahin and that he was born in Somaliland.
"Despite what I've said in the past, my parents never lived in the UK," Farah told the BBC.
He says the family was "torn apart" after his father was killed in the civil war when he was just four years old.
Somaliland declared its independence in 1991, breaking away from war-torn Somalia, but has never been recognized as a sovereign state.
"I was separated from my mother and brought to the UK illegally under the name of another boy named Mohamed Farah," he said in an excerpt from the interview.
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The four-time Olympic gold medalist was eight or nine years old when he was flown to the UK by a woman he didn't know.
Once he arrived, he says he was forced to "do housework and childcare."
Several years later, he was finally allowed to enroll in school, where he confided in a physical education teacher about his situation.
The teacher contacted social services and Farah went to live with a Somali foster family.
"I kept missing my real family, but from that moment everything got better," he tells the BBC.
Farah, who became a British citizen in 2000, says running saved him from a life of servitude.
CNN has contacted Farah's representatives for comment.
athleticsMo Farah