25 Of The Worst Family Secrets People Have Accidentally Found Out

Everyone has secrets they try to keep from their families—even you likely have a few. We may hope these secrets stay buried, but they often surface unexpectedly. Recently, an intriguing Reddit question asked, “What’s the worst family secret you’ve accidentally found out?” The answers brought to light some truly disturbing revelations capable of changing a person’s view of their family. Continue reading to see a compilation of these astonishingly shocking family secrets.

#1

Image source: Remarkable-Age, Alex Johnstone/unsplash My blood Grandparents sold my mother when she was less than 2yrs old to their friend and neighbor because they only wanted boys.

#2

Image source: Jammer125, Maria Lupan/unsplash My uncle is my father. My 'dad' never once told me he loved me or showed me affection. I'm 67 now and realizing this has made his treatment of me clear.

#3

Image source: Commonfckingsense, Brooke Cagle/unsplash My dad’s not my real dad. I didn’t get confirmation till after he died so it’s not like he ever knew for sure. He raised me as his mini me. Never once did I ever question if he was my real dad & I was actually his favorite child.? He died when I was 15 and I miss him everyday. He taught me what unconditional love is and honestly is the biggest reason I’m a great stepmom today. I honestly couldn’t care less to meet my biological father, it’s some random guy in Norway that my mom met when on a break from my dad. To give a quick story as to how great my dad truly was, we grew up dirt poor but my freshman year of high school I wanted to try out for the cheerleading squad. I knew we couldn’t afford it but I wanted to see if I could make it anyways. He gave up smoking cigarettes after 53 years so we could afford it. ?.

#4

Image source: babystarlette, Eduardo Ramos/unsplash I did not accidentally uncover this secret as family told me but they are quite hush hush with this information. Around 2021 or so, my great uncle (grandfather’s brother) was found guilty of r**ing a child and it was soon revealed that he had other victims because he’s had accusations for like 40 years now. So when he was convicted everything came to light and people realized those who accused him were not lying. That’s not the thing I accidentally uncovered. His daughter (parent’s cousin) came to visit with her family and I decided to hang out with her teenage daughter and show her around town. When we went to go eat, I have no clue what we were talking about but she mentioned how she couldn’t believe her grandpa went to prison for d***s. I was confused and asked her who told her that, and she mentioned other family members close to her had said that was the reason. I told her truth and I noticed she got real quiet. I then asked her if he had done anything to her and she started tearing up saying yes and it happened when she was under the age of 10. My sister (who was with me) and I told her she needs to tell her parents especially because her grandmother was siding with pedophile husband and supports him. I have no clue what came of it as this family lives out of state but I hope she told her mom and dad.

#5

Image source: Renbelle, Annie Spratt/unsplash My partner’s father: R***d and molested a teen girl, she had two children by him. Once these children were approaching puberty, he molests both of them. He gets married to a woman (my partner’s mother) with two young daughters, he r***es the stepdaughter around age 11. We don’t know how many more victims there were, as the man died of Alzheimer’s before much of this came out. He was a highly respected psychologist in the 70s and 80s and used the position to threaten anyone who might have spoken out.

#6

Image source: The_Boots_of_Truth, George Dagerotip/unsplash My uncle was not biologically my uncle. My grandmother had a still born son, and in the next hospital bed was a teen mum. She asked my Nana to take her baby, she told everyone her baby had died, and went back home. My uncle always knew, but could never find his mum as she didn't tell anyone. He tracked her down when she was unwell, and got to spend a few months with her before she died. He also had 3 younger siblings who didn't know about him. I'm glad he finally found his bio family before he passed away a few years ago.

#7

Image source: blondebeaker, Getty Images/unsplash Great grandparents (Grandmother's inlaws)kidnapped my twin uncles when they were six months old, under the guise of helping my grandmother when she and my aunts (who were still toddlers) had the flu. Grandmother never saw her sons until they were almost adults and my mother, who was born yrs after the kidnapping was in her early teens. Wasn't really an accident finding out, my Mum was upfront about it when I asked her if she'd be ok with me doing an Ancestry DNA test (she's had other very traumatic events happen and I didn't want to proceed unless she was ok with it , in case something from those events popped up).

