1. Victim Blaming
My great uncle was borne from his sister being raped by her father. The family said basically she had just been a loose lady, and not right in the head. They locked her up in the attic. After my great uncle passed, my mother and I went into the multi-generation house to clean it out.
The door to the attic, where sister/mom was kept but long since passed. The door had an outside lock. No creepy claw marks or anything, but it was just so sad. My mom pulled the lock off and announced to the house that she would never be shut away again.
ickyjinx
2. Finding Out My Identity
A year or two after her adoptive mother died, my mom went looking for information about her birth parents and found that her birth mom and her husband had been gruesomely murdered by a drug cartel.
There was an article about their murder in Rolling Stone magazine that had gory pictures of their bodies.
hemulaformis
3. The Truth Behind Dad’s Death
My dad died of a drug overdose when he was only 25. I was 6 months old. Our family and his hid the true reason and told everyone it was a heart attack. This is even what I grew up thinking. Only my mom, my aunt, 2 uncles, and my 4 grandparents knew the real cause.
I found out the real cause of his death when I had to get his death certificate for college financial aid. And now I am burdened with continuing the lie to the greater community who knew him.
sleepsunawareof
4. Sudden Show-up
My dad gave a job to a cousin. I remember as a kid that this cousin I’d never heard of just suddenly popped up out of nowhere without explanation. I was a kid so I didn’t really think of it, but everyone made a big deal out of how great it was for my dad to give him a job.
I found out 20 years later that the cousin had been in prison for having a sexual relationship with a student.
dj_baberahamlincoln
5. Born Out Of Wedlock
The secret is me. My dad never told his family I existed. I was shameful or maybe he was more ashamed.
After he died, they found out about me and kindly asked me not to come to the funeral. I get why he never told them.
ninetiesluddite
6. A Secret for 65 Years
My grandfather was killed in a bar when my father was still a toddler. The official story was that he was murdered over a pinball game (back then pinball was pretty serious, I guess). It wasn't until recently my grandmother confessed, on her deathbed, that my grandfather actually killed someone and buried the body, days before his own demise.
So he was actually killed in retaliation for a murder that he committed. My grandmother kept this secret for almost 65 years.
itsovermyhead
7. Sex Offender
As part of opening a home daycare, my mom found somebody on the sex offender registry with our family's very unusual last name.
My mom then called grandpa. He confirmed that he is related to us, he hadn't seen him in decades, and he didn't know he had been convicted for statutory but thought that sounded about right. We're not supposed to ask about him again.
laughingfuzz1138
8. Mother and Child
When I was little I found out my mother was hated by her entire family due to her having a different mother than all her siblings.
I only know this because I was hated due to me having a different father than all of my siblings so my grandmother told me (her biological mom). It feels strange having so much family but nobody even wants to associate with you.
ICanreturnbyDea
9. New Race
This is about my dad's side of the family. We live in a country (Singapore) where Chinese is the majority race and my family has always been listed as racially Chinese in our ID documents. Photos of my grandparents show that my grandfather was significantly darker skinned though, and we have two photos of my great-grandmother in Burmese wear.
It turns out that my great-grandmother knew that things would be better for us if people thought we were Chinese, so she got a Chinese man to adopt my grandfather in name. In my country, our race as stated in documents follows our paternal lineage. I'm a quarter Burmese, my dad is half, and he gets upset when we mention he's not fully Chinese.
prettyasadiagram
10. Gay Marriage
My grandmother was married 3 times not twice like I'd been told. Apparently her first marriage was to a gay man and quickly dissolved.
This was presented to me as a big family secret but I like "cool I'm 12". But I did end up digging up their marriage certificate on Ancestry in college.
Zilpha_Moon
11. Father’s Love
I am actually the dark family secret. All of my brothers and sisters know but they don't know that I know. They kept the secret from everyone except one person, and that person told me.
My mother had a secret affair that resulted in pregnancy and my father raised me like I was his own. I sometimes contemplate whether to tell my sons, but probably won't. I actually recalled having met the other father when I was really young but not since and I’m not interested in meeting him now. Both of my parents have passed so I'm not going to make any issues out of it.
Grimacepug
12. Murder Over a Game
My great grandfather shot and killed a man in his grocery store back in the 30s over a poker game. He ran a speakeasy out of the back of his store and lost almost $2k so as the guy was walking out the front after the store closed he shot him and got away with it by telling the police the man robbed him.
It wasn’t until he was on his deathbed he told my grandfather what had happened. This was in Ohio.
CowMajorAU
13. Conflicting Last Names
My great-grandmother was a maid to a wealthy family. When the man died she took my grandmother to the funeral and said take a good look that man was your father. There had been a bit of a scandal because he bought her a house when she was pregnant but never claimed her as his own. She inherited nothing when he died. Her half-brother became a US senator and she never met him. My great-grandmother quickly married and my grandmother had his name (the guy my grandmother married) on her birth certificate.
