Woman finally admits she has been pretending to be her dead twin for YEARS for heartbreaking reason

An influencer has admitted to pretending to be her dead twin sister for years, fearing the heartbreaking news would kill her grandparents.

Annie Niu, 34, a lifestyle and food personality on social media, played the role of her late twin brother on the phone with her grandparents every holiday.

Her sister had died five years earlier from viral meningitis, and the secret was kept from her elderly grandparents until her grandmother was “on her deathbed.”

In a viral TikTok video posted on Friday, Niu tearfully revealed to her followers that she had finally told some of her in-the-dark family members the truth surrounding her sister’s tragic death.

“POV: You finally told your family that your twin sister died 5 years ago, and they deleted every family photo that had her in it (which is pretty much every photo in their house),” the caption read.

The post, which has been viewed more than five million times since it was published, has thousands of comments from viewers expressing their thoughts on the secret – and shock.

In one of Niu’s previous videos, she explained that hiding the news from her extended family was her father’s idea.

Her sister had tragically died of viral meningitis five years earlier, prompting Niu to play the role of her twin brother out of fear that the news would kill her grandparents.

“I think it’s because he didn’t want to withhold this information, but also because he didn’t want to cause them more heartbreak,” she explained to her followers. “And God forbid they’re 92 and something happens.”

Some members of her family seemed to handle the news quite poorly after finding out, which Niu said makes her “sad” about the situation.

“My aunts apparently made the decision to delete every photo that had my sister in it,” she said, also noting that she counted 17 photos last time.

“Imagine my surprise when I took my kids to visit my grandpa and I looked at the walls and none of our photos were there,” she added.

The news was shared with her grandmother just before she passed away in July this year, when Niu’s father told her that her granddaughter would be waiting for her in heaven.

But to this day, Niu’s grandfather has absolutely no idea.

While some viewers were empathetic towards Niu and her loss, others were simply confused.

“The strangest thing ever is people not telling their family/parents about the death of a loved one,” one viewer wrote. “I’ve never heard of that in 27 years.”

In a previous TikTok video, Niu shared that she pretends to be her twin brother every holiday while talking to her grandparents on the phone

Niu and her father finally came to terms with her grandmother last July while she was on her ‘deathbed’ – but her grandfather remains absolutely clueless to this day

Another wrote: ‘I had to read this seven times because what do you mean five years ago?’

“How could they not have known for 5 years!?!?!?!?!?” another wondered.

But a shocking number of responses claimed that they too had been hiding similar secrets from their own families.

‘My sister died three years ago, and we didn’t tell our grandmother either. She is in her late 90s and asks about her often,” one viewer revealed.

Another added: “My uncle passed away six years ago, another uncle three years ago and my cousin four years ago.

‘We never told my grandmother because of her health. She passed away last year and I joked that she would haunt us. My family did the exact same thing,” wrote another.