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People Share Their Family Secrets That Aren’t For The Faint-Hearted And Here Are 45 Of Them
No one enjoys keeping an unsettling family secret. No matter how much of an impenetrable vault you think you are, this confidential piece of information will keep gnawing at you until you reach a point where you just have to spill the beans to someone.
These people are using Reddit as a platform to unburden themselves while hiding behind the anonymity of a username. They responded to this loaded question: “What’s a secret your family doesn’t think you know, but you do?”
Many of the stories you’re about to read may very well be plots to a twisted thriller drama. You may want to have some popcorn with you as you read through.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
I'm 99% certain that my brother (born 3 years before divorce of my mum and dad) is actually my half brother, and his dad is my step dad - my mum was cheating on my dad with the dude who was to be my new dad.
To cover this s**t up, my mum made up a bunch of terrible lies about my dad (he killed my (imaginary, it turns out) twin brother in utero, tried to kill me, he kidnapped us, my dad always hated my brother, etc etc) that made me cut contact and plan his death for 35 long, angry, and wasted years. Until I discovered all the lies. Unpacking this s**t with my step bro (we're tight) and we came to the same conclusion about my brothers real father.
The tragic part was, all these lies really f****d with me and my brother's heads. My bro committed suicide at 18 with no note. For years I tried to figure out why he would top himself, and now I'm all but certain it was due to the jedi level mindfuck from my mums attempt to hide her infidelity. My anger was channeled into rage, his went to sadness.
Miss you bro. You should be here. You'd have loved my kids, my little girl is just like you.
#2
That my cousin’s Papillon didn’t run away… I was with my Uncle drinking on the porch and watched that poor pup get snatched off the ground by a massive hawk. A blink and it was gone. There was nothing we could do. We looked at each other after a solid few minutes of silence and he leans over: “That f*****g dog ran away.” I nodded and that was the last we discussed it.
#3
Up until today, the secret was that I am gay. I came out to my extended family this weekend after telling my parents that I was done hiding (I'd kept it secret several years at my mom's request.) Ironically, the response from my aunts/uncles was way better than my parents', they all said they still loved me and my mom said I was ruining her life 🙃.
#4
I absolutely adored my mother. She was a single mother who got a master's in education while taking care of the three of us all the way up to working being a head of a department in the DOE. I never seen her drink, shout, act immature, act out in any unbecoming way etc. My whole life the one thing people commented on was how "classy" my mother is.
Then two years ago when she passed away and I was cleaning out her house, I ended up accidently taking one of her boxes of papers from the attic thinking it was mine. It was full of court documents talking about an affair my mother had with a married colleague where she got allegedly got so upset he ended it that she started to stalk and harass him and he filed criminal charges on her as well as brought it to HR at her former job. The things he says my mother did in those documents, I can't imagine in a hundred years. Yet I also couldn't imagine her having an affair with this guy at all but she admits it in the paperwork. I know why she left her state job and we moved to DC- basically there was some kind of deal made where she would leave and it would go away. And the criminal case was also pretty much dropped with the expectation and deal she would never contact him or bother him again.
Like wtf. It's made me really realize that you don't know ANYONE really.
EDIT: I really didn't expect to get all these nice and respectful replies. I realized that a lot of you are right and I'm judging my mom a bit to harshly when she did everything else right and had been a great mother. Everyone makes a lapse in judgment sometimes especially when it comes to love and it seems she owned up to it and took responsibility. Thanks. I feel a lot better about it.
Valerie Brillhart 1 week ago
You remember only the good between you and your mom. Everything else doesn't count
#5
My aunt divorced my uncle in the 50s, with six children. She had no job nor any means to support her & her kids and had to split the family up, sending half the kids to her sister’s house while she & the other three stayed in another sister’s home. She and her six children were treated like dirt. No one could understand why she left her husband. She died in the 1980s taking the truth to her grave. I became close to one of her daughters who also died, recently. But on her deathbed, drugged up from all the medication, she told me the truth. She told me her father, the uncle whom my aunt divorced “touched her all over when she was 12.” 😳😢.
