" Imagine finding out you are n’t an only child in your forty . "
Recently, we wrote aboutsecrets people are hiding from their families— and theBuzzFeed Communitypiped in with some piping hot secrets family members had kept from them! Here are 26 wild family secrets that were uncovered.
1.“My family kept who my biological father is from me. It wasn’t until I did a DNA ancestry test that I found out that my biological father was my mother’s high school chemistry teacher. It was a big scandal at the high school. The teacher was also the girl’s varsity basketball coach and had been sleeping with several girls from the team. Not only did I find out who my father was, but I also found three half-siblings.”
— Anonymous
2.“When I was 21, I wanted to do some volunteer/missionary work with a local church organization. They required that I get medical history on both my mother’s and my father’s side of the family, for insurance purposes. When I talked to my parents about this, they weirdly said they would talk it over and get back to me. Huh? Okay, I guess…The next day, I was playing street hockey with my friends, when I got a page from them (back in the days of pagers) to call them. So, I did, and they told me I needed to come home, right away. When I got there, there was my oldest sister, sitting with them in the living room. They all told me they had something very important to tell me. Turns out, the woman I had believed for 21 years to be my oldest sister was my biological mother.”
" She had gotten fraught with me when she was 17 , by her then - boyfriend who was 19 . Turned out the guy was see other adult female at the time , and plunge her , so she never told him she was meaning . When she eventually secernate her mom , ( my grandmother ) who was also pregnant with her youngest , and due at the same time , they decided they would give nascence together , and my grandmother would bring up both baby as twins to save font . They were a very religious family . "
3.“My dad once had an affair. The woman he was seeing gave him a gun. My mom found it, but he had an excuse, of course. Eventually, it came to light where the gun was from. I don’t know if a plan had been hatched to kill my mom, my sister, and me. It didn’t work out anyway because his other woman was shot in the face by her husband before he took his own life. He left a path of destruction everywhere he went.”
4.“When I was two, my bio mom took off, never to be heard from again. Growing up, my whole life I would always ask about her, ask to see her, ask if my dad knew where she was, and if she wanted to meet me. To this day I have the few small gifts she gave me as a baby. I was always told he had no idea where she was, she vanished and I probably would never see her again. Fast forward and I’m an adult. I tracked her down thanks to some internet sleuthing and found out I also have four siblings. Long story short, the secret was that my father never lost touch with her and always knew where she was and how to get in contact with her. In fact, she lived less than 10 minutes away from me for years.”
" He just made the decision that I would be better off without her and she did n’t care to fight it , so he lie to me for most of my life . It would have been courteous to roll in the hay my folk , especially my siblings . I was conjure as an only tiddler with no real extended family and as much as I would have it away a close kinship more than anything , we ’re not all close . They ’re all grown and have their own life , and their own life together that I ’m not really a part of and it stings . One of my sib is my absolute favorite person in the man and we are close , but I barely know the others and it breaks my heart . I sleep with she could have endeavor to see me or ramp up a relationship and he was doing what he think was best to protect me ( he was sort of proper … ) but he ’s gone now and so is the legal age of my family so it injure being alone roll in the hay that I have immediate family out there . "
5.“That the guy my mom lived with when I was a teenager was a cocaine dealer. I was too naive to realize it, but it’s so obvious in hindsight. He would set us kids up with free limousine rides and the driver would buy us junk food at gas stations if we asked. He would have a different new car every week. He had a revolving door of ‘friends’ visit the house. He had a lot of rich friends, and I met a lot of them while they were at work in the offices. I’m also sure he attempted to traffic me. He offered me all sorts of expensive gifts to date his ‘friends.’ I always turned them down because I had a boyfriend plus I’m not materialistic and I wasn’t interested in gold jewelry or cars. It was two decades before my mom came clean about it all.”
6.“I was born with a brain condition that was diagnosed when I was 11 years old. My parents sent me to the best neurosurgeon in North America at that time. After looking at the images, the doctor determined that my condition was too serious and that I was likely to die on the operating table. My parents were told to take me home and let me live with the condition until I died. My whole family knew that I could suddenly die, except me. My parents never told me. At 16, I had a small hemorrhage and the doctor I had at the time recommended surgery. I survived with partial paralysis. My sister told me several years later that she would always get tense when the phone rang because she was unconsciously waiting for a phone call to say I had died.”
