15 Families Whose Scandals Could Make Headlines

Each family harbors its mysteries, but certain truths are more unbelievable than others. This roundup showcases astounding family conflicts exposed online, with a few so shocking they’ll render you completely speechless.

• At 14, I got a Facebook message from a man called ’’Dave’’. He said he was my uncle but I’ve never seen him before. When I asked my parents, they turned pale. He kept sending me a message every year on my birthday. When I turned 18, he asked to meet me.
  
  My skin crawled when I saw someone who looked exactly like me walking toward me. At that moment, I realized Dave was more than just a stranger. He told me he was my father, and his real name was “Ricky.”
  
  When my mom was pregnant, he went to prison for fraud. Her parents wanted to keep him far away from me, so they made him sign a paper agreeing to stay out of my life. After he got out, he wanted to contact me but couldn’t because of the agreement. Now that I’m 18, I can make my own decisions, so he wanted me to know the truth.
  
  It’s been five years now, and I’m very close to him. I love him more than the man who raised me, who was always distant and indifferent toward me. But my mom says she’ll never forgive me.

• My cousin stole close to $400,000 from my great-aunt, who suffered from dementia and Alzheimer’s. He’s currently going through the courts as we speak. © Blinsin / Reddit

• My uncle’s wife’s sister got pregnant at a young age, so their mother claimed the baby as her own when he was born. He eventually found out that his sister was actually his mother, his mother was his grandmother, and his other sister was his aunt. My family is so big and full of drama, with countless scandals. It’s a mess, but I secretly love it. © Owens8 / Reddit

• My father was married before he married my mother, and his first wife ran off while pregnant with his child. We didn’t know he existed until he was 15, my older brother was 14, and I was 11. © personalilley / Reddit

• My dad’s best friend, who I thought was my uncle, tried to use our connections to become a doctor without going through the proper training. We didn’t let him, but he slipped through the cracks another way and ended up becoming my grandfather’s doctor. Long story short, he failed to take my grandfather off the medication he had been prescribing, and my grandpa died. © awsomazinfulnez / Reddit

• My grandparents had three daughters: my mother and my two aunts. Ten years ago, we discovered that my grandfather has a son as well, who he conceived with an American woman.
  My grandparents wanted to adopt him when they married (about three months after his birth), but the mother had taken him to an orphanage and set him up for adoption by anyone except his father.
  When they couldn’t adopt him, they effectively erased him from their lives. He eventually moved to the US, and only my mother and I kept in touch with him. It’s very sad, especially considering how highly my grandfather always spoke of family values and responsibility. © wasnhierlos / Reddit

• My grandma amended her will to exclude her children (my father, my two uncles, and two aunts). We don’t know what she included instead, and she refuses to say, which is her right. © Railmakers / Reddit

• A few months before I was born, my uncle’s friend stole her dad’s car, and they all ran away to Montana. The cops spotted the car, which led to them taking a family hostage. The whole ordeal happened from July to August of that year, but it’s something we never talk about. I honestly know more about it from news articles online than from my family. © asoep44 / Reddit

• My uncle had a daughter in his 20s with a girlfriend whose family did not like him. She gave birth, moved to the US, remarried, and changed the daughter’s name. There was silence for over 20 years. Neither of my younger cousins (my uncle’s children) knows that they have an older half-sister who is nearly twice their age. © tokyob***h / Reddit

• My dad remarried my mom’s former best friend, who, fun fact, was present at my birth and was referred to as “auntie” by my sister and me for the first half of our lives. © spider2012929 / Reddit

• My mom only recently found out that she doesn’t have the same father as her five siblings. My grandma told one of my aunts and swore her to secrecy. My grandma died in 2005, but my mom didn’t find out until maybe two years ago.
  My grandma didn’t tell my aunt his name, but he was supposedly an important person in Florida. My mom would love to figure out who he was just to know pertinent medical information. However, since this man is probably deceased, she wouldn’t want to bother anyone in his family, especially since they likely have no clue about the affair. © rooneygirl*** / Reddit

• My great-grandfather started three families in three different states: New Mexico or Arizona, Missouri, and Illinois. The twist... he married them all without divorcing any of them. © S***ingMonkeyPhoto / Reddit

• My grandfather left my grandmother back in the 1980s for a woman my mom went to high school with. They had a baby who is now in her 20s and is my half-aunt, much younger than me.
  His new wife then proceeded to cheat on my grandpa with my grandpa’s younger, married brother.
  Now, family events are really awkward. © Unknown author / Reddit

• My dad’s cousin was born into a wealthy family and was given a lot of money by his parents when he got married. He worked as a stockbroker but ended up stealing a large sum. His wife divorced him, but his parents still give him large amounts of money every month because his kids are used to being rich. © the_alabaster_llama / Reddit

• My grandfather was in jail for two years because federal money was lost in some bad business dealings. He was not involved; some of the big players were, but they needed to put someone in jail who wasn’t an important person.
  After two long years, his innocence was proven, and he was set free, but he couldn’t find a good job afterward. It was very sad how a successful man lost everything. This was around 29 years ago, around the time I was born. © Majop / Reddit

Children with wild imaginations and no filter can sometimes blurt out the most outrageous secrets. This article features a compilation of stories where kids unintentionally left their parents utterly embarrassed.