I always wondered why my mother kept us away from her grandfather's side of the family. They were all over the town I grew up in. It turned out it was because she knew we were not actually related to them.
A couple of years ago one of my cousin's daughters married someone with the same last name as our secret great-grandfather and she had to keep reassuring people that it was not that family.
DanLewisFW
14. AIDS, Not Cancer
My uncle passed away in 1991 from AIDS. He was living in California when he was diagnosed, and came home to Philadelphia for his final round of treatments and lived for another year. When he got there, my dad told all his family and friends that it was cancer. My dad loved his brother but was ashamed of the stigma of the virus at the very least. My mom told me that she was the one who took care of my uncle’s crate of gay porno mags. Apparently, he didn’t want anyone else in the family to see it.
It makes me sad that he had to hide his authentic self all the way till the end because of how my dad tried to control the image of the family.
lez_moister
15. Horse’s Death
My sister was given a horse for her birthday when she was young, but shortly after we moved houses. During the move, we left the horse with our grandad till we had our own pasture fenced up. My grandad was a pleasant man, but he was mean when drunk. One day the horse jumped his fence while he was day drinking. He took his truck out and instead of walking in back, he tied it to the back of his truck and took the scenic route back home.
By the time he got back the horse's legs and sides had been skinned to hell and had to be put down afterwards. We stopped relations with him for a long while until he got cancer. I learned this after his funeral.
JCP1377
16. The Secret I Thought I Had
I burned down the backyard and everyone knew it was me. I was 7-8, had no babysitter and I was experimenting with matches & cotton (it’s flammable by the way). I started a backyard grass fire. There was no hose and I called mom crying that hobos threw lit matches over the fence and I tried to extinguish it. For 22 years they let me believe I’d gotten away with it. They believed me, mom faked a babysitter, neighbours whispered but it all died down. It turns out this whole freaking time they’ve known I burnt down the yard.
The fireman knew it, and neighbours and parents. They just let me believe it and kept it a hilarious inside joke amongst themselves until one night I go to admit it. My most important confession. Decades-old confession! They cackled with laughter.
Literarylunatic
17. Work Threat
The real reason my aunt moved back to my hometown was she was briefly kidnapped by some bad guys she’d displeased with her work as a judge. This guy held her at gunpoint and told her she could either leave town in the next 24 hours or be taken back in.
I was like eight at the time, so everyone just told me she moved back because she missed us all. I found out about it when my brother and I were rehashing old stuff ten years later.
thingsthingzthingc
18. Uterine Problems and Genes
When my health started doing poorly I asked my mom if we had anything going on in the family related to uterus and she snapped at me saying "I don't know anyone that has any major pain because of periods, maybe it's just you". I was forced to move out not long after despite not being able to attend work regularly enough and having trouble with money because of it.
A year later, I learned from my aunt that she has endometriosis, one of their sisters had fibromas. She also informed me about an aunt on my dad's side that also had a lot of problems with cysts and endo. The aunt I was talking to is very disliked by my dad because of her health problems; he's always seen her as pathetic and weak. That's why nobody helped me out.
I confronted my parents about it. I was told that if I needed help so bad I could go see my aunts. I was later forbidden to talk about my health in the family home because it would make my dad super angry.
I'm still in a blind rage about it. I can't even explain why they didn't tell me and how the heck could they have been so selfish and gross.
EscapeMorte
19. Cousin and Siblings
My cousin is adopted, but for years we were told not to mention it because she didn’t know. I was talking about it with my dad one day because I couldn’t believe she didn’t know. During the conversation, he let it slip that my older sister was conceived using donor sperm. After a moment, he added that I was also conceived using donor sperm. Our two younger siblings, however, were not and were completely unexpected.
It turns out that my older sister knew, but my mom made both my sister and dad promise not to tell me. I’m not entirely sure why I wasn’t supposed to know, but they managed to keep it a secret until I was 22.
yetulmk
20. Saved to be Cheated
My mother wanted to have an abortion when she got pregnant with me, but my father persuaded her, only for him to start cheating on her a year after I was born.
My mother told me about this while we were fighting one time during my teenage years. They got divorced when I was about 4 years old and I haven't had any contact with him for most of my life. The irony of my existence.
yellowishtape
21. 17 Years and Had No Clue
I remember one afternoon, I went to have a chat with my mom. I asked if she had any funny stories to tell me. She says, “No, not really! Oh, there is one thing.
You were supposed to be a twin but your sister didn’t make it.” She told me to ask my sister, grandma, or brother if I didn’t believe her. I did and they all confirmed. I was 17 at the time and had no clue!
u_sure_bout_dat_tho
22. Siblings from a Sperm Donor
My father is not my biological father, instead, my twin and I were conceived via sperm donor. My mom let it slip when we were 15.
