" I just laughed , and then I went into two age of therapy . "
NOTE : This post incorporate mention of rape , abortion , felo-de-se , and other sensible topics . Please proceed with carefulness .
Recently, Reddit user u/Wybrismaposeda very juicy question over on r/AskReddit, inquiring, “What was the biggest secret that wasn’t told to you as a child but you discovered after becoming an adult?” People came through with alllll their family drama, and the tea is piping hot, to say the least. Here are 33 lies and secrets people learned (or, in some cases, kept):
chronicle have also been source fromthis similar thread where the parent are portion out secrets they kept from their kids , and this one about kinsperson secrets .
1.“My daughter knows that her grandparents are getting a divorce. She doesn’t know that it’s because her Grandpa (72) decided to knock up a 23-year-old. We will talk about it once she’s older, but I don’t want to normalize that relationship for a preadolescent.”
" I am emphatically endure to do my good to explain to my daughter , but she ’s nine and emotionally overwhelmed by the very idea of the divorce . When she come to me to speak about it ( having processed the estimate ) , then I will explain the situation more fully . My hubby has already tell his dad that our family and his young folk wo n’t be aim together for a barbeque anytime in the foreseeable future . "
— nilikon
2.“That my dad’s birthday was actually October 5, not December 5 (like he told everyone his whole life). That meant Grandma was pregnant when she and Grandpa got married. We discovered it when Dad passed away. He had hidden his driver’s license and passport and ‘celebrated’ his December birthday. Mom had already passed, but we have to assume she knew. Oh, the scandal!”
— SaveFerrisBrother
3.“On my 18th birthday, my father walked into my room with a bag of weed and a bunch of rolling papers and showed me the entire hidden portion of our house (not on blueprints, accessed through a hidden door) that he used to grow weed. I had gotten grounded for smoking weed several times by that point in my life. This was in Florida in the ’90s.”
— Chinstrap_1
4.“My father told me that my mother was dead all throughout my childhood. Everyone in the family — aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, my stepmother — supported the lie. Not because my mother was on drugs or abusive, or a criminal, or even a bad person. Just because they had a huge argument one night and she went to stay with a friend, without me, so he decided she would never be allowed to be in my life again.Ever. He wrote her off. On my 18th birthday, she called our house and asked to speak with me. So, I found out the truth.”
— curiosity0425
5.“My grandparents had a live-in male tenant who — as kids — we knew as an uncle. Although never disclosed, I put the pieces together as an adult and realized that he fathered at least two of my aunts/uncles with my grandmother.”
— Appropriate_Net_652
6.“My grandma didn’t drive. I thought she couldn’t, but it was just never discussed. One day, when I was maybe 7 or 8, I’d been trying to get someone, anyone, to drive me to the store for candy. We were visiting my aunt and uncle, and Grandma lived with them. They had Bit-O-Honey at the local store, which I could no longer get at home, but no one would take me to the store. Finally, I said I’d just ask Grandma, and my cousin chimed in with, ‘Grandma can’t drive.’ ‘Oh, you bet your sweet ass I can drive. They just don’t let me!’ Grandma replied, having overheard. But that’s all that was said about it, and my aunt finally took me to the store, so I forgot about it.”
" Years later , when I ’d just gotten my permit , I asked my mom what was up with Grandma not driving . She explained that during prohibition era , grandma boot - legged alcohol for moonshiner . She was very successful at it . She was so successful at it that when the moonshiners were at long last busted , even though the revenuer never caught my granny , her license was suspend by the State Department ' to never be reissue . '
Later in life , she was told she could petition for it back , but it came with an admission of guilt or some such . She told ‘em to go to hell . "
— ronearc
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
7.“My dad cheated on my mother while she was going through cancer treatments. My mother asked for a divorce, and he said to go and take the kids. Every Valentine’s Day, I would receive flowers from my dad and get so happy. My mom would smile and nod and get excited with me. I would call him and thank him. He never sent me flowers. It was my mom all those years.”