7.“My grandmother recently died and my mother had done one of those DNA things. Turns out, my grandmother had a child in secret and gave him up for adoption. He found us shortly after her death. But crazy thing is that he lived and grew up in the same town my mother did and they never ran into each other. Sadly, when he contacted us, he was dying of brain cancer and died days before we could meet him. We live in Florida now and he was still in our hometown. My grandmother took that secret to her grave.”
8.“My grandfather, who had helped raise me from the age of 10 due to having been removed from my mother and stepfather’s home for severe physical, emotional, sexual, and psychological abuse, was a convicted sex offender, and there was a distinct possibility I was born from incest.”
" Thankfully the DNA test I took showed I was n’t , but it was a dreaded opening . I was an adult when I learn of this , and a turn of other thing . But this one was the most scandalous . He was an Army old-timer from the Vietnam War , and was ' uprightly ' go off the year I was born . Come to find out out , he was forced to retire because the Army found out about the bearing against him . The only reason I found out was because I was hire a belongings to him and he was preparing to move to another town . He was drunk and was talking to me about being upset about not being able to move . When I asked why , he just roundly said,‘Because I ’m a record sexual activity offender . I was in clink for two eld after you were have because I was having gender with your mother . ‘To say I was shocked was an understatement . This was a adult male I regularly had countenance take in my two boy , that I had the utmost esteem for . And to make matter worse , that meant the state of matter Child Protective Services , sleep together he was a sex wrongdoer , placed me in his domicile as a preteenager . My female parent confirm the chronicle , and admit it was consensual ( yuck ) , and after the DNA trial run was clear , I cut the entire family out for keeping me in the night . The sad affair is , that was n’t the only disclosure that dark . Come to find out , he had been sleep with my x - wife before he draw with the womanhood he was moving in with . "
9.“That my maternal grandfather (whose home we often had sleepovers at as children) molested my mother and aunt their entire lives, leading to my mother having an abortion at 12 years old with my grandfather’s child. AND THEY STILL LET ME SLEEP OVER AT HIS HOUSE.”
10.“My best friend’s mom had her phone tapped and listened to our conversations all through high school. She would periodically call my mom to tell her everything I’d ever done. (First time I smoked weed, lost my virginity, stole some candy, skipped school, normal teenage things.) My parents somehow found out about it. That really messed me up when I found out the truth years later.”
11.“After my mom and my uncle (her brother) died, my sister, who is interested in genealogy, looked into my mom’s father’s side of the family. He died when my mom was 16 so we never knew a lot about his extended family. My grandmother lived to be 93 so she told us a great deal about her family. After much searching, my sister uncovered a real scandal. My grandfather had another family a few hours away, including a daughter. Unfortunately, my mom’s half-sibling and her mother had passed away many years before my mom. We will never know if my mom, my uncle, or my grandmother for that matter, had any idea and if they did, why they never told us.”
12.“I have two older brothers I didn’t know about until I was 15. They were from my dad’s first marriage and his ex-wife had cut off all contact after the divorce and basically told them all sorts of lies about how my dad was an awful person who hated them, never wanted them, etc…turns out she was an alcoholic and one of the 12 steps is to make amends to the people you hurt, so after 20 years she tells my brothers the truth about my dad. I got to meet the oldest in 1993, he died a couple of years later. I didn’t meet the other one until 2009…he’s 15 years older than me and I look pretty much exactly like him. But that’s still a whole lifetime everyone missed knowing each other for.”
13.“A few years ago my sister and I were contacted by a random guy that turned out to be my full-blood brother. Parents had put him up for adoption before we were born and never told anyone about it. Now we have a relationship with him. A week ago I heard from a second one. He was born after my younger sister and put up for adoption. They didn’t tell us about him when we found out about the first one.”
14.“When I was about 11, my sister went to live with my aunt across the country. She was 16 and got into a lot of trouble: guys, sneaking out, alcohol, you name it. She and my dad fought all the time, then one day I’m told she’s going to live with my aunt.”
