Wait, WHAT? It turns out Winnie the Pooh has always been a GIRL!

For anyone who grew up reading and watching Winnie the Pooh, it turns out we were lied to the WHOLE time.

Yep, Winnie the Pooh is actually a female bear. Who knew, right?! And to really confuse things, she is from Canada, not England.

In a new picture book called Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World's Most Famous Bear, we find out that Winnie is actually named after a Canadian black bear from London Zoo called Winnie (real name Winnipeg).

The new book was written by ​​Lindsay Mattick​, who is the granddaughter of the soldier who brought Winnie to England.

Lieutenant Harry Colebourn​ bought the bear for just $20 during the First World War.

The soldier and his bear became inseparable, until he was called away to France for army duties and had to leave Winnie at London Zoo.

There's a happy ending though because Winnie made a new friend very quickly; a boy who always visited her at the zoo, Christopher Robin.

It's starting to make sense now, right? Because Christopher was so fond of the bear, he named his own toy bear after Winnie. And who was Christopher's dad? Author ​AA Milne​, who went on to write the classic Winnie books.

Mystery solved, folks!