" Same thing with birthday cards and Christmas gifts from him . They were never from him , my mamma just put his name on them in standardized script . She go as far as to pen the issue addresses on the mail , too . My mom was a superhero of a single parent . "
— elsaanddonutss
8.“I learned that ‘Uncle’ Jim, who was a good family friend on my mom’s side and was always around family gatherings, was actually my mom’s first husband. 😂”
— 1meow
9.“I started having problems with my teeth. Spontaneous abscess that resulted in multiple root canals. My dentist did some looking into what the cause might be and found some really odd abnormalities with my incisor roots and nerves (the teeth that had been afflicting me), so he sent out requests for help to a couple of professors he knew in the field. When my next appointment came up, he was really quiet for a bit before verbally stumbling. It turns out that what was happening with my teeth was a classic sign of inbreeding, and he was super uncomfortable giving me the news.”
" I brought it up to my mom , and she just said , ' Oh well yeah , did n’t you know ? ' WTF ! ? Of naturally , I did n’t get laid ! ! ! call on out that not very far back in the family tree , several of my relatives decided that it was a right estimate to get marital to one another …. and no one bothered to mention it to me … ever . The small townsfolk where I live is 85 % my relative , no laugh . I had n’t even met all of them , that ’s how many there are . "
— None
10.“We hit the lottery for 12.5 million dollars, and nobody in our family — including our children — has any idea. Besides us and the government, the only other people who know is an attorney we hired to keep our identities private, as well as an accountant. We have kept our lives pretty normal. We both work, so it looks like there’s an income coming in. We both enjoy what we do and didn’t want to have anything change drastically. We just didn’t want to ruin our relationships with everyone or spoil our kids.”
" We have it safely clothe for their futures … but not until they establish themselves on their own without any idea that there is a safe net income . We corroborate legion charities . It ’s a boon to win but a bigger approval not to be put down by money . "
— Jeffclaterbaugh
11.“After my grandfather passed, we found out he had fathered a child when he was posted in Italy during WWII. He never knew. His mother intercepted any letters from the Italian girl. He came home, met and married my grandmother, and had four children. I forget who in the family found out and how. It’s wild to think that we have a whole Italian family out there!”
— SquirrelsandCrayons
12.“When my paternal grandfather died, the federal government reached out to do a state funeral. He’d been career army and a colonel, so we didn’t question it. Then the funeral came, and they went ALL OUT! It was a huge procession, people showing up who were really big names, like heads of departments, senators, retired senators, and people from the CIA and State Dept. It was nuts, and we were all super confused. Turns out he was a key dude in the OSI during WWII, and when the OSI splintered into the CIA and Secret Service, he went the Secret Service route. He wasn’t on White House detail, but instead worked in a covert office that dealt with counterfeiting and currency. He went blind when I was a toddler and retired from ‘the Army.'”
" For whatever reason , he told no one about all his covert body of work with the OSI and Secret Service , and the only person who knew ( my grandmother ) was trust to secretiveness and never told anyone . My forefather spring up up thinking he was just a colonel working on base . Only after his decease were we return all sorting of cool shit like publications by him , lectures consecrate by him , and all sort of things from various things he did and was known for . All I knew him as was a blind one-time piece who was perpetually smoking , drunkenness , and being a crotchety illegitimate . Turns out he was a bad motherfucker , but none of us knew . "
13.“I found out in my early 40s that I am the product of the rape of my teenage mother. I was told this by a family member a few months after Mom passed away at the age of 56. The two people who told me also shared that they weren’t supposed to ever tell me, but couldn’t bear keeping the secret from me any longer.”
" Mom went to her grave , never wanting me to know this terrible thing about her or my origins . I grow up being treated like a much fuck and wanted — although definitely a ' surprise ' — child , so I had no estimate . I lack her so much that six years later , grief still steal my breath away .
I wish she ’d tell me , but I value the hell out of how she raised me with honey , not resentment or anger . I ’m now on the hunt to find the MF - er , and if he is n’t already dead , I ’ll make him bid he was . "
— MdmeGreyface
14.“When I was 28, I was told I had a half-brother my mom placed for adoption before she married my dad. I already had a half-sister I barely saw from my dad’s first marriage. Neither sibling wanted anything to do with me. I was an only child and wanted a brother or sister so badly. After my dad died in 2018, I did 23 and Me and found ANOTHER half-sister that no one, not even my dad, knew about. He had worked in another state the summer before his senior year of high school. The mom never contacted my dad to tell him she got pregnant. This was in the early ’60s.”
