12 Secrets People Spilled Online Anonymously

Many people anonymously share their secrets to lighten their emotional load. These secrets, though seemingly harmless, can be still heavy on the minds of those carrying them. These confessions remind us of the human need to share burdens and find comfort in the virtual world.

• In 2009 my best friend was struggling to pay rent when his TV broke. So I went and bought him an at the time 42-inch HDTV for over $1,000. I knew he would never accept me spending that much as a gift.
  So I took it out of the box and put a few small scratches on the back of it and told him I bought a new TV and that he could have my old one that I didn’t use anymore.
  Well, he’s doing way better now financially, but he has no idea I did that and I will never tell him. © Samisoy001 / Reddit

• When my brother was 4 he won a stuffed animal from a claw machine. It was his favorite thing ever, slept with it every night for weeks. One night he fell asleep on the couch and was carried to bed but left his stuffed animal on the floor, and the dog decided to tear it to pieces during the night. I spent $40 trying to win another one and put it under his bed for him to find. © minimegs2023 / Reddit

• First marriage to my late wife. On the day of the wedding, the ring got stolen out of my car. I was freaking out. My two best men went into overdrive and took a picture of the ring I had, and went to I don’t know how many jewelry stores explaining what had happened and if they had a ring that was similar.
  They went to this really great jewelry maker who said, «I have something that is really close, give me a bit and I can make it perfect.» He worked really hard and got it done with about an hour to spare, plus they managed to get my window fixed. The three of us are the only ones who know. I ended up using that jewelry maker for any jewelry I needed and well I haven’t stopped yet.
  He ended up telling my best men to not worry about the price and for me to come down after the honeymoon to work it out. I did, and he gave it to me at the cost of the materials. He is a great guy. © UtahCyan / Reddit

• In 1998 I had a friend who was stuck in a very toxic situation at her home. She had an opportunity for a new start across the country in Oregon. She had a Dodge Neon that was hanging on for dear life and decided to pass on the opportunity for fear the car wouldn’t make the trip. I told her I had a friend that was a mechanic that owed me a favor, and he would give the car a tune up for free.
  I didn’t really have a friend that was a mechanic. We were both 18 with not much money, but I used all of my savings to pay to have her car made roadworthy for the trip. She’s a mother of 4 now with a great job and thriving in Oregon. © 04Z51Vette / Reddit

• My friend is a major Death Cab for Cutie fan. They came to our city a couple years ago, and I knew she wouldn’t be able to afford the tickets to go. She was upbeat about it, but I know she was devastated by it.
  I bought tickets. Two days before the show, I told her that the friend I originally planned to take couldn’t go, and would she please come with me? There was no other friend. Told her I loved the band and would be sad to miss them. She of course accepted, and had the time of her life.
  She’s doing much better now, but every couple of Christmases or birthdays, she gets me some Death Cab merchandise because «she knows how much I love the band.» I can’t stand their music. I literally have them blocked on Spotify. But now it’s gone too far where I can’t tell her. © chernygal / Reddit

• My best friend streamed on Twitch for 1 year, and I was all of her viewers. She regularly streamed to 1 viewer (me) so I made multiple accounts and pretended to be a stranger who would talk to us during stream.
  I gave them different personalities, different ways of speech, different backgrounds. I would even create Discord chats to make them seem believable.
  Eventually she gained a following and I didn’t need to anymore, and later she stopped streaming altogether. She still doesn’t know. © Fake-And-G**-Bot / Reddit

• I convinced my sister I had entered us both in a blog giveaway, I won a coupon, but she won the grand prize, a $300 gift card to Lane Bryant. My sister was a size 16, and desperately needed new clothes but would spend money on her baby grandkids and thin adult daughters.
  This was the only way I could make sure she spent it on herself. It’s been 10 years. She doesn’t know. © Remarkable_Story9843 / Reddit

• When my wife died, she had been working on «special occasion» letters for all of our kids. Towards the end, the cancer had spread to her brain and she wasn’t able to focus on writing much, and when she did, it was often unintelligible gibberish. I tried to help her by taking dictation, but she said it would mean more if it was in her own handwriting and wanted to finish it. She slipped into a coma and died after only getting through a handful of letters for our eldest child, leaving addressed envelopes only for our other two kids.
  I knew this would be devastating for the three kids, and possibly create conflict, so I paid a woman who specialized in calligraphy to literally duplicate my wife’s handwriting. I gave her the content, channeling my wife’s comments she made to me about what I thought would be meaningful words to our three kids when I had helped her dictate a few. And, as she wanted, I have passed them out on special occasions of wedding dates, birth of first child dates, first day of college dates, etc.
  My kids don’t know. They’ve even shared the ones she actually wrote with ones written by her surrogate, and thus far the secret remains safe. I’ll take it to my grave. I consider it harmless as it was her intent, but cancer robs so much from people afflicted with it, including their best, most sincere attempts at helping others cope with the loss themselves. © Walleyevision / Reddit

• When I was about 15 or 16 I had a sleepover with about 10 of my friends and my sister. I decided to have some fun with them, and pretended to sleep talk. They recorded it on a cassette tape, and I figured it would just be a fun, harmless prank.
  Well, nearly 30 years later, they still keep bringing it up. They still don’t know that I was faking, and I don’t know how to tell them at this point because so much time has passed. I hate it when they bring it up, and they think it’s because I’m embarrassed about sleep talking, but the reality is it was just a stupid prank I played when I was a teenager and I just never in a million years thought that it would still be going three decades later. © jenglasser / Reddit

• When I was about 16 or 17 I wanted a cat so badly, and my mum had consistently been saying nope all my life. So I went in the classifieds at the back of the newspaper, found someone giving away free kittens, and I went and got one.
  When my mum came home that day, I told her that I met a man down by the docks with a cardboard box full of kittens, and he was going to throw it in the water if he couldn’t get rid of them, so I took one. She did try to give her away a few times to various friends, but nobody wanted a kitten, and she got attached to her to the point that she wouldn’t let me take her with me when I moved out for university.
  She loves telling that story of how we ended up with a cat that I wasn’t supposed to get, and that sweet baby lived to be almost 20 in the end. I named her Turnip. Turnip, you lived a lie, but you were loved, and your fake origin story continues to delight at the dinner table! © Dunebug1973 / Reddit

• Several years ago, I was in a new relationship. In my grogginess in the morning while still in bed, I forgot my boyfriend had slept over the night before, and I just let one rip super loud. Instantly, he is awake. The bed creaks and I remember he is there and am somewhat mortified until he nearly immediately tells my dog, also in the bed, that he will take him outside to poo as I pretend to still be asleep. He takes him outside and later when I am awake, he tells me about my dog’s crazy fart. I let my pup take the fall. © dandylionhearts / Reddit

• I once told a girl I was dating I loved the dish she cooked for me. In reality, it was terrible. 25 years later, my wife is still cooking it at least once a month because it’s my «favorite.» I’ve never been able to tell her, but now I’ve let my 8-year-old daughter in on it.
  She’ll prance up to my wife and say, «Let’s cook Daddy’s favorite tonight!» Then she turns around and looks me dead in the eye with a smug grin on her face. © Rescuepoet / Reddit

These are definitely not the only people to ever have revealed online things they have never told anyone in their own lives. But some secrets are darker than others. A middle-aged mother shared hers here.