'My uncles are infamous criminals...I thought they bred dogs': 20 wild family secrets that finally came to light

Author image for Emmy Pratt
Emmy Pratt • Senior Editor
Apr 14, 2024 8:00 PM EDT

Every family has its secrets. I have been finding out a lot of family secrets over the last couple of years, and by a lot, I mean 2. That probably doesn't sound like a lot to you, but for a person who is always trying to figure stuff out about their family before they were born, one jaw-dropping new secret every two years is as good as it's going to get for me. I understand why my family doesn't trust me with their deep, dark past. I am a Grade-A blabbermouth, and I want to tell everyone I know about the new info. When I found out my mom was secretly a Christian Scientist for her entire childhood, I literally told everyone I knew about it, so maybe I shouldn't be trusted with family secrets. Sometimes, secrets can't help but come out, and these 20 family secrets are extremely juicy and compelling. 

Advertisement
  • 01
    RD RESIDC What family secret was finally spilled in your family?
    via Brett Jordan
  • 02
    r/AskReddit u/kaushman2 • 18h What family secret was finally spilled in your family?
    via u/kaushman2
  • 03
    Ok-Thing-2222 • 18h That my dad's little sister wasn't really his little sister. It was his sister's baby, raised by his mom. The girl didn't know until she was 21. ... Reply 6.5k
    via u/Ok-Thing-2222
  • 04
    itsjustmo 17h My aunt didn't lose her teaching job due to budget cuts like she'd always claimed. Turns out she had never had a valid teaching license to begin with, regularly had affairs with the dads, and embezzled PTA money! Reply ✩ 4.7k
    via u/itsjustmo
  • 05
    • SendMeNudesThough ⚫ 17h My parents got divorced when I was about 3 years old. I stayed in contact with my mother but my father got full custody, as mom apparently relinquished custody because of her financial situation and claimed she made the difficult decision of giving custody to my dad for the sake of us kids, because he could provide a better life for us. "The most difficult sacrifice she ever made". On several occasions my mother would also get drunk and lament her life and say something
    via u/SendMeNudesThough
  • 06
    "She said that?" Yeah. "I left her because of her alcoholism and drug use and how she was always drunk during the pregnancy and while you were little. Kids deserve a safe home to grow up in." I later got that verified from my maternal grandmother. Apparently everyone knew but never bothered to tell me that my dad was the one who left mom because she was a druggie and an alcoholic, and she didn't have to "make the difficult sacrifice of giving dad custody because he could provide a better life fo
    via u/SendMeNudesThough
  • 07
    p38-lightning • 17h My great aunt was a nurse supervisor at a mental hospital in the 1920s. She fell in love with a guy who was being evaluated for a murder trial. She helped him escape and they went to Florida. But the police caught up with them. My aunt got off easy, but he got the electric chair. I found all this in a newspaper archives while working on family history. Showed it to my mom and she admitted it was all true. Reply 7.3k
    via u/p38-lightning
  • 08
    greekmom2005 • 16h At age 43 I learned I had a half sister. My father had an affair and she was conceived after my brother was born, but before I was. She reached out to me, and is a lovely human. We have been in contact ever since, have traveled together, and I have visited her several times. Reply 894 ...
    via u/greekmom2005
  • 09
    Traditional_Top_8635 • 18h My uncles are infamous criminals who killed multiple people. I thought they bred dogs. Reply 5.2k
    via u/Traditional_Top_8635
  • 10
    ProudMedusa71 • 18h We found out after my grandfather died that none of his seven children with my grandmother were his, and that they all likely had different fathers Reply 5k
    via u/ProudMedusa71
  • 11
    Kalamac 15h My maternal grandmother had two kids who were biologically my grandfather's kids, my mother and aunt. Then two boys who weren't my grandpa's bio kids. She never said who fathered the older of those two, and ancestry hasn't turned up anything for him. She then moved in with father of the younger boy, without getting a divorce, leaving all the other kids with grandpa. Cheated on that guy and had another boy, and was forced to give him up for adoption, because he refused to raise anothe
    via u/Kalamac
  • 12
    Chon-Laney • 18h My mother was Catholic. After eight kids she would "go visit family" when she got pregnant. The Catholic church would take the baby and re- home it with a "barren" Catholic family. I met a Greek Catholic brother. He looked like all of us but had a Greek name and Greek parents. Reply 6k
