40 Family Secrets These People Did Not Expect To Learn

My father is the youngest of 13 kids. But actually my grandparents only had 9 kids. Grandpa ran a farm and had a truck to deliver the produce from his and the surrounding farms. During WW2 he drove to Amsterdam to deliver food and secretly brought back Jewish boys. He hid them on his farm pretending they were his kids. Partially very nice of him, but he also just needed extra hands to work. After the war most of the boys went home to family members, but 4 of them had no remaining family. He officially adopted those 4 boys and just went on as if they had always been part of the family.

My uncle had always been a raging alcoholic. A dangerous alcoholic. Well, my aunt married him anyways. They went to Germany for their honeymoon. Only he returned. We asked about the aunt and he pretended like he had no idea what we were talking about and how he has "never gotten married".

About five years later he married again despite us all trying to tell the woman not to. They went to Jamaica for their honeymoon. Same thing. He came back without her. Again pretended like he's never married. We began suspecting he was k***ing them. We called the police. They investigated. Nothing turned up. And then the years later, he married again. But COVID happened and they haven't gone on a honeymoon.

We're not sure she'd believe us if we told her. So we have distanced ourselves from my uncle and he remains as the secret we don't talk about. We don't talk about Bruno type situation.

Trigger warning! VERY dark!

My mother and my father started dating when they were just 18.
My mother got pregnant soon after.
My grandmother made my mom ingest large doses of quinine every day (which is a big health risk by itself!), and inserted a small plastic item in her uterus.
This led - as planned- to a late miscarriage on the toilet when my mom was about 20 weeks pregnant.
The baby boy was alive and „as big as a doll“ (quoting my mother).
She k***ed and dismembered the fetus and flushed the parts down the toilet.
Then she went back to sit at the table with the guests they had that day to have coffee and later dinner.
My mom grew to be as cruel and cold as her own mom.
She did something similar to me, when I was just 15 and unfortunately got pregnant.
She and a gynecologist told me the baby was sick, and the pregnancy had to be terminated.
I believed them.
A few days later I had to go there, to get the abortion. My mom gave me an envelope with about (converted) 8000$.
The abortion was performed without any kind of local anaesthesia.
I lost consciousness a few times, they fastened me to the gyn chair.
Part of my soul will stay there forever.
The doctor forced me to take a good look at the destroyed embryo „so that I would never do what I did again!“
When I came home traumatized and in shock, my mom said, that „I should pull myself together and that she had suffered so much more!“
Then she told me her abortion story.
I wish she never had told me.
Years later, when we had a fight, she dropped that my baby had been absolutely healthy.

At twenty-one, when I asked my mother why I had no siblings, she confided that I had actually been born a twin and my brother had died because I "choked him" with my umbilical cord. She said I must never tell anyone or mention it to my father because he was still upset "that it was the boy who had died". I had wanted a brother or sister all my life so was deeply sad and felt incredibly guilty to the point where I unsuccessfully attempted to end my life. (There was other stuff going on too - death of my boyfriend of five years - so I was already in a dark place.)

Years later when I was carrying my own twins I began to realise that parts of her story seemed unusual and looked into my birth records. And here's the darkest bit - it turns out there never was a twin. I never confronted her.

My cousin is really my sister. My Aunt and Uncle couldn't have kids so my parents did for them.

It’s actually f*cking awesome. Grandfather's great aunt by marriage ran the most notorious brothel in Sydney and had a lifelong feud with another brothel owner. She did go to the other madam's funeral when she died, but as reported by the newspaper “just to make sure the old b***h stays in the ground”. The whole feud started over a dog breeding scam! RIP Tilly Devine

If you met my dad, you’d think he was a soft faced and gentle old doctor and a pretty cool guy for acting young, being a good father, living to fish and drink beer, and being willing to build you a deck. You’d think he loved God by the way he talks.

Well, he’s a p***phile who spent my childhood grooming me. He exposed himself at me every day when I was little, and got unusually jealous whenever I showed a little skin in public as a teenager. The way he hugged and kissed me was creepy, and I was afraid to say no. He told me my developing body was making me more likely to be “sold into white slavery and a** r*ped” and that I’d be r*ped by strange men if I showed my shoulders or danced. Yeah, he was racist and sexist. And as a young adult who still didn’t understand, he apologized convincingly, then began using me to emotionally cheat on the wife he hates, treating me like a girlfriend. And then he’d try controlling me financially when I lost my job.