The Starsong Princess 1 week ago
Kudos to the aunt. So many women looked the other way in the 50s because the loss of wage earner meant they could not stay afloat. She was lucky to have her sisters to fall back on.
#6
Hell, I am positively mortified hearing about all these stories in here. Mine is a bit light one. I am from a very conservative country, and arranged marriages were the norm here, until a generation ago. Mine uncle's marriage was the first love marriage in our family, and it happened after a lot of persuasions with the Elders. Long before that, my uncle once took me to see his gf in the McDonalds. I was hardly 5, and I remembered the woman as a tall amiable one, who gave me her burgers to eat. As we were going away, I told uncle that I am gonna tell mother how fine this lady was. (We lived in a joint family.) Uncle was terrified. He said there is no haste, and made me promise to never tell again. They married next year.
21 years from then, and they are still married with a boy and a girl.
Tl:Dr; I met my future aunt, before the rest of the family even knew she existed.
#7
The part they know I know now, because I vocally expressed my knowledge, is that my dad cheated on my mom while she was pregnant with my younger brother. There are a couple parts they don’t know I know, and one they don’t even know themselves.
1.My dad actively took me to see his mistress (my now stepmom) while he was still with my mom. I was really young, but I remember being around her while my parents were still married. It didn’t click for me until I got older, and the rest of the family was really mad to find out when I told them.
2.The thing I know that my dad and the rest of my family doesn’t know themselves is that my paternal grandpa continued to give my mom $1000/month on top of what my dad paid in child support, because he was pissed at my dad for cheating. My mom actually told me a story about my dad trying to bail on a dinner where the divorce was going to be discussed, and my grandpa straight up said, “You’re taking your f*****g b***h a*s to that dinner.” My dad started favoring the kids he had with my stepmom, and my grandpa wasn’t having it. Until the day he died, he would secretly give my brother and I “extra” for Christmas, birthdays, etc., because he knew the other two kids were getting treated better. My mom told me many times that my grandpa was the only member of my dad’s side she truly still loved after the divorce because of everything he did.
3.My grandparents paid for the house my dad and mom lived in, but my dad wanted to leave it when he got remarried. He didn’t want the memories from it. Note that this house was three years old and really expensive. My dad threw a fit, because he wanted to build a new one family farm land. This pissed the rest of my family off, because it was active farmland. This fit split the family in half, and it’s still not fixed. My aunts and uncles still don’t like my stepmom because of her role.
Brian Droste 1 week ago (edited)
I am glad your grandpa step up in provided for his grand kids. Seems like I read on here to many times one set of step kids gets the bad end of the deal.
#8
1. The " richest " of them, Swiss banker, constantly borrows money from 2 of the retired middle income family members to stay afloat. He doesn't know the rest of the family know, and is insufferably arrogant about his non existent wealth.
2. The fitness instructor of the family is an anorexic who also drinks a bottle of wine every night, and is constantly preaching health / fitness to the rest of the family.
3. Sister of fitness woman is an aerospace engineer, who graduated with honors. Her personality is so overbearing and toxic that she can't keep a job, so she's a SAHM who looks down on working moms in the family.
4. The judgemental ultra religious aunt had to go to another state to have a baby in secret. Thanks ancestry test.
#9
My older sister is actually my mom.
TruthoftheHeart 1 week ago (edited)
And this is why proper birth control and abortion needs to exist, because no woman should end up raising her baby as her sibling because she was so young at the time she had them.
#10
My sister used to pimp her friends to my older brother and father to avoid having sex with them.
#11
My grandpa had an entire secret family.
Even named his mistress’s kids the same exact names as my mom and her brothers. No one knew until his funeral, they all think I was too young to remember (8ish 9ish) but I do
Edit: funny part is, I remember the secret kids and my mom + her siblings all getting drunk together later that night too.
Nitka Tsar 1 week ago
I like that they got drunk together. It‘s so irritating when people hate the offspring more then the actual culprit.
#12
Back when i was 14, my father got blackout drunk and told me that he and my mother nearly had me aborted. She was 15 when i was conceived, and both of them were growing up in poverty. At the appointment for the procedure, they decided against it and kept me, knowing that they were both throwing away better chances at a good life in adulthood.
