Every family can have its share of secrets, secrets of varying size and severity — and uncovering these secrets can take quite a toll on a person.
On individual recently took to Reddit’s “AskReddit” subreddit in order to ask people , “What family secret was finally spilled in your family?”
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And boy, did the internet have some secrets to share! So, without further ado, here are a handful of shocking, bizarre, and heartwarming family secrets that individuals felt like sharing!
The Story Of Why Their Grandmother “Didn’t Drive…”
“My grandma didn’t drive. [One] day when I was maybe 7-8, I’d been trying to get someone, anyone to drive me to the store for candy. We were visiting my aunt and uncle, grandma lived with them. […] Finally I said I’d just ask grandma, and my cousin chimes in with, ‘Grandma can’t drive.’
“‘Oh you bet your sweet ass I can drive. They just don’t let me!’ Grandma had overheard and she was in high dudgeon. [My] aunt finally took me to the store, so I forgot about it.
“Years later, [my mum] explained that during prohibition grandma boot-legged alcohol for moonshiners. She was very successful at it. She was so successful at it that when the moonshiners were finally busted, even though the revenuers never caught my grandma, her license was suspended by the state ‘to never be reissued.'” — Cocobean4
What a rollercoaster! They did also go on to say, “Later in life she was told she could petition for it back but it came with an admission of guilt or some such. She told ’em to go to hell.”
The Hidden Truth From The War
“After my grandfather passed, we found out he had fathered a child when he was posted in Italy during WWII. He never knew. His mother intercepted any letters from the Italian girl. He came home, met and married my grandmother and had 4 children.
“I forget who in the family found out and how. It’s crazy to think we have a whole Italian family out there!” — SquirrelsandCrayons
This person did then go on to write that there had been discussion of doing a form of DNA test to try and track down the long-lost relatives, although some of the family weren’t comfortable with it.
The Great Gravy Scandal!
“My grandmother recently died. She was famous in our town for her amazing cooking/catering, in particular her turkey dinners. Notably, her gravy was absolutely 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 literally using KFC gravy mix as a base to make her incredible gravy. Huge scandal.” — beaubandit
This is one of my absolute favorite scandals that I have ever read about. I love the idea of this poor person’s grandmother starting with a simple lie about her gravy being home-made only for it to turn into a life-long and community-wide scandal!
The Secret Behind Santa
“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 died 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. Thanks Mom.” — Madame_F
I love the idea of how much it must have made their mother’s day to see the kids so happy with this anonymous present. This person went on to say, “She really did try for us. I [don’t] think I fully appreciated it when I was in my youth, but looking back, I see it now.”
One Hell Of A Christmas Surprise!
“We went to my grandmother’s for Christmas dinner like we did every year and my uncle drank too much, and kind of hinted that he had an affair with my mother. A couple of months and two dna tests later we found out my sister is actually his daughter. My dad never spoke to his brother again. And of course, my parents got divorced. And I needed a lot of therapy… and chocolate.” — oliveotherraindeer
And I thought that my family getting drunk and arguing over Monopoly could be quite an explosive Christmas day!
Saving An Infant’s Life
“My aunt wasn’t my grandfather’s child. He met my granny when my aunt was a very sick infant, she had polio and wasn’t expected to survive. My grandad married my granny so she could get on his insurance and move to an area that had proper medical support.
“My aunt was the first infant to survive open heart surgery at Yale new haven hospital, and although she had to be in leg braces most of her childhood, she had a great (although not long enough) life. My grandad loved her like she was his own, and I never knew until she went to her bio dad’s funeral when I was a teenager.” — knittybitty123
What a heartbreakingly wonderful story. Just because someone isn’t a relative by blood doesn’t mean that they aren’t an equally important member of a family.
The Strange Reason Behind Their Parents’ Marriage
“After my mom died I found out the real story behind my parent’s marriage. She came to my father’s country to visit some of her relatives. 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 with each other. Their love only grew over the time and they were really happy together. My mother spent her last days very ill, and she would accept only my father by her bedside. He swears to this day that she was an angel sent from god to take care of him. I am shocked that they got married just like that, out of the blue and ended up loving each other so so so deeply. I can only hope to have as good and loving marriage as they had.” — Amendris
A History On The Wrong Side Of The Law!
“My great great grandfather was exiled and banned from Missouri for being a sheep thief.” —ksromo
I didn’t know that it was possible to be exiled from a state for such an offense. I wonder if the law has changed or if sheep rustling still carries such a severe punishment?
The Atomic Soldier
“That my grandfather was an atomic soldier. Instead of sending him to fight in the Korean war, they sent him to Nevada, where (after having him turn away from the initial flash) he witnessed the mushroom cloud. After that was over, he was ordered to march to the detonation point, where he was unwittingly exposed to high amounts of radiation.
“Luckily for my family, my grandpa is now in his 90s (even after a few cancer scares) and the rest of us (my mom, aunt, cousins, sister, and I) are cancer-free and fairly healthy, but this is medical information that we really should have known earlier!”— Lady_Seashell_Bikini
Yeah, that is the sort of medical information that you should really be telling your offspring!
“My parents used to grow weed in the basement when my siblings were little.”
“I was a baby at the time, or possibly not born. The secret came out when my dad sent a photo of my sister standing happily in front of a bunch of weed plants. She asked about it in an email but he ignored it. My dad told me all about it though.
“Apparently he was between jobs and was visiting family in California. One of his family members was growing it. So he ended up getting some cuttings and brought them back to New York. He hooked up some electrical wire so he could steal electricity off the power-line without being detected, and so there wasn’t a large power bill for the lights.
