Influencer Who Pretended to Be Late Twin to Avoid Causing Grandmother 'Heartbreak' Says Family Told Her on 'Deathbed'

An influencer who spent five years pretending to be her late twin sister when calling her grandparents has revealed her family finally told the matriarch the truth on her "deathbed."

Back in December 2022, TikTok star Annie Niu went viral with a video explaining that after her twin sister died, she and her loved ones decided against telling her grandparents. This meant Niu would have to call them every holiday and pretend to be her late sister, who died of meningitis.

Five years went by before the family finally decided to break the news to her elderly grandmother.

"You finally told your family that your twin sister passed away five years ago and they took down every single photo that had her in it (which is pretty much every photo in the house)," Niu captioned a clip posted on Dec. 13.

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While some followers didn't understand what Niu meant — or may not have been keeping up with her viral story — the influencer continued to detail what happened in a follow-up post.

"I didn't tell my grandparents and my extended family that my sister passed away," she said. "It was my dad's decision. This past July, my grandma passed away and on her deathbed, my dad told her that my sister passed away and that she's waiting for her on the other side."

"I think it's because he didn't want to withhold this information but he also didn't want to cause them any heartbreak. And, God forbid, they're 92, something happens."

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Despite her father breaking the news to her grandmother, Niu's grandfather still doesn't know and her aunts ultimately decided to "take down every single photo" in his house that contained her late sister.

"So imagine my surprise when I take my kids to go visit my grandpa and I look on the walls and none of our photos are there," she said.

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Many commenters had further questions about the family's decision to hide the sister's death from her grandparents, with one writing, "Didn’t they ask where she was for five years? I’m so sorry and so confused."

Back in 2022, Niu told her followers that shielding the elderly from "terrible news" was "really common in Asian culture," and that "you can't guarantee" they wouldn't die when being told the sad news.

"My grandparents basically raised me and my sister so we were very close to them and we're probably going to just continuously make up excuses for why she isn't visiting them," she said. "... I dream about her almost every single night so I treat it as I'm spending half of my life with her still, because I see her every night."

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