He doesn't remember telling me, i am certain of it. I dealt with the emotional rollercoaster on my own instead of confronting them.
After a few years of dealing with my emotions over it all, i was happy they had the choice. I am pro-choice. They set themselves back probably 15 years compared to where they could be if they went through with it the way i see things. I am thankful for life and thankful they put so much love and care into my upbringing. They raised me to make smarter decisions, and they set me up for success in having a "better life" than the lives they had. Not everyone has as much love and selflessness as my parents had, day after day, raising me. There are billions of different lives and situations out there, and sometimes, abortion is the right decision. Me being here probably wasn't the right one, they struggled a lot. Alcoholism, divorce, depression, poverty, and who knows what else, had followed that decision.
All of this being said. Me knowing this is not getting back to them, ever. They can tell me about it consciously if they want, but i don't think they will.
Maris madness 1 week ago
You are meant to be here. Your life is worth going through every trial
#13
That my uncle (deceased) was a registered sex offender. I was never introduced to him and my dad (His brother) would never speak about him. I was told he passed away, and the excuse of "You never met him!) was the reason I couldn't go to his funeral yet my parents have dragged me to peoples funeral that I never knee's funeral. They weren't even related to me. Got suspicious and searched my uncles name up on one of those sex offender lists and his name came up + his face. Turns out he was caught touching a 3 year old child at a park a few weeks before I was born. Scary. My parents were probably just protecting me.
Family's_disappointment 1 week ago
"probably just protecting you" !!!!!!! Miss they were protecting you. So many families turn a blind eye to stuff like this, but your mom and dad, they didn't. You are so lucky to have them as parents, cause not everybody has parents like yours.
#14
That my grandfather cheated on my grandma with her best friend! Karma did him dirty, the “best friend” took his money when they divorced.
That my father cheated on my mother when she was pregnant with me! (My father is the son of the cheating grandpa btw)
Such a f****d up family.
TruthoftheHeart 1 week ago
So many men on this list needed to keep it in their pants. What is it with the cheaters and secret families and everything
#15
My mom and dad used to go the bar together to pick up guys.
#16
I discovered that my mom had a secret husband (she divorced him) that no one knew about. I do the family history research for my family, and I discovered it by accident. I asked her about it discreetly, and she begged me not to tell anyone--said not even my dad or brother knew. She died in 2003, and I still haven't, or won't, tell a soul.
#17
My brother got arrested and went to court for multiple d**g charges. They went out of their way to hide it from me so that they could continue to act like I was the disappointment. They pretended they were going out to breakfast without me and rubbed it in my face to cover up his court dates.
#18
That mom was never accepted in the family because she wasn't quite "white" enough.
#19
I have a half-sister. No one in my family has ever spoken about her, and after putting the pieces together I understand why. Being young, unwed and pregnant in the South in the early sixties could be f*****g tragic.
katiekat0214 1 week ago
Sounds like someone I know very closely. I have an unknown niece out there somewhere. Wish her well and hope she has a happy life.
#20
My grandfather lied about where he was stationed in WW2. He confided some in me in his last years, but a few slip-ups on his part and some papers I found made me start questioning.
He says he was stationed in Las Vegas at a supply warehouse the entire war, but has papers from the OSS, knows how to hot-wire a single engine plane, and when I made some remark about a field manual saying to fire your gun into an enemy if your bayonet is stuck in them, he mumbled "Yeah, done that a few times."
My mom and aunts all like to dodge the question, they may not even know it all themselves, but my older cousin and I both agree he probably stacked bodies across Europe.
Mr. Toast 1 week ago
Knew someone who's Grandad was UK Home Guard.He told me some of his Granddad's stories including one were they had a hidden base in a wood. It had been stocked with weapons and explosives. Built secretly only a few of them new about it. His Grandad had been a local farmer. Piecing it all together I told the person I knew that more than likely his Grandad had been a Home Guard Auxiliary a secret force that would go into hiding after the German Invasion to emerge and cause sabotage behind German lines. He told me his Grandfather had said that after the war they just left the place hidden so supposedly there is a hidden bunker in a wood full of weapons and explosives. They were tied by the Secrets Act but I suppose 30 years on and time running out Grandad probably felt it safe to let a few things slip out.
