36 People Share Dark Family Secrets That Finally Made Sense When They Became Adults

My uncle served in Vietnam. While over there, his troop found a baby that had been orphaned or abandoned. My uncle was shipping back to Australia soon and wanted to adopt him, but my aunt said no. My uncle's troop found a family to raise the baby, and that's the story the whole family knows. The secret is that my uncle and some other guys from his troop stayed in contact with the family and the kid, sending them money every month to help raise him and then to help him go to university. Eventually they helped him and his adoptive family move to Australia in the late '90s.

When I was 5 years old (1988), Santa Clause left a Nintendo on our front porch. It was wrapped in newspaper, and my parents had no idea who gifted it to us. My dad, particularly, tried to figure it out. He was always suspicious that it had been a family friend. It was by far the best gift of the year, and we played it all the time throughout our childhood. My dad passed away in 2004. Last Christmas, my mom explained that she was the one who had bought it and surreptitiously placed it on the porch. My dad really liked to be in control of things and had forbidden the purchase. She knew better. She didn't tell a soul for 30 years.

My son is 20. His mother just told him about me in December. Nobody knew I was his dad, even me. 20 years not knowing I had a son. It's been 6 months and he's the greatest thing I've ever done. He's smart, in the military and we have a wonderful relationship. Had he not pressed her about it, she would have never told him. I'm so happy I can hardly contain myself most days. Words can't describe my emotions.

My grandfather was a small business owner who everyone always thought of as extremely frugal due to growing up poor. Later we found out he spent a significant amount of money on charitable causes and helped a lot of his employees with financial and in one case legal trouble. Positive secret, but it was definitely a secret.

I was brought up to believe that my two aunties were sisters who lived together after both their husbands passed away in world war 2.
Only one was a blood relative and neither had been married to a man in their lives.

When I was a teen in the ‘60s no one in my family was allowed to talk about Aunt Rita because she preferred the company of other women. I thought that she was a strong vibrant happy woman who never had a bad thing to say about anyone and didn’t care what anyone had to say about her. She was awesome.

Most of my college was paid by someone named Tony (random dude to me). I know you're all thinking that it was some sort of lovechild thing, but it turns out my grandfather was a bookie and Tony was always just a bad gambler. So instead of my grandpa doing something to him, he made a deal Tony would pay for college.

My mom's family is Appalachian mountain folk. l have Native American features. So l asked my mom. And got told vehemently that I'm 100% white. So after my mom passed away l was going through stuff. Found out that not only was her grandmother (my great grandmother) Cherokee, but my biological father is also. I found a wonderful picture of my tiny Cherokee ggm standing hand in hand with my incredibly tall Welsh ggp. I treasure that picture. .

When I was a kid, I used to be friends with the next door woman, who was about 20 years old. To me she was a best friend because she would read to me, or play with me or take me to walks. One morning I woke up and her dad was at my house and gave me a painting she made, then my parents told me my friend had to move to another city for work and she left me the painting to remember her. Some time later we moved to another city but returned years after when my dad passed away. I found the dad and sister were living there still. There I knew the truth, my friend had a car accident back then, but they decided to lie to me because they didn’t want to hurt me.

My grandmother left my granddad and she got pregnant. Her lover dumped her.
My grandfather took her back along with the baby. They had two kids together after that.
He always treated her son the same as their two kids.
I didn't learn any of this until my 50s.

That my great grandparents on my dads side were straight up kidnapped from a reservation in ND when they were little kids. Turns out my great grandparents on mom's side were also yoiked from their families by the church? Idk, we never found out who stole them as kids, but we did find my extended family. The Sioux are pretty based too, apparently I'm Sioux. Didn't find this out until like 2018 or so, just thought I was dark white dude lmao.

After my mom died, I found out the real story behind my parents' marriage. She came to my father's country to visit some of her relatives. She met my father, and after just one week, she asked him to marry her so she could stay in the country. My father accepted because he had no one else and his parents were pressing him to get married already. But the highlight of the story is that over some time, the two of them fell in love.

When I was 5 my dad one day took me with him to visit a guy about buying a wagon. While they were talking I went into the backyard to play with the guys grandson. My Dad forgot I was with him and just left. He came back 25 minutes later and that was the very last time my Mom let my Dad take me anywhere until I was old enough to call home. The biggest plot twist is I'm now married to the grandson. But yeah my Dad hates if anyone brings up I got left so we don't.

When I was 26 my grandfather had a heart attack and passed away a few hours later without waking up. In all the family drama it came out that he wasn't my blood grandfather. He adopted my mother and aunt when they were very young after he got back from Korea.
It never changed how I felt about him...he was my grandfather and a few cells doesn't change the fact that he loved me and I loved him. It's been just as long without him as with him and I still miss him and hope to one day be half as good as him.

Y’all’s stories are WILD! Mine is super tame:

When I was in my early 20s, I found an old photo of someone in a family album I didn’t recognize. When I asked my mom about it, she said, “Oh that’s your aunt Gloria.” Then she lowered her voice (even though we were alone) and added, “she’s a *NUDIST*.” Poor aunt Gloria, just wants to be a nudy-lady and everyone acts like she’s a leper.

Found out my mom had a twin she never knew about. Turns out my grandparents gave her up for adoption because they couldn't afford two babies during the Depression. We connected with my aunt last year and she's literally my mom's mirror image.

My mom always told me my father had passed away in Vietnam. Imagine my surprise when he showed up to my High School graduation because he'd seen my name in the local paper (I graduated valedictorian and I'm a Junior). Turns out my mom had kidnapped me when I was a baby to keep my father from trying to get custody when they split up. He lived about an hour away from me the whole time I was growing up and neither of us knew it.

How I was forced to marry my second cousin at 16, and when I finally couldn’t take it anymore when I was 23. I called my Mother begging her please let me come home he is gonna do something to me, actively being aggressive to me as we are on the phone, all she could say was “Baby I can’t help you.” Then she hung up on me. Thankfully I made it out alive, nearly a decade later living a completely different life as a new wife and Mother.

At age 43 I learned I had a half sister. My father had an affair and she was conceived after my brother was born, but before I was.

She reached out to me, and is a lovely human. We have been in contact ever since, have traveled together, and I have visited her several times.

When I was 12 (in 1999) my parents told me they were taking me to Disneyland, and dropped me off at a boarding school and just left me there for 2 years. I had no warning and no idea what was happening or why, and no idea when I would see them again. All these years later and I still cry when I think about it.