Freida McFadden, whose 2022 novel was adapted into a 2025 film starring Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried, has revealed her real name.

*The Housemaid *author comes clean about her true identity: ‘I’m tired of this being a secret’

Freida McFadden, whose 2022 novel was adapted into a 2025 film starring Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried, has revealed her real name.

By Raechal Shewfelt

Raechal Shewfelt

Raechal Shewfelt is a writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2024. Her work has previously appeared on Yahoo and in American *Journalism Review* and *The Shreveport Times*.

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April 9, 2026 12:48 a.m. ET

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Freida McFadden in 2025. Credit:

Manoli Figetakis/WireImage

The author bestseller* **The Housemaid*, upon which the hit 2025 movie starring Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney was based, has revealed herself.

Freida McFadden is actually Sara Cohen, and she works as a physician who treats brain disorders, she told *USA Today*, noting, "It's time."

"I'm at a point in my career when I'm tired of this being a secret," said the writer, who's sold more than six million books in all. "I'm tired of people debating if I'm a real person or if I'm three men. I am a real person, and I have a real identity, and I don't have anything to hide."

She does wear glasses, although the hair she wears is a wig.

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"I have no idea how to style my hair," she told the news outlet.

Cohen stopped working full-time as a doctor the year after *The Housemaid*'s 2022 release. By then, she had already penned several novels. She has dozens to her name now, including three sequels to *The Housemaid*.

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She said her work colleagues had been "really nice" staying quiet about the McFadden lore, after they figured out that she had a double life.

"My whole goal was to keep it a secret until I was (ready to) step back from my doctor job," Cohen said, "so it wouldn't be like everyone I work with suddenly knew, and it compromised my ability to do my job."

She joked that the revelation is "more boring than anything that happens in my books."

And she promised that not everything she presented had been fake.

"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."

Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney in 'The Housemaid'.

The first *Housemaid *book was adapted into a film that was a hit. Director Paul Feig's take on the story of a live-in maid hired to work for a wealthy family with a big secret has earned $400 million globally at the box office.

A movie based on the second, *The Housemaid's Secret*, with Sweeney reprising her role as Millie, is set to hit theaters on Dec. 17, 2027.

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