" I reach my raw sis over 23 and Me . She replied , and that dark we talked on the earphone for three hours . insistent connection . well-nigh eight year by and by , we are still skinny — we are sister ! We ’ve journey to bring down each other several time and communicate regularly . I am SO felicitous she is in my animation ! ! ! "
— Swimming - Buffalo96
15.“I found out that my uncle is actually my brother. My mom had him when she was really young, so my grandparents raised him.”
16.“That my Grandmother, who died when my mother was 13, didn’t die from natural causes. She died from a backyard abortion.”
— Ready_Copy_4008
17.“I learned that the ‘nanny’ I had when I was younger was actually my dad’s attempted sister-wife. She found out how batshit he was and dipped.”
— soulfood_7
18.“My parents got married in high school (ages 16 and 17) because my mother lied to my dad and said she was pregnant. They married, divorced, got pregnant with me, married again, and divorced again. I didn’t know any of this until I was an adult.”
— LongLiveTheRat
19.“I am 57 years old now, but when I was 17, I found a photo of me as a 1-year-old in a playpen with a little girl of about 5 standing next to me. The photo was labeled with our names. I asked my sister who ‘Marianne’ was, and she immediately had a pained look on her face. Turns out Marianne was our foster sister from 6 weeks until my parents sent her away when she was almost 5. My siblings were 13, 12, 9, and 5 (I was 1) when she was sent away, and they were told to NEVER mention her name ever again. Obviously, they didn’t, because I only found out about her from the photo.”
" My sidekick , who was 5 when she was station away , had nightmare for years that ‘ the lady in the large inglorious car with the candy canes ’ was go to come for him next . Apparently , the societal help woman lured Marianne to the car with confect canes . Marianne was the favorable one who escaped — I hope she ended up in a loving , static home and had a great liveliness . "
— pinkgrace67
20.“My kids didn’t know that we got divorced. Years before they came along, my spouse and I decided it wasn’t working out and got divorced. Years later, things still weren’t working out fantastically for both of us, so we got back together. Never did get around to getting remarried, though.”
— ParentsThrowAway559
21.“When I was like 12, my dad died of leukemia. He was never around much, so I didn’t see him often. I actually remember the day he took off and left us; I woke up one morning, and there was a pile of new toys on the living room floor with a note for Mom. Anyway, he started coming around when he received the prognosis. We developed something resembling a positive relationship before he died. When he passed, it absolutely destroyed me. I still remember the funeral. I had to be dragged, kicking and screaming out of the car because I didn’t want to see it. In his will, he left me his car — a Camaro, which I was supposed to get when I turned 16. His parents fought tooth and nail to keep it from me (they were really shitty people, his entire side of the family was), and we eventually just told them to fuck off and keep the damn thing.”
" Fast - ahead about 15 years . I regain out the hombre who died was not in reality my dad — he was my buddy ’s dada . My real , biologic dada has been living in the next town over , twenty minute from my house , my full life . My intact family knew about it , except for me . It was why my ' grandparents ' fight back to keep the car – they knew I was not his Logos ( I still do n’t know if HE roll in the hay or not , but I assume so ) .
My maternal grandmother has fulfill him several clip . My mommy tell she never thought it was anything deserving digging up . say she intend for me to never line up out . I ’ve still never spoken to him . I know a name and an estimate of where he live ( as of about ten year ago ) . Beyond that , I be intimate jack about the guy wire . Grandma said if I ever want to meet him , she would help me contact him . Dunno if I ever will . "
— supahfligh
22.“My cousin and I were swapped when we were born. Apparently, my ‘mom’ had too many girls and wanted a boy, and my cousin’s ‘mom’ was the opposite. Now I’m confused as to who to call my mom.”
23.“I’m the child of a parent who hid something horrible until I was 27. One day, when my parents had a domestic dispute, my dad called me just to get back at my mom. He said, ‘Do you want to know something about your whore mother? She slept with over 30 guys during our first two years of marriage!’ I just sat down and started stuttering.
