18 People Who Discovered Family Secrets They Now Regret Learning

Sometimes our curiosity can lead us down a path of discovery, tempting us to listen in on conversations or unearth secrets. Today, many people choose to open up about their family’s most private matters online, and it’s clear that sharing these long-kept secrets often brings a sense of release and even relief.

• One night, I overheard my grandma talking on the phone. She was saying things like, “She’s ruining his life,” and “I told him to leave her, but he won’t listen.” It took me a second to realize she was talking about my mom. It felt like my heart had dropped. Shocked, I ran to tell my mom. She was stunned. When my dad walked in, I told him, too. He stood by my mom, promising that he wouldn’t let grandma come between them.
  But when he confronted Grandma, she didn’t apologize. Instead, she defended herself, saying she was only trying to “save” him from my mom. It erupted into a family fight, with my dad cutting contact with her.

• When my dad took a DNA test, he discovered that his father wasn’t his biological father. His parents had used a sperm donor, something they’d known his entire life but never shared. At 65, he was devastated to learn this so late. Then, things got even stranger. Looking through old family photos, he spotted a man who’d been close to the family—a family friend who was around during his childhood. After some digging, he learned that this friend was the sperm donor and his biological father. The realization turned his memories upside down; the man he’d thought of as an “uncle” was his dad all along.

• My grandma’s little sister was dropped off at their house as a baby—she’s the baby of my great-grandpa and some lady from the bar he owned. My absolute saint of a great-grandma raised the baby as one of her own.
  And now, with personal DNA kits everywhere, they found out they have another sister. My grandma doesn’t want to meet anyone else (she said childhood was bad enough with everyone knowing her dad was sleazy). Grandma’s little sister, however, was open to a relationship with the new half-sibling. © clrwCO / Reddit

• My great-grandfather ran a racket selling stolen coal and hid the money by buying land and part of a hotel in Florida. They found out after he died when the other hotel owners wanted to buy out my great-grandmother’s share of the hotel.
  She ended up with the whole hotel and then sold it, along with the land, a few years later. How she did it still isn’t known because the kids didn’t know anything about it until she died. © Unknown author / Reddit

• My SIL just told us that she has basically been ’the other woman,’ secretly dating her boss for the last 18 months, which has resulted in her boss’s 10-year relationship ending. He has a 1-year-old daughter with his now ex-partner. The worst part is my SIL believes they are soulmates and doesn’t want to end it. © alltheaids / Reddit

• My grandmother recently died. She was famous in our town for her amazing cooking/catering, in particular her turkey dinners. Notably, her gravy was amazing. So delicious. She had a heart attack several years ago and her near-death experience convinced her to share some of her secret recipes with me, all except for her gravy recipe. When she died this spring, I was going through her pantry and found an entire bucket of KFC gravy mix. She was using KFC gravy mix as a base to make her incredible gravy. Huge scandal. © beaubandit / Reddit

• A relative was on new psychiatric meds that weren’t working, and he told his psychiatrist that he couldn’t control himself and was going to commit a robbery. The psychiatrist didn’t take him seriously, so he went out, robbed a place, came back to the office, and dropped the bag of stolen money on the psychiatrist’s coffee table. Naturally, he did some time for that. © SailorVenus23 / Reddit

• Since we were kids, my brother got the best of everything. My parents even paid his college tuition while I worked to pay mine. All my life, I blamed them for favoring him because he’s a boy.
  Now I’m 43, and recently, I told Dad, “I’ll make sure to treat my 2 kids equally, unlike you!”
  He teared up. Mom tried to stop him, but then he made a disturbing confession. He said, “It’s time you know—I’m not your brother’s father.”
  I was stunned as he explained that when I was three, he and Mom briefly separated. During that time, she got involved with a wealthy man and became pregnant with my brother. Their fling lasted a few months before she returned to Dad.
  The wealthy man didn’t want to be involved in my brother’s life, but he offered to send money each month to support his son. Dad wanted Mom back so badly that he agreed, even though it meant his daughter and her son wouldn’t grow up with the same advantages.
  The worst part? My brother has no idea.

