21 People Revealed The Dark Secrets Their Families Kept From Them For Years, And It's Quite Intense
Reddit user u/MissRodriguez1 recently posed the question: "What is a secret that your family/friends didn't want you to know?" The thread quickly filled with many wild, dark, and genuinely shocking family secrets that people learned later in life. Here's what they shared:
1."My mom (~60 years old) was having an affair with a woman my age (~30). The woman and her two daughters moved in with my parents as a safe house to get away from her abusive husband. It apparently started off innocent, but while she lived there, my mom realized she was a lesbian and made a move on her, which the woman reciprocated. They hid it from my dad until he found out and confessed that he, too, loved this woman. They became poly, though it was basically my mom and the woman in a relationship with my dad as the live-in best friend, and they hid it from everyone. There were several hints that we put together, so we confronted them about it. After denying it for several months, they finally confessed to it."
2."My grandfather was a pilot, and it was well known he had a second wife in Australia and that I had distant cousins because of it. My grandma didn't shy away from this fact, and she even kind of romanticized that my grandpa (who died way before I was born) was a traveling 'Don Juan.' When my grandma passed away, I had the job of going through piles and piles of papers. Most of the stuff was bills, newspapers, and junk mail. But, I found love letters from a guy in Hong Kong with photos of my grandma and this man together. The letters were so deeply moving and touching. Their love was so passionate. I was able to piece together that my grandma was so distraught from my grandpa's infidelity that she went to live with her lover for about year. When she decided to leave and return back home, his goodbye letter was heart-wrenching. I also pieced together that my dad's birthdate was about six months after my grandma left Hong Kong."
3."I was going through the old family computer one day and found out the real reason why my dad moved us to the other side of the country. Turns out it wasn't to be closer to our extended family like he told us. Apparently dad had turned in one of the fellow doctors at his clinic for giving out prescriptions for painkillers that were neither ethical or legal. What dad hadn't expected was that all the addicts getting drugs from this guy were VERY upset. A few things started making sense after that. The time the dogs broke the glass door? Nope, someone had tried to break in and got scared off by the dogs."
"Dad's sudden interest in guns and teaching us how to shoot? Surely that's because stepmother's family was all ranchers, right? I mean, that's why I learned to throw a lasso when I was like 6 or 7 years old. Nope, it was because dad was scared for our family's safety, but also wanted to make sure we knew that guns were not toys and we'd know how to use one if we were ever in a situation where that knowledge could save our lives. I never told him I found out. He tried so hard to shield us from the reality of the situation."
4."A college girlfriend of mine had a dying great-grandmother. She had like a week left to live, so she decided to tell her kids and grandkids that she had a years-long affair with her son-in-law, my girlfriend's grandfather, who had been dead for years. Basically, this woman’s daughter, who was still alive, got the news that her dead husband had been sleeping with her mom for half their marriage...all of this only a week before her mom was about to die. I’m sure that was a dark week for her."
5."My aunt, who I was somewhat close to, died a year and a half before I found out through a Facebook post. Every time I would ask if she’d be at Christmas, a birthday, etc., it was always, 'She’s busy,' 'She’s in the hospital,' or 'She doesn’t want to leave the house and risk getting sick.' Turned out she had already gotten sick and died. I should’ve realized, but I didn’t believe they’d lie about something like that."
6."I learned a bunch of stuff about my grandfather after he died. He was a bootlegger and ran whiskey from Canada down the coast into New England. He was an arsonist and burned down several buildings owned by people he had grudges against. He eloped at 16, had several kids, then completely bailed on that family a couple years later."
7."My parents had a son before me. Neither one ever talked about him. In fact, nobody in my entire extended family (uncles, aunts, grandparents) ever mentioned him. I was adored and doted on. It was a happy, loving childhood. When I was 21, I found a box with old photos and saw my parents with a kid, so I asked my mum who it was. She simply looked at it and said it was her son. It came as quite a shock. When I tried to press for more info, she told me he died when he was 3. I wanted to know how, what, and when, but she stopped me in my tracks, and he's never been brought up again."
"I know that his passing was a result of an accident that took place while he was playing. I don't think it's my place to know all the details. He was born a decade before me, so even though I sometimes feel sad when I remember that he existed, I've never felt the need to grieve his loss because I never knew him. If anything, my parents overcompensated with gifts, affection, and their time when I was growing up, so nothing ever felt off to me. I believe in letting bygones be bygones, and some mysteries are best left unsolved."