“They grew weed and tomatoes, which they told the kids what everything was. He’d sell it in bulk to some guy at an airport he flew at recreationally. He used that money to move to a new state and start a business there.” — PaulRuddsButthole
Their Uncles’ Real Business of Choice
“My uncles are infamous criminals who killed multiple people. I thought they bred dogs.” — keavyseancy
Someone did point out that they could also have bred dogs. However, the person who posted this went on to say, “They never bred dogs, thats just something my mom told me. My 1 uncle was all over the news years ago, because he made some illegal deal with our minister of security and justice, which led to him being released. Since his name and story were all over the news my mom told me that he bred dogs without a pedigree and since that is illegal, thats why he was on the news. Still [don’t] believe I bought that [story] for years.”
Their Father Was Already Dead
“Last week I discovered that my dad died two years ago [and] no one bothered to tell me. I’d been looking for him. He was something of a drifter and most likely had Asperger’s. I’m his only child. I stumbled across his headstone on findagrave.com while digging through Ancestry.
“His marker was labeled ‘beloved brother’. My aunts and uncles are pieces of [crap]… I’m not hard to find. I don’t even know how he died. He died alone though. VA paid for his burial. I’m not okay.” — nightcrawler616
As horrible as it is that they had to find out he had died this way, this person fortunately still has their memories of him. They wrote, “He was kind, smart, sarcastic and just a good guy. He loved baseball and metal detecting.”
“…my brother thought that was a bs reason for me to not know.”
“My mom and older brother are not biologically related to me. My bio mom died sometime after I was born, leaving me, my sister, and my dad behind. My brother was the one that told me. My parents never told me because they wanted to protect me from the truth, but my brother thought that was a bs reason for me to not know. I don’t know if my parents know that I know the truth, but I don’t want to bring it up either.” — ItsGoT1me
I don’t see why their mother dying would be a reason to keep this secret, but families can do all manner of strange things to try and “protect” one another. This person did go on to say, “I don’t think too differently about my family because of this, my mom is still my mom.”
Secrets Upon Secrets…
“When my mother fell ill and I took over her finances I found thousands of pounds of gambling debt on her credit cards. Then I found adoption papers for a child she’d had before me that she’d never mentioned.” — Cocobean4
I cannot imagine how much of a shock this one must have been. The secrets didn’t end there either, as this person went on to say, “[Afterwards] another family member told me my dad didn’t die in a car crash but committed suicide in prison.”
“My great grandfather didn’t die of cancer…”
“He died from complications after being shot when one of his businesses was being robbed. Maybe. He also spent a lot of time in Atlantic City. He also had a lot of partners in the Teamsters and other unions in coal country. Also, everyone called him ‘smiling Tony’ but his name wasn’t Tony.
“He died in the 60s, long before my time, but when my great grandmother died 20 years ago, a very old guy showed up to the funeral in a white suit and all of the oldest people in my family kisses his hand. When I asked, no one knew who he was.
“My grandfather moved his family away from central PA in the late 60s and disconnected from all of this but, there it is.” — Amenra7
The Old Switcheroo
“My Grandpa grew up in London and was a Chelsea fan. When he moved to Leeds when he was in his 30s (around the 1950s), he switched [allegiances] to Leeds United.
“Sometimes I lay awake at night and wonder if I could have been what I hate. Oh, and my uncle killed someone.” — wonderbrawl
Christ, can you imagine being born into the football team you have spent your life despising? The murder is bad as well I guess.
The “Necessary Wedding”
“That my parents ‘had’ to get married. They always told us they got married in 1961, but it was 1962, 3 months before my sister was born.
“What’s amusing is that my father was an accountant who was insanely fast with math. Whenever he was asked how many years they’d been married, he’d be off by one. My mother would correct him through clenched teeth and then my father would nod and agree.” — dramboxf
Christ, I know that I would be useless at trying to keep track of this sort of thing for such a long time!
They Weren’t Who They Appeared To Be…
“Found out my uncle is actually my brother, my mom had him when she was so young that my grandparents raised him.” — Picklesgal111
This person went on to say that their mother was between fifteen and sixteen when she had their brother. They then went on to say, “[My family] were also very religious. My grandma had 8 kids already so it was easy enough to raise another.”
“Talk about a curveball…”
“Due to 23&Me, my Dad learned that his recently deceased father was not his biological father. It wasn’t a situation related to my grandma cheating either, it was a sperm donation. So, they knew this was the case his entire life.
“Pretty crazy they never told him, his parents did not pass until he was ~65 years old. Talk about a curveball.” — usereddit
A “curveball” is one hell of an understated way of describing what this must have been like! Although, accurate nonetheless!
“He was super uncomfortable giving me the news…”
“I started having problems with my teeth. Spontaneous abscess that resulted in multiple root canals. My dentist did some looking into what the cause might be and found some really odd abnormalities with my incisors roots and nerves [then] sent out requests for help to a couple of professors he knew in the field. When my next appointment came up [it turned] out that what was happening with my teeth was a classic sign of inbreeding […]
“I brought it up to my mom and she just was like: ‘Oh well yeah, didn’t you know?’ WTF!? of course I didn’t know!!! Turns out that not very far back in the family tree, several of my relatives decided that it was a good idea to get married to one another [and] no one bothered to mention it…ever. The small town where I live is 85% my relatives, no joke.” — zombie_tomato
Well, that ought to make going the dentist even more stressful, as if going to the dentist wasn’t stressful enough as it is!