• My mother told me for 40 years that my birth dad left us and didn’t want to see me, so I’d never followed up trying to contact him. Turns out, she told him I didn’t want to see him. Now he’s dead, and that can never be fixed. Thanks, Mum! © OldLondon / Reddit

• My grandma found out a few years ago that her dad doubled up and had two children with another woman. This absolute joker named the kids the same names as my gran and her brother, so he never had to worry about mixing up names. © Ok-String6517 / Reddit

• My aunt robbed the bank she used to work for. She then had to sell her apartment to pay the money back. This same aunt was caught cheating on her husband in the same bank. She is from a small town, so it was a scandal.
  The funny thing is, she is the last person you would suspect to do those things. But she did. © callmetangerine / Reddit

• When I was little, I loved Babysitters Club, and I remember reading one where there was a secret sibling. I thought that was awesome and always wished that’d happen to me. Guess who later found out they had a secret half-sibling?
  I had an older brother whose dad took him when he was young, and, it being the 70s and him on the birth certificate, my 20-year-old mom couldn’t do much without exorbitant amounts of money for lawyers, which she didn’t have. She eventually met my dad and had me and my sister, but kept filing paperwork and trying to find him.
  Anyway, we met after I searched for him on AOL Instant Messenger (there’s more to it, but that’s how I found him initially), and I love him a ton. He saw our mom for the first time in 36 years last year. He’s great. © romero0705 / Reddit

• It seems my dad cheated with my aunt (my mom’s brother’s then-wife). My granddad (my mom and uncle’s father) caught her leaving his car one random day and gave both of them hell. My mom found out about it 25 years later, quite a few years after she had divorced my dad (and a few years after my uncle and aunt divorced as well). © arcos00 / Reddit

• I have an aunt I was never told about because she suffered from a mental disability. When I moved to the West Coast, I lived in the same town where she was staying at a medical facility and visited her. I helped to organize trips with her and her roommates to go shopping. I took her to the zoo.
  The most magical day was when her meds were properly balanced, and she was fully lucid for a whole day, so she spent it talking with her brothers and mother. I was glad to see it. © Patches67 / Reddit

• My grandma’s mom was her grandma, and her sister was, in fact, her mom. She found out when she was in her 40s or older when her (grand)ma was dying, and told her the truth. My mom grew up with cousins who were, in fact, her aunts and uncles.
  She asked her real mom why she never told her the truth; her mom lifted her shoulder as a sign of “I don’t know,” said nothing, and left. Many things are unsolved, and we don’t know what happened—and we never will because they’re all dead now. © GatitoColorDeCafe / Reddit

• My grandpa cheated on my grandma with her sister. Allegedly, a child came from that affair, but my grandpa never claimed him.
  I found this out when my dad died, and I saw a picture of my dad, his siblings, and a ’cousin.’ I said, “Wow! He looks just like you guys. He’s definitely kin.” One of my uncles was like, “Yeah, he might be our brother.” © space_apartment / Reddit

• I am the only one who knows what my grandma did to my mom (her MIL). She treated her horribly, saying that she was going to steal us from Mom and that she didn’t deserve to be part of this family.
  She was the one who suggested my dad cheat on my mom, and I can’t tell this to anybody because my mom said that this should be kept a secret (she doesn’t want to cause any drama). Something I still don’t know is why she told me this when I was 8 years old. © idkwhatnametochose0 / Reddit

• My entire family (including cousins 8+ years younger than me) knew that my dad had a second family. They kept it from me for years, even through my parents’ divorce and his eventual marriage to the “other woman.” Mom even knew, but they decided to wait until the night before I started my freshman year at a new school in a new city to tell me that he was leaving us. © SoundingWithSpiders / Reddit

Kids have a talent for uncovering unexpected secrets. Their blunt honesty can bring hidden truths to light, sometimes leaving parents a bit red-faced. This article shares a selection of amusing and sometimes cringe-worthy stories that show just how open children can be.