A woman has taken to social media claiming that she was "kidnapped" as a child, learning that she had been living a lie for 26 years.

The unnamed woman, who is now 42, shared her story in a TikTok video under the username @thebeardedmom, telling her followers she was 26 years old when she made the chilling discovery.

Ahead of her wedding in 2005, this mom-of-two decided she wanted to track down her biological mother... but accidentally uncovered a dark family secret.

The clip, titled 'How I learned I had been kidnapped', instantly went viral, racking up almost 160,000 likes at the time of writing.

[[tiktokwidget||https://www.tiktok.com/@thebeardedmom/video/6959563177440873733]]

Opening up about her shock discovery, the woman explains that she had found out her mom wasn't her biological mother. She recalls trying to find out more information about her real mom after making learning the truth.

She says: "I think I was 26-years-old, I was in a healthy place for the first time and I was preparing to get married and I had two children.

"I assumed that the fastest way to track my biological mother down would be to seek out a criminal record for her. I don't know what compelled me to call the sheriff's department in the city that I was born, it just seemed to make sense at the time.

"I called the sheriff's department, I gave them the information that I have, the sheriff became extremely interested in who I was, my personal information and after a few minutes of having that conversation about who I was he asked me to please sit down, he had something to tell me."

[[tiktokwidget||https://www.tiktok.com/@thebeardedmom/video/6960342952438795526]]

She added: "I sat down, he told me he couldn't find any information about my mother, but that I was a missing person.

"I had been [missing] since 1980. There was a police investigation I could not access because the records had been archived, but I had been kidnapped. So yeah, tough day."

Posting a further 15 other clips on TikTok, the woman explained the full story behind her kidnapping, telling her followers what it was like to meet her biological mom for the first time.

In order to track down her birth mother, the woman claims she hired a private investigator and reunited with her in 2006.

In an even bigger twist, she claims her birth mom sold her to the family she grew up with when she was just a baby. What's more, her grandmother had no idea about the sale and reported the child missing to the police.

[[tiktokwidget||https://www.tiktok.com/@thebeardedmom/video/6959923825630858502]]

She claims her birth mother even pretended to go along with it, adding even more mystery to the shocking ordeal.

Naturally, social media users couldn't help but respond to the woman's life-changing discovery.

One person wrote: "The police had THE gossip for you," before another added: "Oh no honey, we are all invested now. I can't imagine what you were going through... it's like 26 years had been a lie. My prayers are with you."

While a third wrote: "That was an amazing story. You told it so well. I'm so impressed by your handle on relationship dynamics and yourself. Thank you!"

Another added: "I'm so sorry that happened to you but I'm glad that you're ok!"

Featured image credit: True Images / Alamy

Woman learns her whole life was a lie after finding out she was 'kidnapped' as a baby