Entertainment
Is Sir Mo Farah married and does he have children? A look at Olympic legend’s family-Charlotte Manning-Entertainment – Metro
Sir Mo’s documentary airs on BBC tonight.
Sir Mo with his wife Tania (Picture: PA)
Sir Mo Farah will be the focus of a new BBC documentary set to air tonight, after revealing that he was trafficked into the UK as a child under a different name.
The much-loved runner is the most successful British track athlete in modern Olympic Games history.
He became a double Olympic Gold Medallist in 2012, and won the hearts of the entire nation after storming to glory.
However, Sir Mo has recently made some shocking revelations about his childhood, telling the public he was born Hussein Abdi Kahin on 23 March 1983 in Somaliland.
Despite having previously claimed he moved over to the UK with his parents when he was a child, he has now admitted his father was killed during the Somaliland War of Independence when he was four-years-old and his mother has never travelled to the UK.
He was taken away from his family and trafficked into England when he was just nine-years-old, where he was forced to work as a domestic servant.
Sir Mo was brought into the UK illegally under the name of another child (Picture: PA)
Speaking ahead of the documentary, he shared: ‘Most people know me as Mo Farah but it’s not my name or it’s not the reality.
‘I had no idea there was so many people who are going through exactly the same thing that I did. It just goes to show how lucky I was. What really saved me, what made me different, was that I could run.’
Here’s everything you need to know about Sir Mo’s family.
Is Sir Mo Farah married?
He has been married to Tania for over a decade (Picture: Getty)
Sir Mo is married, and tied the knot with his longtime girlfriend Tania Nell in Richmond, London, in April 2010.
A stream of other athletes attended the wedding, including Paula Radcliffe, Steve Cram, Hayley Yelling, Jo Pavey, Mustafa Mohamed and Scott Overall, who was an usher.
The pair met at school in Feltham, west London, when Tania was 11 and he was 12.
They lost touch when they were teenagers but rekindled their friendship while they were studying at St Mary’s University in Twickenham, West London, before things blossomed into romance.
Do they have any children?
Sir Mo with his wife Tania and twins, Aisha and Amani, in 2014 (Picture: Getty)
Sir Mo is a father-of-four. His eldest, Rihanna, is Tania’s daughter from a previous relationship, but the athlete has helped raise Rihanna since she was a toddler.
In 2012, Tania gave birth to twin daughters, Aisha and Amani, who were born shortly after Sir Mo’s incredible double Olympic Gold.
In 2015, the couple welcomed another child, a son called Hussein.
Sir Mo and Rihannah in 2021 (Picture: Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)
The family uprooted and moved to America to live in Portland, Oregon, back in 2011, so that he could train full-time with the Nike Oregon Project.
However, they returned to London at the end of 2017, after he cut ties with his coach Alberto Salazar.
His statement said: ‘Tania and I realised how much we have missed spending time with our friends and family and the kids are so happy here, too. We want the kids to grow up in the UK. It’s the right thing to do for my family.’
Who are Sir Mo Farah’s parents?
Sir Mo’s mother Aisha will appear in the documentary (Picture: BBC)
Sir Mo’s father, Abdi, was killed by a stray mortar round, during a civil war when he was aged four.
He and his twin brother Hassan, who still lives in Somalia, were separated from his mother, and sent to live with relatives.
In a clip from the documentary, he described working in a Somalian restaurant cleaning tables in west London when a woman came in and asked if he was Mohamed Farah.
When he confirmed he was, she asked him: ‘Now what’s your real name?’
His identical twin Hassan (L) still lives in Somalia (Picture: Getty)
The mystery woman then told him his mother Aisha had been looking for him and that she had seen her recently in Somaliland.
‘I was like, “Saw my mum? She’s alive?” And she’s like, “Yeah, she’s alive. Here’s a photo, if you don’t believe me”. And then she said, “Look this is a cassette tape for you”.
‘It wasn’t just a tape, it was more of a voice and then it was singing sad songs for me like poems or like traditional song, you know. And I would listen to it for days, weeks.
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‘The side of the tape had a number on it and then on it, it said, “If this is a bother or causing you trouble, just leave it. You don’t have to contact me”.
‘And I’m going, “Of course I want to contact you.” That’s when I first called my mum.’
The Real Mo Farah airs tonight at 9pm on BBC One and can be streamed on BBC iPlayer now.
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