#21
My parents could not afford an abortion when my mother got pregnant with me, so they tried half a dozen “folk remedies” to end the pregnancy. I was first told by someone who was trying to hurt me (and at the time, it did). It was later confirmed by another person who misunderstood something I said and thought I was referring to this. The two people do not know each other.
I don’t hold any ill will toward my parents since I also know the unbelievable financial pressure they were under at the time. They couldn’t afford a third child and I was a surprise due to a birth control failure. It would utterly destroy them if they knew I’ve known about this most of my life. I wish I could tell them that I completely understand and I feel great empathy for the horrible position they were in, but I know it would restart years of emotional pain even if they knew how I feel.
Tiger 1 week ago
Abortion is free in my country :( it’s good that so many people in the world have abortion access but it’s sad that some can’t afford one - especially because that means they can’t afford another child either but have no other choice. (I’m glad OP is here but it makes me feel sad that this situation probably happens to a lot of parents in certain countries without free or affordable healthcare).
#22
My mother is the reason my dad wasn’t in my life for over 18 years.
My sibling and I were supposedly abducted by my mother and left our country in Europe for the US.
My mother is a US citizen but my father was not, being from Europe. He took her to court here in the US but for some reason nothing amounted to it. I grew up listening and believing her stories of how he was a bad person and how he treated her. Although, she was pretty bad herself with the physical, mental, and emotional abuse I endured all my life with her. But because of the stories she told my sibling and I, I grew up hating him.
I came to a boiling point from the abuse she gave and decided one day to move out once I turned 22 and moved in with my wife (gf at the time). My wife (gf at the time) knew how much it hurt me not being able to be or speak with my dad so she secretly contacted him and put us in touch.
5 years later and my dad and I are reconnected almost speaking daily. I get to go back home yearly to reconnect with family. We both are grateful to my wife.
At first it was difficult speaking to my dad as I had so much anger, hate, and questions for him. But I later learned my mom got married secretly before him and us and that’s how she got her US citizenship. She ended up cheating on my dad and that’s how my dad found out about the previous marriage by contacting him to ask why they divorced. Once my dad told the man he wanted to ask about my mom, the guy told him to never contact him again because she ruined his life.
All of my family from my dads side told me stories about how my mom made life difficult for my dad. I learned a lot about her and honestly put the pieces together with how she was as a human being.
5 years and I still have 0 contact with her.
Brian Droste 1 week ago
Did you let your siblings know about your and their dad? If not should have and let them know how your relationship with your dad is going. Maybe they want to contact him themselves.
#23
My wife was sexually, physically and emotionally abused as a toddler by her mothers boyfriend at the time (plus she was an absolute terrible mother in many other ways).
My wife’s mum has never talked to her about it and has no idea that she/we know about it. We only know as my wife’s grandmother spilled the beans. I don’t even think her husband knows about it.
It’s all kept on the hush as my wife’s grandmother doesn’t want my wife’s mum to find out she told her, my wife’s mum has secretly been taken out of her will, she is leaving all her money and a house to our children.
It’s a really complicated family dynamics and there’s also a lot of complex trauma, it’s easy to say from the outside to say “just cut them off”, CPTSD is a real c**t of a condition. Karma will come around.
#24
My mom and dad left in the middle of the night, I was left home alone with my 4 siblings. After a couple hours, at like 2 in the morning, I called my mom to find out what the hell was going on. She paused, and I heard her ask dad, “what do I tell her?” He responded, “well, don’t tell her he shot himself.” Mom got back on the phone and said they were going to go help my step grandma with something. Turns out the thing was scrubbing grandpas brain off the wall and funeral arrangements. So yeah, that’s how I found out grandpa died.
#25
My Uncle has 3 kids none of our family has ever met. I didn't find out until after my Uncle died. My Mom knows that I know but no one else. My Uncle was a truck driver and he drove all over the US. He had a girlfriend in every state apparently 🤨 My Uncle knew about the children but he just didn't care...but..he was married 6 times and had two children who he raised and loved. It's really weird that he didn't want those other kids or wanted us to know about them......