" He continue , ' You have intercourse how people have always said you looked different than the rest of the kids ? … That ’s because I ’m not your dad . Your mom slept with my best friend , and you were consider . Another thing ! Your chum ( the one just younger than me — I ’m the former ) belongs to my brother ! ' My momma just bawled in the setting without denying it . I just laughed , and then I went into two years of therapy . "
— helenkellerhere
24.“My father found out when he was in his 40s that his father was not his biological father. His mother (my grandmother) literally cheated on her husband with the milkman.”
— merrymordor
25.“My dad has a second wife in a different country. I got the news from my sibling who lives there, but my father doesn’t know that my brother told me. My mom doesn’t know about my father’s second wife. Not sure how this will play out in the future. I hope it really doesn’t.”
26.“Not our story but a friend of ours. The husband died late last year of kidney failure. The mother told her 4-year-old son that his father went overseas to work until he was 18. There is no outcome that is good for this kid.”
— HappyAust
27.“When my mother fell ill and I took over her finances, I found thousands of pounds of gambling debt on her credit cards. Then I found adoption papers for a child she’d had before me that she’d never mentioned. Then another family member told me my dad didn’t die in a car crash but committed suicide in prison.”
— Cocobean4
28.“That my grandmother was my grandfather’s babysitter for his first wife.”
— 19southmainco
29.“My grandma revealed on her deathbed to my mom and dad (her supposed firstborn son) that, while in nursing school in the 1950s (in a different state), she actually conceived a child out of wedlock and gave her up for adoption. Not even my very religious Grampa knew that. Grandma just wanted to not have that information to die with her, so she told my parents.”
" certain enough , a few years back , the aforementioned half - aunt get in touch with my dad to ask about my grandmother ( her aesculapian history , and so on — reasonably reasonable stuff ) . Since then , almost all of the family have sex about it , with my dad jokingly referring to my aunts and uncle as ' my full comrade / sister . ' I have an unusual menage . "
— chrisdurand
30.“When I was 5 years old (1988), Santa Claus left a Nintendo on our front porch. It was wrapped in newspaper, and my parents had no idea who gifted it to us. My dad, particularly, tried to figure it out. He was always suspicious that it had been a family friend. It was by far the best gift of the year, and we played it all the time throughout our childhood. My dad died in 2004. Last Christmas, my mom explained that she was the one who had bought it and secretly placed it on the porch. My dad really liked to be in control of things and had forbidden the purchase. She knew better. She didn’t tell a soul for 30 years. Thanks, Mom.”
— Madame_F
31.“My maternal great-grandmother did not like Norwegians and went to her deathbed insisting she was full-blooded Swedish. My father is half Norwegian, so he and my mom got a lot of flak from her. It was mostly in good fun, but it could get to my dad. After she passed, my grandfather (her son) revealed that she was a quarter Norwegian. So my father, the ‘half-breed,’ was no more Norwegian than her own father.”
— ProfessorBeer
32.“After my mom died, I found out the real story behind my parents’ marriage. My mom came to my father’s country to visit some of her relatives. She met my father, and after just one week, she asked him to marry her so she could stay in the country. My father accepted because he had no one else, and his parents were pressing him to get married already.
" The highlight of the story is that over some time , the two of them fall in sexual love with each other . Their love only grew , and they were really happy together . My female parent spend her last days very poorly , and she would accept only my father by her bedside . He depone to this day that she was an angel sent from god to take care of him . I am shock that they got splice just like that , out of the blue , and end up do it each other so , so , so deeply . I can only hope to have as dear and loving a spousal relationship as they had . "
33.And finally, “My grandmother recently died. She was famous in our town for her amazing cooking/catering — in particular, her turkey dinners. Notably, her gravy was absolutely amazing. So delicious. She had a heart attack several years ago, and her near-death experience convinced her to share some of her secret recipes with me. All of them except for her gravy recipe. When she died this spring, I was going through her pantry and found an entire bucket of KFC gravy mix. She was literally using KFC gravy mix as a base to make her incredible gravy. Huge scandal.”
mention : Submissions have been edited for duration and/or clarity .