He also beat, intimidated, and controlled my mother, who then took out her frustration on me. She told me I was ugly every chance she got. He told everyone that she was the crazy one. He wouldn’t let her have a job. He was verbally, emotionally, psychologically, financially, and sexually abusive to an extreme level, to the point I developed DID and nearly 60 alters as a result of how he treated all of us.

When his wife got into an affair with a man who gave her a little escape, he cheated in revenge with a woman who had the same name as himself. Textbook narcissist womanizer. Then he cheated with a woman who was hideous, just because pitying her made him feel better about himself. Being her “hero” made him feel better about himself. She was none the wiser that it wasn’t her he was cheating for. He blamed my mother for the entire divorce.

My mother wasn’t innocent, either. She brainwashed me like the fricken winter soldier. Used me as a weapon in the divorce. I really thought it was my fault. So I falsely confessed the divorce was my fault. As if a thirteen year old with autism could be a proficient manipulator. And he never stopped hating me. I was already the black sheep, but now it was so much worse. He often called me by my mother’s name when angry. He k***ed my pets on purpose. He kept buying pets, waiting for me to get attached, and then k***ed them. Over a hundred of them. I eventually stopped getting attached. I had nobody. When I finally understood that I was being mocked by my friends at school, I was alone. I cut everyone out to protect myself, and spent six years in isolation. He blamed me for all the bullying. Daily, he would say things so vile and cruel that I had to dissociate. When I told the school counselor I was s*****al, he showed up all goody two shoes to fix his reputation, and then when I got home, he called me things I wouldn’t repeat, and his new wife called me a traitor.

His second wife had a vile, mannerless, cruel son, and I had to come home to the school bully every day. He and his two brothers would gang up on me. Then the kid did something messed up on a whole different level. He and his brothers cornered me in the garage. He did the unpardonable sin, and led the other two to do it, too. Basically eternal murder-s**ide before my eyes. He was disappointed when I wouldn’t follow suit. But basically, I’ll never have a brother in heaven, which is my waking nightmare.

When I found Christ, my parents became more and more cruel, and I just tried to be a good child despite it. When he wasn’t preoccupied with making my life a living hell, he just drank a lot of alcohol and avoided me. When he felt guilty, he’d buy gifts I don’t want I at of be there for me, listen to me, or God-forbid apologize. I suffer from DID, PTSD, self loathing, depression, anxiety, anger issues, social anxiety, avoidant personality disorder, and chronic insomnia. Nobody believed me or tried to save me for 21 years. So I cut him out, but he still harasses me. I wish I was never born.

My grandfather, my Mom's Dad, was in the Merchant Marines in the 40's during WW2. He started out sailing the Atlantic but in the last 2 years they switched him to the Pacific.

It turns out that he was actually honorably discharged in July, 1945 and NOT November, 1945 like he'd told everyone.

He stayed in California for 4 months, unbeknownst to anyone, with a couple of buddies and crashed with them. To earn extra money to bring home, he made 3 porn movies. He was 32-33 at the time, a big, robust, good looking man.

He was married to my grandmother already and my Mom wasn't born until 1947, so they were childless still.

We never found any of this out until 1984, when my Dad got a hold of some VHS vintage porn from the 40's and watched it with my Mom. Back in those days (40's), even before and after, one of the common tricks they used was to make the participants wear half-masks to try and conceal identity.

My Mom recognized him right away though, despite the mask. He had a very distinctive tattoo on the inside of his lower left forearm, a specific birthmark on his lower right hip (which I have too) and also a jagged scar on his lower right calf from when he got hit by shrapnel on an Atlantic ship that had taken some hits but hadn't sank and limped to port years earlier.

A buddy of his was still alive at the time (1984) and still living in California, so my Mom got in touch. Sure enough, the friend (in his 70s) confirmed it and told her about the 3 movies. He starred in them himself and eventually sent her copies of the other 2 films.

In the other 2, he had brief speaking roles and she identified his voice along with the other body ID markers. My grandfather died in 1969, and my grandmother in 1983. According to my Mom, she was sure no one had any clue.

The money my grandfather earned helped to pay off the only car they had at the time and the rest helped to reestablish their nest egg.

So yeah, there's that one. I still have the VHS tapes but don't have a player anymore. I've never watched them, just kept them. Still don't know if I want to watch, LOL.

My mom's brother and her dad secretly don’t like her but its sad because she loves them so much

That I was s**ually a***ed for many many years by an uncle. When I finally worked up the courage to tell my mother, I was forced to keep it a secret so my grandmother wouldn't know the horrible thing her son had done. I'm still holding onto this to this day.

