The revelation comes in a new documentary from the British station that will air Wednesday. In it, Farah also says that his real name is Hussein Abdi Kahin and that he was born in Somaliland.
“Despite what I said in the past, my parents never lived in the UK,” Farah told the BBC.
He says the family was “shattered” after his father was killed in the civil war when he was just four years old. Somaliland declared independence in 1991 when it seceded from war-torn Somalia, but has never been recognized as a sovereign state.
“I was separated from my mother and illegally taken to the UK with the name of another child named Mohamed Farah,” she said in a clip of the interview.
The four-time Olympic gold medalist was eight or nine years old when he was transported to the UK by a woman he had never met before, he said.
Once he arrived, he says he was forced to “do housework and care for children.”
A few 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 moved in with a Somali foster family.
“I was still missing my royal family, but from that moment on everything improved,” he tells the BBC.
Farah, who received British citizenship in 2000, says running saved him from a life of servitude.
CNN has contacted Farah representatives to make a comment.