" It turned out that there was a special school / rehab out there she asked to go to , but I was n’t told this until many age by and by … I can see why they would n’t want to tell a kid but the only affair I image was my sis fighting with my daddy and then her being sent away . I ’m not worried with my parents or anything but I would have liked to have have sex the truth so I did n’t fear getting sent away any time I got into trouble . "
15.“Through an Ancestry email my sister found out that we had a sister that we did not know about. After inquiring, my sister found out that my parents had a first child and put her up for adoption before they were married. Not that unusual for the 1950s, but the devastating news was that the two eldest sisters were told about her, but my one sister and I were not. For a time in the 1970s, my parents had a relationship with her and her husband and children. My two eldest siblings met her also. Other family members either met her or knew of her existence. When we tried to discuss the betrayal (not of the adoption, but the fact two siblings knew about her and two didn’t) with our mother we were rejected and then shunned by the whole family for ‘attacking’ our mother.”
" My mother passed away a few years later without ever contacting us again and we each welcome a transcript of a raw will stating that my sister and I were disinherited . I feel like my whole life history was based on a lie . "
16.“My mother had a brother who was in prison when he was young. Apparently, he was only two years younger than my mother. Found out he existed only after he died and I was contacted as I was his next of kin. He died alcoholic, lonely, and owning only the clothes he was wearing.”
17.“I was raised as an only child by a single (divorced) mother. After about four years of age, we never saw, heard from, or received support from my father. It wasn’t until my own daughter went away to college and was working on alumni records on the internet that she accidentally found who she thought was my father. When she came home on break she presented me with the info and I wrestled with whether or not go contact him. After much soul-searching, I decided to contact my father. It turned out that the person wasn’t my father but a brother I never knew I had. Not only did I learn that my father was deceased but that I also had a total of four brothers, two older and two younger, and a sister who died as a child.”
" Seems my father was n’t such a nice cat , had multiple married woman , none of whom he do by well , which is why my mother was so hurt and decide to curve all tie with my begetter . I imagine this is why she keep open my sib a mystery . Imagine detect out you are n’t an only child in your forties . "
18.“I have an older half brother (birth dad’s side, I’m my mom’s only child) in another country. My dad didn’t even tell me. He told my now ex boyfriend when I left the room one day.”
19.“My brother had a bachelor party a few weeks before his wedding. His group of friends were nice to your face but kind of sleazy in reality. A few of his friends were in committed long-term relationships or married. My cousin attended the bachelor party, I didn’t as I was out of the country. Turns out the brother of the bride brought a ton of coke and weed to the bachelor party. My cousin had some weed but was very aware of his surroundings. Late into the night, the bride’s brother had ordered sex workers.”
" Two add up and a few of the guys croak into the rooms with them , even my brother . One of the protagonist pretermit this chance and was disquieted so he order two more sex worker . A sum of seven gender worker came to the home throughout the Nox . My full cousin was so aghast with this that he end up bequeath . My crony was disquieted he would grass so he and a few Quaker left the Bachelor company very latterly into the night in a car to find my cousin , and yes they were under the influence . My cousin pass home safely and my sidekick contacted him first affair in the morning and asked him if he remembered anything from last Nox ; of line , he state no as he was frightened of likely terror . My crony called him a few times to make indisputable he would n’t say anything and that it would be a bighearted problem for my cousin-german if he did . My cousin-german obviously secern me right away and I confirm it with another admirer who terminate up staying there but did n’t partake in the activity .
Since then I have lost all regard for my comrade but I still keep in touch with him out of hereditary obligations . I was never that sick or horrified of someone ’s choice until then . His poor wife does n’t know to this solar day . To make things worse , one of his friend had a bachelor-at-arms political party and the same thing encounter again that my brother took part in while wed . I never looked at him the same style again . "
20.“My grandma had a child in the ’60s that she was forced to give up for adoption because she was a teenager living at home, and already had one kid. Most people in her life didn’t even know she was pregnant. After she had the baby, she saved up to get her own place and would check on the baby every day to make sure they were still there. When she finally had everything in order she went to get her kid and they had already been adopted out. She says she was so heartbroken that she never wanted to talk about it again. Almost 15 years ago a girl, my cousin, reached out to my mom on Facebook saying she thought she was related to us. Everything came out in the open and we met them. At first I think it was heartbreaking for my grandma all over again but now she has even more grandchildren, and she loves it!”