My stepdad was a known p***phile. He had more than one teen boy he “took in” and slept with in his bed, for years. He kissed me with tongue once when I was about 8. He used to watch my sister and I bathe, staring at us creepily. To this day my mom denies he was a p***phile despite what I’ve told her and the whole community believes. Also, my uncle k***ed a man.

My grandmother on my mom's side might be the s**ttiest person I've ever met. She treats me like c**p because I'm a teenager, a girl, and I remind her of my mom who she also tends to treat like c**p. She caused my uncle's divorce because she MOVED IN with him and his then wife because she's a hoarder and can't even live in her house anymore. She's completely ruined my youngest cousin and now he worships her in such a creepy way. She's also racist, homophobic, sexist, anti-vax, etc. I just hate her. And we can't find a way to cut ties because when we're in her state she finds a way to figure out that we're there and guilts my parents into visiting. I hate her so much.

I thought my dad had died but apparently he sent me away because I was born with a hearing problem and I wasn't perfect enough for him. I also didn't know I had a sister until four years ago, because my father decided that because my older brother was born, dear old dad could send my sister and I away, putting us both up for adoption. My mom got in the way though and managed to claim me, but I only recently got in touch with my sister and oldest brother, as we all met at Dad's funeral after he passed from cancer. I'm not sad that he's gone, but I don't hate him. He hated me, but I don't have a reason to hate him. I'm not sad though.

My uncle suffered from head trauma after falling off a skyscraper during work, it messed him up really bad and led to him turning to hard drugs.
He was mixing coke with PCP behind the family's back.
Well, one day when his soon to be be ex wife stopped by to talk to him about their 4 kids, he jumped into her car before she had a chance to remove her seat belt and stabbed her to death over 36 times.
Afterward, he walked back into his apartment where his brother was and told him to call 911 cuz he just k***ed the monster that was gonna take his kids from him

My Dad is a Sex Offender. The story he gave us was full of holes and the real story was revealed after my husband and I tried to adopt. He had attacked 2 women on two separate occasions. We have been no contact ever since and have been unable to adopt.

My cousin married a serial k***er, she had 2 boys with him and he tried to k*** one of them.

The story as I was told is this... My grandmother, my mom's mom, came from a very poor family, and they lived away from town. She was asked to babysit, at the age of 15, by a couple from town. The "husband" picked her up, drove further into the country and r**ed her. It said that my great grandmother, after finding out what had happened to her daughter, tracked the man down and gutted him with a kitchen knife. My grandmother got Justice through her mother. The saddest part of the story, my grandmother had a baby from this r**e. The baby girl was adopted by a couple they we're acquainted with and my grandmother was able to visit her daughter until she was around three or four years old. Im told the couple thought she was too close to the little girl and they up and moved away without telling anybody where they were going. My grandmother was an alcoholic most of her life due what had happened to her, but she always wanted to find her daughter. My mother being an "only" child , so she thought until about age 12 when one of her cousins blurted out that her mother was r**ed and had a baby. Which was rather devastating to my mom as well. My grandmother's has an identical twin. Her twin continued to look for her daughter up until she passed away. The daughter, my mom's sister, would be in her '80's now My mother also looked for her prior to her passing 17 years ago. If only the internet was a bigger better thing back then she would probably have found her quickly and could have possibly had a relationship with her. So that's the family secret. Very few know about what my grandmother did or about the baby. Only my grandmother's sisters knew.

My childhood home burnt down in 2009, when I was 8 years old, and my whole family knows the truth about what really happened that day... Let's say the fire was unaccidentaly accidental...

Only a secret to me, because my whole family knew. My mom had been married before she met my father. When she got pregnant, they married and moved away so she could tell people that 9lb me was born prematurely. She never wanted me to know that she'd been married before, or that she was pregnant before she married my dad. I was raise to think divorce and pre-marital sex were wrong, period. Everyone kept her secret from me until after my parents passed away. I found the marriage license when cleaning out the house, and the date had been visibly altered. Then I was accidentally told about the first marriage by a cousin who assumed that I must have already been told (I was 41 years old by then). I had come to suspect that she lied about their wedding date, but I had zero idea about the first marriage.

My grandfather on my dad's side was one of the guards responsible for keeping the little rock 9 out of school, yet because he died when my dad was at a young age practically everyone in my dads side of the family consider him a hero. Another really messed up part of my dads side is the fact that they are all racist homophobes and my grandmother on my dads side talked about how she would punt stray cats. I don't like my dads side and try to avoid talking about them.