For years, readers have only known bestselling author Freida McFadden by her pen name. Now, she’s sharing her real name — and explaining why she’s kept her identity under wraps all this time.
“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,” McFadden told USA Today in an interview published April 8. “I am a real person and I have a real identity and I don’t have anything to hide.”
McFadden is known for her psychological thrillers, including “The Housemaid,” which was adapted into a 2025 movie starring Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney.
Prior to becoming an author, McFadden worked as a doctor treating brain disorders. Because of this, she decided to write under a pen name.
“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,” McFadden said.
Readers know McFadden by her pen name. In photos and her official headshot, she wears glasses and a wig. But in her everyday life, she goes by her real name, Sara Cohen.
The author said she does wear glasses in her real life and she simply wears a wig because she has “no idea how to style my hair.”
“It’s so much more boring than anything that happens in my books,” she said.
These days, McFadden only works in the medical field “once or twice a month” after stepping away from full-time work as a doctor in 2023.
While she was pulling double duty working as an author and doctor, McFadden’s coworkers did learn about her work as a writer and were “really nice about it.”
Still, the author learned it’s hard to give your all to two careers at once.
“I just realized I was completely overwhelmed from trying to do both,” she said.
McFadden knows that many readers have been curious to know her real identity, but she doesn’t think it will change much.
“Even though I haven’t told my real name until now, I feel like I have shared the real me all along and everything I’ve told them has been the truth,” she said. “Even though the name will be a surprise, nothing else will. I’ve always been genuine with my readers.”
In December 2025, McFadden sat down with Jenna Bush Hager for an “Open Book with Jenna” podcast episode and opened up about her double life as an author and physician.
During the discussion, McFadden acknowledged that some people had questioned if she uses artificial intelligence to write her books, especially since she had been able to balance two careers for so long.
“I think every author gets the ‘AI is writing her books,’ even though most of (my books) are written before AI,” McFadden said.
The author also said she’d heard a rumor saying she was really “three men.”
“It’s sort of a compliment,” McFadden said. “Like it will take three men to do what I actually do.”
The author also addressed her decision to write under a pseudonym, saying, “I never for a moment considered not writing under a pen name. I just wanted to keep it separate.”
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