#26
The fact my grandmother basically ordered my father to give my old sister and I to the state since we were too "rowdy.".
#27
My mom f****d my sister’s first boyfriend.
Michael Largey 1 week ago
My high school girl friend was convinced by her four years older sister to dump me because we we going to different colleges. A month after the break-up, guess which older sister was driving down to my campus to try to climb into bed with me? (She did not succeed.)
#28
This hit close to home and convenient timing but that my family or more of my mom hid my potentially autism diagnosis from me for over 20 years. I always had trouble in school always falling behind, writing, balance, speech etc the schools would constantly try to get me in special education which my mom refused I remember being in an program as a kindergarten I research it and it was an Autism Early intervention program I ask my mom and she got defensive, denied it despite me showing her all the evidence and said it doesn't matter and she doesn't remember. I'll never know the full truth I accepted it well working on it.
Awkward lady 1 week ago
Some parents just cannot accept the fact that their child isn't "perfect". My father had trouble recognising the fact that I was partially deaf, and it took several years before I got the hearing aid I needed.
#29
My parents adopted a baby girl who they gave away about a year later. This was when I was a toddler so I don’t remember her.
They already had a house full of children so I can’t imagine why they adopted one—or why they tossed her away. I am thinking about trying to find out what happened to her. I hope she’s doing okay.
#30
My nan and my grandpa are cousins. I'm from Yorkshire England.
#31
Found my brother’s Reddit username and that he had a fiancée who was pregnant and died in a drunk driving accident. Not sure if it’s the truth, but he mentioned it several times in comments.
#32
My dad fathered a baby girl when he was 16ish. Baby was given up for adoption right after she was born. From what I've put together, she was born around Minneapolis in either 1967 or 1968.
#33
My Dad drunkenly called me and told me my younger brother is my half-brother. My mother doesn’t know that I know.
Long story short is that my Mom cheated on my Dad and didn’t tell him till the child was two. To which she then divorced him and left him for the guy who she cheated on him with.
#34
I know that they have been hiding for atleast a month the fact that my dog was going to die.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 1 week ago
I don't think family members/parents should hide a pet's impending death from a child unless the child is too young to understand death in any form (like 2-3 years old.) It will feel just horribly, needlessly cruel when the animal is just one day "gone" because that was the day that a family member took it in to be euthanized. That leaves unbelievable scars on a child (guess how I know!) The child never gets closure because they never got to say goodbye or even spend a last bit of meaningful time with their pet. Is it hard to talk to a child about death, especially if they've never experienced it? I imagine it is. But it is so much better than having the child come home from school one day to find their beloved pet just gone. I don't know if that was OP's situation or how they found out their dog is dying, but I cannot imagine the feelings of betrayal and breach of trust this would cause between a child (even an adult child) and their family members.
#35
I know it's not the question, but look it's close enough to be an acceptable answer.
Mine is a secret I know that my family are refusing to accept. My sister has a form of autism. It hasn't been diagnosed, but I believe it to be aspergers. Thankfully it manifests itself in a humorous way... mostly... but other times not. Because it's usually humorous she gets away with it, but socially she's very autistic. I tried mentioning it to my parents once, but they wouldn't hear of it. Basically they just shut me down and asked me not to talk about it.
Huddo's sister 1 week ago
Girls with autism in particular are good at masking or it presents in ways people don't notice as much. Parents that won't accept it, or even get kids tested, really p**s me off! As an early years teacher I see it far too much.
#36
That my uncle is gay. I think i went to his house maybe once when I was 3 before he got married to my other uncle. My parents tried to hide this fact for some reason, but 2 years ago, I was the only one in the house when the postman arrived, and saw the Christmas card my two uncles had sent. Also that the same uncle has skin cancer because he spent too much time in Spain trying to get a tan.
#37
My parents were married, my dad caught my mom red handed cheating on him, my dad beat the s**t of the dude who my mom was with, they got a divorce, and then later re-married.
I know my parents do their f*****g best to keep that a secret, but all four of their children know however, it's really one of those things that's rarely talked about.
