Every marriage has its secrets.
Most tend to be along the lines of an affair, or something of that nature. Secret children by other partners are more common than you would think .
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But once in a while, a story comes along that makes you think “you know what, maybe my secrets aren’t as wild as I thought.”
Trust me. You’ve never heard anything quite like this before.
Meet Reddit user @fedupwife1234, whose username is, honestly, pretty well justified.
She’s been married to her husband for eight years , and they have one child together.
Think family portraits on the walls of a lovely little suburban home. Think white picket fence. Think classic, All-American fourth of July with matching shirts for the parents and baby. That’s these guys.
When the Reddit user first started dating her husband, he was ‘mostly’ open about his past.
He admitted early on that he had donated sperm before, but never specified how many times.
His now wife, being a reasonable person, assumed that it probably meant that he’s fathered one or two other kids.
The prospect of this didn’t really bother her, so she never brought it up again.
Fast forward almost a decade into marriage, the husband admits to his wife that he hasn’t been completely honest.
A week ago, he dropped the bomb:
Not only did he donate sperm a few more times than he had originally disclosed, but the fertility center had called him a few days earlier to tell him that his kid count is currently at 47.
FORTY. SEVEN. KIDS.
Naturally, the wife didn’t take the news very well.
“I was…not expecting that many,” she writes, “It’s clearly my fault for not asking how many. At the time, I literally said I ‘didn’t care’ about his sperm donation and ‘didn’t want to know,’ so I can’t blame him for not telling me how many. I literally told him not to.”
She can’t stop thinking about all the potential problems that something like this has for their marriage.
“All the kids are legally entitled to his contact details when they turn 18,” she explains, “All 47 of them.”
Would divorce be an overreaction, or does she have a reason to be worried?
One person brought up a problem that…well…no one else even considered.
“It would suck if their child ended up falling for a half sibling later in life because the child has 47 of them out there,” Redditer @partassipant writes.
Another person was quick to remind everyone that there are billions of people on the earth, so the probability of something like this happening is pretty low.
You never know I guess?
Most of the commenters understood the wife’s perspective, but didn’t think that divorce was necessarily the best call.
“[The kids] can contact him at 18. He could have like half of them want him in their life easily,” one person wrote, “That’s a lot. I don’t know what that would mean for them but it’d definitely be a lot.”
The user later edited their post to say that it would be a ridiculous thing to divorce someone over, but that they can see how the thought of that many kids could be daunting.
You can’t undo the past, but you can work towards a better future. For this father, that means moving forward with 47 kids.
To divorce or not to divorce? That is the question.
Regardless of how this marriage turns out, one thing is certain:
This dad is going to have the craziest Father’s Day in a few years.