    via u/Chon-Laney
  • 13
    KeyFarmer6235 • 14h My mom worked as a United airlines stewardess, starting in the late 70s, but told me that up until the mid to late 60s, United (along with most airlines back then,) wanted stewardess to be single, without children. So, they did the same thing as the catholic church. housed pregnant stews someplace, and put their children up for adoption after birth. My mom knew several women that happened to. ... 1.1k
    via u/KeyFarmer6235
  • 14
    Few Insurance9739 • 16h We found out Grandma's secret ingredient was actually just store-bought marinara sauce. Our family dinners will never be the same Reply 2k
    via u/Few_Insurance9739
  • 15
    bossykrissyCC - 18h My mother is kid #7 of 10. My aunt (kid #4) who was born in 1945 did her DNA and found out that she has a different father from everyone else. She was devastated. There was always rumor that there was an affair but nobody talked about it. She has so many questions but nobody's alive to answer her. Reply 3k
    via u/bossykrissyCC
  • 16
    LazyLeslieKnope • 16h My sister and I found out in our mid/late-20s that we had a full-on brother. Our dad got our mom pregnant in high school and cause it was the 60s it was all hush-hush and she went to do her senior year "with family" and just quietly came back to town. They ended up getting together for real in college and no one knew - not their life-long friends or even my uncle. Our brother had a good childhood with his adoptive family, but he was always curious about his birth mother so
    via u/LazyLeslieKnope
  • 17
    Pusfilledonut · 17h My great great grandfather was a huge financial success in the 1920's, owned a bunch of businesses, pillar of the community type, half the town worked for him. Built himself a huge mansion at the edge of town with all the modern conveniences. Lost everything in the stock market crash of the Great Depression, went out on his front porch, sat in a chair and blew his head off with a shotgun. Everybody was involved in covering it up, not just the family, but the local authorities
    via u/Pusfilledonut
  • 18
    r1otgurl • 17h My great-grandma was a Russian mail-order bride during the cold war. She got over, alone, on a boat. She left her Canadian buyer for a Ukrainian farmer and never told anyone she was Russian again (communism lol) Pretty sure she was a witch lol. Reply 2.2k
    via u/r1otgurl
  • 19
    thrax_mador • 18h The story was always that my two cousins were adopted and not related to each other even. People sometimes would ask them if they were twins. They would say "Nope, we're adopted." Somehow it got out that their bio mom was their younger aunt. The older sister adopted and raised both girls as her own. Younger aunt/mom got married and started a family before all this came out too. It was a wild journey. I have heard this is common in Catholic families. They hide the illegitimate p
    via u/thrax_mador
  • 20
    ReallyGlycon • 15h I found out I was adopted when I was 32 years old. My mom's cousin is my real dad. Apparently they tried to take me back when I was 3 years old, but my mom refused. Now my birth parents are both doctors, live in a mansion, and had six more kids. I grew up in poverty. Reply 177
    via u/ReallyGlycon
  • 21
    ChelBella 17h . When my dad's mom was on her death bed she confessed that 4 of the 12 kids bio dad was actually their uncle! ... Reply 322
    via u/ChelBella
  • 22
    MicroCat1031 • 14h My mom's family is Appalachian mountain folk. I have Native American features. So I asked my mom. And got told vehemently that I'm 100% white. So after my mom died I was going through stuff. Found out that not only was her grandmother (my great grandmother) Cherokee, but my biological father is also. I found a wonderful picture of my tiny Cherokee ggm standing hand in hand with my incredibly tall Welsh ggp. I treasure that picture. Reply 238
    via u/MicroCat1031
  • 23
    spleenboggler • 16h Turns out my grandfather helped liberate a concentration camp in World War II and was later indicted for grain theft, avoiding prison only by turning states evidence on his bosses, two facts I uncovered doing family history research. Gonna be fun this summer when I visit and present all this. ... Reply 197
    via u/spleenboggler

Want More? Follow Us and Add Us as a Preferred Source on Google.

Tags

family drama brother mother sisters grandma cheating aunt dad uncle cheater Grandpa family sister parent mom parents brothers Father
Scroll Down For The Next Article