My brother took great interest in this and tried to find out if we had any half-siblings. So far we have 23. We're thinking of going camping all together over the summer.
PrettyPixiePoop
23. Grandparents as Parents
I found out that the people I thought were my parents were actually my grandparents. My actual birth mother, the person I was raised to believe was my eldest sister, got pregnant at 14 and had me. She basically wasn't ready or prepared for raising me apparently and my grandparents adopted me and literally raised me as one of their own. They're my Mom and Dad and always will be.
I was around 10 when I found out. The way I found out about was during a fight between my parents, drinks were involved and there was a lot of shouting. I was trying to get them to calm down and stop screaming at each other and Dad let slip "Well, why don't you go ask your real mother in town where she lives."
I’m not gonna lie, the way he said it, filled with venom and hurt. He got off then and just left me and mom to talk about it. My mom told me the whole deal then. She mentioned that my sister wanted so little to do with me, then one night she left me on the doorstep and walked over me to go on a night out.
Apparently, the rest of my mom's family didn't approve of her taking me in and because of that and a few other reasons we moved across the country for a fresh start. We don't really talk to them anymore for unrelated reasons. They're not nice people.
My "sister" also has another kid, someone I thought was my nephew but was actually my half-brother. We were basically raised like brothers. We used to play with my action figures and make elaborate plots and characters that would go on for days, something I still miss, to be honest. But I don't get to see him much more since our family doesn't really talk to each other much. I know my birth father's name but I don't really have any desire to meet him. I'm told that he was a bit of a player and that I probably have a few more half-brothers all around the country.
SpeedLeedle
24. Bullied Because Of My Aunt
My aunt had sex with her friend’s 15-year-old son and is currently on a sex offender register. Everyone in my family except me knew. I found out in school because my friend was coincidentally reading an article about it.
I recognised her and told them stupidly that it was my aunt. I got bullied for it for a bit but luckily everyone just forgot.
Still haven't confronted my parents about it.
Flameskydevil
25. Shame from Smoking
Almost all of my family members and extended family members are smokers. I've been told that smoking is extremely bad and told not to smoke and "Just look at our family, no one is doing it. It's unhealthy." Of course, I tried anyway, but I didn't like it.
Then, when I was 14, I was hanging out with my older cousin. Suddenly she tells me "Tell no one" and lits a cig. Now, the weird part is that all of these smokers didn't know that they were all smokers. They've been hiding it from each other too.
ColStalkie
26. Beloved Cat
This is quite minor but I was lied to about what happened to my cat I had back when I was like 14 to 16. They told me he probably ran away. Keep in mind, I was 16 at the time and was fully emotionally capable of handling the truth. I only found out about a month ago that he got run over and my grandpa, who lives in the house across the street from me, buried him in his backyard. My cousin let it slip when we were talking about my mom getting a pet.
Also, I found out from the same cousin that everyone in my family knew I had attempted suicide when my mom told me it would stay between just myself and her and my dad. Now that I really think about it, I have terrible liars for parents.
throwawayyyyyyy13579
27. Mariage Scandal
My grandparents are first cousins. I was told by a friend's grandma who fancied my grandpa and was grossed when she ended up marrying his cousin.
I said, “I didn't know she'd been married before”. Then she replied, “Oh! Honeyyy!”
Martofunes
28. Odd Way To Find Out About Your Father
My father is not my biological father, and the way I found out was hilarious. I went to get a copy of my birth certificate, with my then girlfriend, and behind the counter was a large black lady.
When she handed me the sheet I said, "Could there be some mistake? See this is my mother's name, and this is my name, but that's not my father's name." She looked at me and said, "That's between you and yo momma, honey". That cracked me up.
do_not_engage
29. Parents Monetary Support
I discovered upon my father's death that my parents have been supporting my older sister her entire adult life, and have given her approximately $750k. She's never held a job, had two kids with an illegal immigrant who bailed on her, and now the money is almost all gone.
Guess who she's looking to now for support? Yeah, I don't think so.
MochiMochiMochi
30. Branded as a Failure
A few Christmas ago I overheard my mom and aunts talking about how the family thinks I'm the problem child/made the worst mistakes. I was like, 23 or 24.
My family has always been (in my eyes) extremely supportive and loving to me, so it was a shock to hear that they all thought I was the worst of all seven kids/cousins.
I don't know if it's because I was extremely depressed and suicidal around 19/20, or if they just had high hopes for me that I didn't live up to. I am a relatively skilled artist and pretty smart, but I never finished college because of the whole depression thing and maybe they thought I'd be some big shot by now or something, I don’t know.
I am a happy, functioning adult in a 9-year relationship and have a job I actually love. I guess if that's not good enough for them then it's their problem. It definitely changed how I view my whole family though.
juniper-mint