The Secret's Out

Marah Louw reveals the true identity of her mother in a no-holds-barred autobiography

- Gabisile Ngcobo

SHE’S been in the business for 40 years and has had her fair share of ups and downs. Triumph and tragedy, heartache and humiliation, drama and divorce – she’s endured it all. But it’s not her career highs and lows or the breakdown of her marriage that are the most compelling part of her recently released autobiography, It’s Me, Marah – nor is it her take on what really went down when she was fired from the Idols SA judging panel after an on­air meltdown in 2010.

The most intriguing part of Marah Louw’s story is about a family secret that goes to the heart of who she is and how unravelling it shook her to the core.

She’d had her suspicions for years but even so it came as a shock to learn – at the age of 44 – that the woman she believed to be her sister was actually her mother. And the “parents” who’d raised her were in fact her grandparents.

By the time she discovered the truth in 2006, both the woman she thought was her sister, Mabasotho “Trueblue” Louw, and her grandparents had passed away.

Some people have asked her if she feels her life was a lie, but Marah refuses to use that word in relation to her grandparents.

“I prefer to say the truth was withheld from me. I feel it’s gentler because I love my parents.”

Yes, she still calls them her parents and she harbours no hatred or anger towards them, she says.

“They did a great job raising me. I turned out well. I can’t play God. And I’m not a lie.”