Best-selling The Housemaid author Freida McFadden reveals true identity
Best-selling The Housemaid author Freida McFadden reveals true identity
The publishing world’s longest-standing enigma has finally been unraveled, as the prolific author behind the thriller series *The Housemaid* has shared her real name. Known to millions of readers as Freida McFadden, the writer has now confirmed she is Sara Cohen, a medical professional who initially masked her identity to separate her career as a doctor from her work as a novelist.
Behind the Pseudonym
Cohen adopted the pen name Freida McFadden in 2013 when self-publishing her debut novel, *The Devil Wears Scrubs*, a semi-autobiographical account of her life as a resident doctor. The name was a playful nod to the medical system, referencing the Fellowship and Residency Electronic Interactive Database. She continued writing while practicing medicine in Boston, specializing in brain disorders, before her literary career gained momentum with psychological thrillers.
“I’m tired of people debating if I’m a real person or if I’m three men,” Cohen said in an interview with USA Today. “I am a real person and I have a real identity and I don’t have anything to hide.”
Under the McFadden name, she became the second highest-selling author in the UK for 2025, with 2.6 million books sold. Her success was driven by *The Housemaid*, published in 2022 and adapted into a film last year featuring Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried. Only Julia Donaldson, author of *The Gruffalo*, surpassed her sales in that year.
Cohen’s dual life created a unique challenge. In 2024, she told the *New York Times* that she feared her patients might feel uneasy knowing they were being treated by a best-selling author. “At work, I want to be a doctor,” she explained. “A lot of my books have medical stuff in them, and I don’t want people saying, ‘Is this based on me?’ It feels unprofessional.”
“I love that people are reading my books,” she said to the *Washington Post*. “But the spotlight on me specifically is hard… It’s not just about privacy but also about social anxiety. My success as an author escalated fears that I may not be ‘that amazing person that everyone expects you to be.'”
With *The Housemaid* topping charts in 2025 and her latest works, including *Want to Know a Secret?* and *Dear Debbie*, gaining traction, Cohen decided to step away from full-time medicine in 2023. She now works part-time, once or twice a month, allowing her to reveal her true self without disrupting her professional life.
Her revelation came after a colleague at the hospital recognized her in a Freida McFadden photo and shared the discovery with others. “The cat is out of the bag,” she told the *Times* in January. “But they’ve been really respectful about not posting anything about me on social media, and I tried to repay them with a book signing at work.”
Cohen still embraces her pen name, though. “Even though I haven’t told my real name until now, I feel like I have shared the real me all along,” she said. “Everything I’ve told them has been the truth. Even though the name will be a surprise, nothing else will. I’ve always been genuine with my readers.”