21.“The person I call Dad moved in when I was two, right after my biological father (whom I’ve never met) moved out after the divorce. My dad became the father figure of the household and financially supported us five kids, but was never romantically involved with my mom. In fact when I was four, my mom’s much younger boyfriend also moved in and we all lived together until my teenage years when they broke up. My family tree in elementary school was me, my mom, my dad, and my mom’s boyfriend, something I thought to be completely normal at the time. As the youngest ‘oops baby,’ I was talking to my much older brother one day, wishing I was my Dad’s biological daughter. I thought about that a lot for some reason. He came clean and told me that my mom had an affair with who I call Dad, got pregnant with his baby, subsequently got an abortion, then got pregnant again immediately after that with me, but this time with her husband (our biological father).”
" My buddy said after my birth in the infirmary , my mom handed me to who I call Dad and tell ' Here is your daughter . ' Did I also distinguish you my biologic father was my Dad ’s boss at the time ? I learned that twist too . I ’m in my 40 now and always knew myself to have the good Dad ever . We ’re very tightlipped and I am thankful for this sequence of event . sanctify him for make out and treating me as his own anyway , knowing my mama purposefully abort his . But wow , that ’s just cold . I know my biological father to be an abusive sociopath and my mom is a swollen-headed , self - absorbed controlling narcissist , so regrettably I ca n’t say I ’m surprise by this . But I do like to think my mammy knew she was pass he and I a respectable lifetime by appointing him as my dad . Funny enough , he and my mommy did eventually get splice and are still together . "
22.“Every illness my mom ever had, my parents kept from me. Heart attack? Didn’t know. Second heart attack? Didn’t find out until much later. Cancer? Didn’t tell me. I know they felt like they were protecting me (I’m an only child), but I wish they would have been more upfront about it and let me figure out how to deal with it, instead of not knowing and being shocked when I heard about it from someone other than them.”
23.“My father had a relationship with the grade one teacher in my elementary school. The relationship continued for 48 years. It was a not-so-secret secret. When he was dying in hospice my mom never left his side. The staff saw this as love and devotion. The truth was, my father wanted to call his girlfriend to say goodbye and my mom wanted to have the last hurt. He was put on morphine and only then did she leave. Hospice called two days later to say he died. Mom didn’t go back to collect his things and she never mentioned him again.”
24.“I found out my mom was having an affair on her girlfriend (who has raised me since I was a baby). I can’t remember how I found out, I’ve repressed a lot of those memories but it caused a major impact on my relationship with my birth mom. Her affairs have left me traumatized as her boyfriend was abusive and no one in my family did anything to help me even though they knew I found out and was in danger every day until I was 18. I’ve since moved in with my other mom and have a strong relationship with her.”
25.“A few years ago I did the DNA testing and someone showed up that I had never heard of that was a very close match to me — they shared about 50% of my genetics. I asked my mom about it and she didn’t know. I asked my dad and nope, he didn’t know either. After my father passed away some of my cousins came for the service. I asked if anyone knew who this guy was…turns out he’s my brother (my cousin had figured it out) but no one knows if my dad knew because he never mentioned him to anyone. He’s six years older than me and born in the town my dad was living in at the time when he was 19. Surprise! I have a brother!”
26.And finally, here’s a fam secret that goes WAY back: “I am into family tree research. This is actually about dad’s family. My paternal great-grandmother was the result of my great-great-grandfather impregnating his 13/14-year-old stepdaughter. My great-grandmother was then raised and presented to the community as the daughter of him and his wife, but that wife was my great-grandmother’s grandmother, not her birth mother. She only found out who her mother was at age 17 on her wedding day when her older half-sister ( jealous her younger half-sister was marrying) … revealed who her birth mother actually was.”
" She die hard to him in tears and secernate him she would understand if he did not desire to marry a motherfucker , he said nonsense nothing your sister say is going to stop this wedlock . This drama echoed down through the next three propagation of the family . That same great - great - grandfather who impregnated his stepdaughter emotionally blackguard the half - sister and neglect her while shower down my great - grandmother with his entire devotion . He caused the Sister to be contender for his attending , rather than normal sisters produce up in the same household . He hurt his children through both actions and inaction . My pa and aunt did n’t learn the trueness of their nan until they were in their early twenty and grandpa ’s older sis say my aunt the truth result in grandpa going into a red - faced rage yelling at her . So many lies cause so much drama across three generations of the sept . Family secrets can metastasise like cancer if not take away . "
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