Family is our closest circle, where we feel safe and relaxed. We don’t have big secrets from our relatives, and we hope that they don’t hide anything either. However, for some people, it turns out to be quite the opposite. Suddenly, they discover such dark secrets within their family that you couldn’t even imagine intentionally.
- “When I was a kid I knew my grandfather was odd. He’d call me his grandson even when I was wearing a dress and clearly female, but my parents would tell me to ignore it.
Then I found out that when my dad was a kid, grandpa sold my dad’s sister Barbara to someone and kept my dad and his brother because he didn’t want a girl in the family. My dad found his sister Barbara around the time I was in middle school via calling around to get records, they were reunited, she’s my favorite aunt now. No one liked grandpa.” © Halleaon / Reddit - That my cousin’s dog didn’t run away... I was with my uncle on the porch and watched that poor pup get snatched off the ground by a massive hawk. A blink and it was gone. There was nothing we could do. We looked at each other after a solid few minutes of silence, and he leans over: “That dog ran away.” I nodded and that was the last we discussed it. © ZedisonSamZ / Reddit
- My father won the lottery, and we’ve been pretending to be poor, so our family doesn’t try to ask for money. © Unknown User / Reddit
- My grandparents didn’t talk to each other 20 YEARS before my grandfather finally kicked the bucket. They lived in the same house the entire time, too, and no one knows why they weren’t on speaking terms. © GideonIsmail / Reddit
- One of my friends did 23 and Me and discovered she had 185 half siblings she didn’t know about. The fertility doctor her mom had gone to was just using his own sperm and not telling anyone if a couple was having trouble conceiving because of the father. What’s even crazier is that, apparently, he was not the only fertility doctor doing this. A couple of other “super clusters” of siblings have been found because of DNA testing. In most cases, the parents had no idea this had happened until their kids got DNA testing done. © PM_me_your_fantasyz / Reddit
- When my grandfather passed away, we discovered that he did not exist. His name was not in any government registry. He was a normal citizen, paid taxes, had a license and everything. Lived a long life, married to my grandmother for over 50 years, had multiple children, everything normal. Still to now, no one knows who he really was and why he had a false name. © daveypump / Reddit
- Discovered that my sister stole my father’s $25k Rolex less than 24 hours after he died. I only discovered it when her and her husband made a frivolous purchase and I wondered where they got the money since they were always broke and begging my parents for money. I got suspicious, it hit me that she might have stolen and sold the Rolex.
I had the paperwork, ran a track on the sales history and discovered it had been sold to a pawn shop down the street from where my sister lives. Went to the pawn shop and after a bit of persuasion got them to tell me who sold it to them, and it was my sister. My mom and I disowned her. © dallased25 / Reddit - My two remaining grandparents, my father’s father and my mother’s mother, married each other when they were 75. This made my mother and father stepbrother and stepsister. Since the son of my father’s sister (my aunt) is my cousin, and the son of my mother’s brother (my uncle) is also my cousin, I became both cousins. I am, therefore, my own cousin. I’ll never be alone... © Pigs100 / Reddit
- Every single one of my uncles is currently having an affair. I have 4 uncles. © Unknown User / Reddit
- Got a birthday card on my 17th birthday from Christine. Asked my (adoptive) mum who Christine is. “Oh, that’s your sister.” The only living biological relative. Didn’t know she existed. © washrag*** / Reddit
- My mother passed after a few months of giving birth to me. Whenever I asked how she died, the answer was that she passed away in her sleep, and no one knew why. I just learned a few years ago that she actually had cancer and was pregnant with me. Giving birth to me severally weakened her and eventually led to her death. I don’t think I’ll be able to ever forgive myself because from what I’ve heard from everyone, she was a really good woman. © Iamyeetlord / Reddit
- I went to meet my girlfriend’s parents for the first time. Her stepdad and I started chatting. He asked about my parents and I told him where my mom worked. He mentioned he worked there for a few years. He asked for her name, and his face went white when I told him. Turns out, he was the man with whom my mom cheated, and because of whom she left my dad and three kids. Two families were destroyed as a consequence. I never told my mom that I met him. © Aggravating_Client36 / Reddit
It’s surprisingly true that the internet is filled with such stories, and people often find themselves uncovering horrifying family secrets more frequently than one might expect.