14 Unimaginable Secrets That People Found Out About Their Family And Wish They Hadn't

Reddit user u/fuzzyloulou recently asked, "What family secret do you know, that you're not supposed to know?"

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And being the Nosy Nellie I am, I couldn't help but take a look. The family secrets were unimaginable. Here are some of the stories:

1."My grandma was raised in a Catholic orphanage under the pretext that she lost both her parents and siblings during the Spanish Influenza. Turns out she and her dad survived, but her dad didn’t want to take care of her so he left her at an orphanage in Brooklyn and moved to Europe and started a new family."

—u/Human_Commercial_406

2."My mom lied to a man and told him I was his son and frequently extorted money from him by telling him she needed it to raise me. I found out when he showed up with gifts shortly after I had moved out on my own. He had hired a private investigator after my mom refused to give him my contact info. He apologized for not being in my life and cried while telling me he was dying of pancreatic cancer and that he didn't want to go without meeting me. I asked my mom about it and she told me she told him that so she could get money for drugs after she left my dad. DNA tests confirmed he was not my dad. I only ever met him one time. I took the gifts because it was such a surreal experience I didn't know how to tell him anything other than that I forgave him. My mom is the only other person that knows this happened."

—u/Brilliant_Succotash1

3."When my grandmother died, we found out she was married before my grandfather and had four kids. She and that husband split up and just dumped the kids in an orphanage. Then she remarried later, had my dad and my aunt, and just never mentioned the other kids at all."

—u/PersonMcNugget

4."My mom lied about how my dad died. My brother and I were told he died of cancer. He wrote us each a goodbye letter and I still have mine. When I turned 18, the truth came out. He died in a murder-suicide with his wife (my stepmom), and her lover (who was also his psychiatrist). It turned out his wife was cheating on him with his doctor and while my dad had some psychological issues the doctor purposely prescribed him medication that worsened his paranoia. When he found out about the affair he shot them both and then himself."

—u/Kkarotcake

5."My older brother might only be my half-brother. About ten or so years ago, I went out drinking with my dad for his birthday. He got hammered and told me that when he and my mom first got together, she was still in a relationship with a really abusive guy. She got pregnant around the time that she left him, so there's about a 50/50 chance that my older brother is the other guy's biological son. I asked my dad if he ever thought about getting tested to find out and he said 'No. I don't care what any test says. That is MY son.'"

—u/Cheese_Pancakes

6."My dad killed a guy and never told us. I found out on Google one day. It was a drunk driving accident. My dad, being the asshole he is, even in his 20s, was driving drunk and killed someone his age. It was some successful guy with a family who was killed and my dad walked away without a scratch."

—u/ERC69

7."My dad had an affair with my babysitter with my mom's permission because my mom had no interest in sex at the time. Yes, the babysitter was around 23 at the time."

—u/kaloonzu

8."My great-uncle essentially ran a secret society in my hometown for many years with his 'friends' and even some of my family members. They would screw over a lot of people and run away with the money they managed to make, and this went on for many years until the government came looking for money that he owed when he took out a loan to build a massive bar and grill. And from there the whole thing came crashing down adding insult to injury, my grandfather (his brother) was acting mayor at the time and had no knowledge of this, so to say 'Shit hit the fan' would be the understatement of the century."

—u/Phant0m640

9."My uncle was in prison in the '90s because he was a getaway driver in a kidnapping."

—u/momdressed

10."I found out my aunt Diane's legal name is Barbara. Her middle name is something else, but it's not Diane. No one has ever used her legal name in my presence. I just found it out by looking up public legal records one day. Not sure how she got to be 'Diane' or that process at all and every other member of that branch of the family tree is long since dead so the only way to find out is to ask her, which I'm not doing because the one thing in my family that aunt Diane Barbara is known for is being an ass."

—u/floridianreader

11."My great great grandmother murdered her husband because he was abusive and her brother took the blame for it because he knew that if she did she'd be killed for it, but he could claim it was a crime of passion to protect his sister from her abuser."

—u/RedCapRiot

12."My aunt married her stepbrother (who were raised together) to piss off my grandma. It worked. My cousins have gone to great lengths to bury this info so her kids won’t find out."

—u/AutoimmuneToYou

13."My aunt dated, married, and had a child with her third cousin, and my grandfather's side of the family was kicked out of Arkansas (or Alabama, can’t remember) for being involved in Ku Klux Klan activities."

—u/p3rs0nag3

14.And lastly, "My dad had a twin brother that was murdered during his mid-twenties. I’m not sure why, but I know he was involved in mass weed dealing and running it across the border. Anyway, turns out my mom was dating my dad's brother at the time before he passed. My dad knows and so do other family members but they never told me, because it 'wasn’t even a big deal,' I kind of just found out on my own just listening to the way they talked about it."

—u/cheesexstick

Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.