The painful secret I hid from my twin

Lives Less Ordinary

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.6 • 814 Ratings

🗓️ 6 April 2025

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

After a terrible motorbike accident 18-year-old Alex Lewis was left with no memory of his previous life. The only person he could remember was Marcus, his identical twin brother. He became the person Alex most relied upon to rebuild his entire life and memories. But then Marcus made an extraordinary decision - to shield his brother from their traumatic past by re-writing history and creating a new reality.

For over a decade, Marcus carried the weight of his secret. But when fragments of the past began to emerge, that carefully constructed narrative was shattered, leading to some deeply personal and difficult conversations.

Please note this programme contains themes of child sexual abuse.

Alex and Marcus' story features in a documentary called Tell Me Who I Am which is available on Netflix.

Presenter: Andrea Kennedy Producer: Tom Harding Assinder

Photo: Alex and Marcus Lewis Credit: Alex and Marcus Lewis

Get in touch: [email protected] or WhatsApp: 0044 330 678 2784

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're about to listen to a BBC podcast, but this is about something else you might enjoy.
0:05.4	My name's Katie Lecky and I'm an assistant commissioner for on demand music on BBC Sounds.
0:10.7	The BBC has an incredible musical heritage and culture and as a music lover, I love being part of that.
0:17.4	With music on sounds, we offer collections and mixes for everything, from workouts to
0:22.4	helping you nod off, boogie in your kitchen, or even just a moment of calm. And they're all
0:28.1	put together by people who know their stuff. So if you want some expertly curated music in your life,
0:34.9	check out BBC Sounds. Just before we begin, this program deals with childhood sexual abuse.
0:41.3	Please listen with discretion.
0:47.3	I'd been living this false life and giving Alex false stories
0:54.7	and making our life fun and normal.
0:59.8	It's devoid of any fact that we'd had any kind of tough childhood.
1:05.6	I'd taken a while that away from him and created a new reality fame.
1:17.6	And suddenly within two seconds, Edward unraveled, and he knew that everything I'd said was a lie.
1:30.4	That's Marcus Lewis. In 1982, he was given an incredible gift, the power to change the course of a life.
1:39.7	His identical twin brother, Alex, had been in a serious motorbike accident.
1:47.6	I actually felt him have the accident while I was in bed.
1:51.2	It was in the middle of the night and I knew that he'd had an accident.
1:55.2	And I went and spoke to my mother about it and said that he's in the hospital.
1:56.7	We need to go to the hospital now.
2:01.2	And then an hour later, the hospital phoned to say that he was in the hospital.
2:02.6	You knew this then?
2:04.2	I knew he had had the accident, yeah.
	...

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