15 True Stories That Could Be on Netflix’s Must-Watch List

Have you ever heard a story so unbelievable that it felt like it belonged in a movie? This article brings together 15 real-life events that are just as exciting, emotional, or shocking as anything you’d see on screen. These short stories are true, but they have all the twists and turns of a great film. Get ready to discover some jaw-dropping moments from real people’s lives.

• I was on the train when a man sat across from me, staring. I left and got off early to lose him. 5 minutes later, my husband called me in a panic: “Were you on the train?!” I said yes.
  He shouted, “Return to the station now, you have met my boss and didn’t even say hi to him. He just called me and was upset about it !” I was confused. I asked him what he meant. But then I froze when he sent me a photo of his boss—it was that same guy who’d been staring at me the whole train ride.
  I told my husband his boss was a creep who had made me feel uncomfortable. He tried to brush it off, saying the guy just has a weird way of looking at people and didn’t mean any harm. Then he added that he’s been working toward a promotion for months, and this isn’t the time to upset his boss.
  He told me to go back and say hi—that his boss was probably still at the station or walking slowly to the office. I told my husband I don’t need to suck up to anyone, especially someone who made me feel so uneasy—and I hung up.

• My grandmother was the illegitimate daughter of a state assemblyman. I thought that was almost kind of cool until I found out that he marked her as dead on her birth certificate and likely never acknowledged her. That was, until her mother and sisters died—probably in a flu epidemic.
  Then, he took her into his home, where she worked as a maid for him, his cruel wife, and their children until she met my grandfather at a barn dance and could finally leave the house. She was the sweetest, most generous small-town lady out there. I would never have known she had a difficult life in her youth.
  She never talked about it, and I don’t think even her own children knew the whole story until she was in her nineties, when genealogy became a hobby for someone in the extended family. I sure do miss her. © Unknown author / Reddit

• My grandmother allegedly had an affair with her sister’s husband and ended up pregnant. She had the baby, left her with a family member, and a couple of weeks later, the baby died.
  I’ll never know what actually happened. When my grandma was still alive, I asked her about it directly. She didn’t give me a straight answer—she just danced around it.
  It would make sense, though, considering she and that sister had a very adversarial relationship. I was told this by their brother, who happened to be schizophrenic, so who knows what the truth is. © ItsAboutTime125 / Reddit

• When my grandmother died, we read her diaries, and my mother learned that her father was not her father.
  Instead, goody two-shoes Grandma had been having a thirteen-year affair with his best friend, and he was Mom’s real dad. © ZahraTalaveres / Reddit

• My mother lied to me about my stepdad being my father. Only when they broke up when I was 13 did she reveal the truth, intending to hurt him. He had cheated, so she wanted to take away the thing he loved most: his baby girl. It was incredibly cruel and selfish.
  At 33, I finally met my biological father. He told me my mother got pregnant on purpose to try and keep him, and that he had paid child support for me my whole life. When I confronted my mom, she wouldn’t answer me, deny it, or look me in the eye. © prettyone_85 / Reddit

• I broke up with my high school girlfriend because I was going off to college and was incredibly stupid. Ten years later, after a failed marriage and a bad relationship, I saw her on Facebook. I literally flipped a coin to decide whether to send her a friend request.
  Heads. Over the next couple of years, we got close again, both having gone through failed marriages. We’re together now and absolutely could not be happier. © Profnemesis / Reddit

• I did a 23andMe kit and matched with a guy a little younger than I am as a first cousin. Absolutely nobody in my family knew my uncle had fathered a child after he and his first wife divorced.
  My uncle has been dead for almost 20 years, but his twin daughters have since met their half-brother, and he is getting to know our entire massive family. © aria51 / Reddit

• On the day my dad died, I discovered he had a secret family—a different wife and a thirteen-year-old daughter. While accessing his Facebook to post details about his wake, I found messages to his other wife.
  My world fell apart, and I was at a loss for how to tell my mom and my two brothers. To make things worse, all his relatives knew about this and never told us. © weekend_rockstar / Reddit

• I had this friend, found out he’d spent a weird amount of time looking at my Facebook along with this old crush of mine’s. It’s really creepy, not to mention just the other day he broke into my gym locker and then started interrogating me about my locker password... I think he’s stalking me or something, and it’s freaking me out. © IamA_Werewolf_AMA / Reddit

• When I was around 2, my mom’s mom was watching my sisters and me while my parents were at work in the city. She refused to let us see our parents for any reason, and we ended up staying with her for about half a year.
  Turns out our parents were trapped in the city for two days because of a horrible snowstorm, so my nanny went to the courthouse and claimed they had abandoned us. She took temporary custody of us, and my parents had to wait six months to be deemed “suitable” parents. © BloomieBoii / Reddit

• I fell in love with a girl, but she wanted to be with someone else. It was a few heartbreaking months of her being with another guy until someone told me that she broke up with him. I didn’t know why this happened because I thought she was out of my life for sure.
  Turns out she really was in love with me the whole time. She said she pushed her feelings for me away and that she had made the biggest mistake of her life. Now my feelings are an absolute train-wreck. © dontphunkwithmyheart / Reddit

• My niece had back pain for a couple of months. One time she visited us for lunch. She had horrible back pain and stomach pain and was crying in bed from the pain.
  Once we took her to the hospital, she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. She was way more surprised than us. © ZeoBorlis / Reddit

• 13 years ago, I had my oldest son, who was born one month premature. He was in bed 13. Another boy was in bed 9, born two months premature. I have them both on home video because we were both there every day.
  Fast-forward 13 years. I am now that the other boy’s stepmom and the boys are as close as brothers could be. © positivegal1 / Reddit

• I found out about seven months ago that the “dad” listed on my birth certificate isn’t my biological father. My biological mother refuses to tell me who he is. I don’t understand why she and my non-biological father could have lied to me for so long. He’s called me his daughter my whole life.
  I was adopted at birth but have known my biological family my whole life. I’m 26 now, and I just want to know my medical history. I feel so angry and hurt. © Maleficent_Light1340 / Reddit

• I found out that my father knew my now-stepmother years before knowing my mother—a cruel and heartbreaking story. He thought about his young love his entire life, so my mom was, this whole time, a band-aid love to forget her.
  Turns out they divorced, and my father finally managed to see his love again. They now live happily together, and it is both cute and very hard to accept for my siblings and me. I discovered it in a Word document randomly placed on the family computer a few years ago. © Gagabot / Reddit

Being a parent is one of the most fulfilling experiences in life, but it also comes with challenges and countless sacrifices. This collection of stories shows just how powerful a parent’s love can be—and reminds us that, no matter what, they’re often the ones who stand by us when life gets hard.