#38
I’m the product of adultery and my parents got married when I was two, not before I was born as I was told.
#39
My father was dishonorably discharged from the Air Force for theft. He told my sibling and I when he was trashed. I know he doesn’t remember.
#40
That my cousin destroyed her life by engaging in sperm roulette despite being engaged.
#41
My parents borrow lot of money from me because supposedly they own it to an Italian businessman, but when I went to the bank, I saw they had paid the amount to an Austrian bank. Never asked them explanation.
Michael Largey 1 week ago
It is possible for a businessman to have a bank account in a neighboring country, particularly in Europe.
#42
Zealot family member who never met a American instigated war he didn't like was a draft dodger during Vietnam. I found the smoking gun letters to another relative from 1968 to prove it. The letters were found in the recipients house after they passed. They have no idea I know. I wish I knew this gem back in 2006.
Michael Largey 1 week ago (edited)
We had a word for people like Russ Limbaugh and the OP's relative - chickenhawks.
#43
My dad cheated on my mum when I was a baby (and maybe also before my birth).
She suspects, but never had any proof.
He told me about 5 years ago and it really f****d me up for a while. Noone else knows.
The divorce was about 25 years ago, they already hate each other's guts and I don't think it would benefit anyone to open old wounds. Especially my siblings and me. It's already a hassle to get them into the same room - it'll be impossible if I told her.
#44
Gramps helped with Hiroshima.
L M Desmet 1 week ago
The decision to bomb lay with the government. If gramps was a scientist or any person working at that level of the development, it was not on him.
#45
Nothing too bad but apparently they have told alot of relatives I was a good student but I skipped more then half of classes to play basketball all day. I did not graduate from high school even.
What do you think ?
J. Maxx 1 week ago
The earliest recollection I have of my father's brother molesting me was when I was around 3.5 years old. This went on until I was 10. I never said anything to anyone until I was in my mid-twenties, and I told my mother. She was devastated and then incredibly angry. I came to find out that my father and his mother knew my uncle was a pedophile and never said anything to anyone. My Mom only found out after she divorced my father when I was 15. I never told her because she was going through so much s**t with my father hitting her, and I was afraid of him. Also, my uncle was the only male who showed me affection. My father hated me even while my Mom was pregnant and tried to make her miscarry by kneeing her in the stomach. Anyway, I'm 56 and still here, and so is my Mom, and the rest are dead, so there's that. LOL!
Tyranamar Suess 1 week ago
I'm so sorry. Glad you've escaped. And glad that mom was outraged on your behalf.
Load More Replies...
UncleJohn3000 1 week ago
Humanity's dirty laundry. Ugh. I need pictures of kittens and puppies now.
Michael Largey 1 week ago
My father was engaged to another woman prior to meeting my mom. My mom never knew. My dad claimed to be an accountant at a major electronics company. He was in fact a manager in their industrial espionage department. I don't know if mom ever figured this out.
J. Maxx 1 week ago
The earliest recollection I have of my father's brother molesting me was when I was around 3.5 years old. This went on until I was 10. I never said anything to anyone until I was in my mid-twenties, and I told my mother. She was devastated and then incredibly angry. I came to find out that my father and his mother knew my uncle was a pedophile and never said anything to anyone. My Mom only found out after she divorced my father when I was 15. I never told her because she was going through so much s**t with my father hitting her, and I was afraid of him. Also, my uncle was the only male who showed me affection. My father hated me even while my Mom was pregnant and tried to make her miscarry by kneeing her in the stomach. Anyway, I'm 56 and still here, and so is my Mom, and the rest are dead, so there's that. LOL!
Tyranamar Suess 1 week ago
I'm so sorry. Glad you've escaped. And glad that mom was outraged on your behalf.
Load More Replies... UncleJohn3000 1 week ago
Humanity's dirty laundry. Ugh. I need pictures of kittens and puppies now.
Michael Largey 1 week ago
My father was engaged to another woman prior to meeting my mom. My mom never knew. My dad claimed to be an accountant at a major electronics company. He was in fact a manager in their industrial espionage department. I don't know if mom ever figured this out.
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