#8

Image source: Frosty_Noise_4844, Art Institute of Chicago/unsplash My great-grandfather sold my grandfather to another family. atomicgirl78: My paternal grandfather’s first wife (I won’t repeat what they referred to as but) I think she probably had some mental illness and some other issues and so they ended up getting divorced. He then met his second wife, my grandma, in a tuberculosis ward that they both are admitted to. Now grandpa had three children by his first wife and my grandma had already had one child by her first husband, ,who she divorced because he was an alcoholic. Sooooo after they met and fell in love Grandma said to grandpa “I love you I want to marry you, but I don’t want to raise four children.” My grandfather surrendered his three children to an orphanage! I have seen photos of grandpa with his new family visiting his children at the orphanage. I cannot even imagine what that felt like to those kids. To be completely abandoned by both parents and then to have their dad visit once in a while. WTF. All three of the children died of cancer ages ago. Anecdotal or not but I think there’s a reason for that. whilewemelt: My great grandparents lent their second youngest son, my grandfather, to the neighbours to work for food and shelter. He had to walk past his home to and from school, not allowed to come inside. They feared he wouldn't leave if he did. So he was a slave laborer for the neighbours throughout his childhood...

#9

Image source: islandsimian, Planet Volumes/unsplash   Some of my ancestors emigrated to Austrailia because they got in the wrong line and were too stubborn to get out of line when they realized their mistake...that's sounds about par for the course in my family.

#10

Image source: AmazingAd8987, Getty Images/unsplash My mom went to the hospital in 1964 to have a baby and came home without one. We were told the baby died. Nope. He was given up for adoption because he was an affair baby and my step dad said he was not raising any more b*****d children (my older brother and I have different dads and they were deadbeat dads so my step dad was already raising 2 b*****d children). My step dad was not a good father either unless you were one of his biological sons that he treated like they were made of gold.

#11

Image source: poly_girlie, Luke Thornton/unsplash My grandpa had an affair on my grandma. He lied to the other woman, like he was rich and stuff. Other woman eventually found everything out and didn’t wanna be with him anymore. My grandpa went to her work, k**led her in front of her coworkers and then k**led himself. She had young children.

#12

Image source: Got_Bent, Getty Images/unsplash My great great great Uncle was a horse thief in Ireland and was hanged for stealing a horse.

#13

Image source: PM_ME_KITTEN_TOESIES, Ehsan Habashi/unsplash Was told all my life that my grandfather died in a fire but nobody ever told me he set it.

#14

Image source: crabcancer, Mak/unsplash We always thought we were the main family and dad's other family had him on Fridays. It was only when I start taking an interest in family lines and realise that mum was actually the mistress as we were all younger by at least 10 years.

#15

Image source: Bigfops, Curated Lifestyle/unsplash My grandfather had a child as the result of an affair. I never knew about him until after he had died. My mother told me about him and that he had asked to go to the funeral when my grandfather died and my grandmother refused. To be clear the affair child wasn’t what upset me, the fact that he couldn’t even see his father put to rest did.

#16

I have a relative, George Burroughs, who was executed for being a warlock in Salem Massachusetts by Cotton Mather in 1692. Not really a secret but it was an odd thing to have revealed at family trivia night. Image source: Tricky_Ad6844

#17

Image source: TheEggplantRunner, Eduardo Ramos/unsplash My uncle, who died in his 40s, was a closeted gay man. I found out because my dad was arguing with someone on Facebook and decided to out his brother as a "I'm not homophobic" defense. My dad doesn't know I'm in that group. The secret itself doesn't shock me. It's the bonkers way I found out that did.

#18

Image source: armsless, A. C./unsplash My sister decided to do a genealogy test when my mum died (convinced we have some “ethnic” genes, she could pass for half Indian when she tans). Nope, just English Irish and a little Scottish, and a love child my grandad fathered 60 years ago. Can opened, worms everywhere.

#19

My grandfather, who was EXTREMELY religious, molested a 16 year old girl (who went to the same high school as his children) while he was both the leader of a congregation and the mayor of a small town. When it was found out, he moved his family across the country and nothing charges were ever brought. He was later so puritanical in his beliefs that he kicked out his own granddaughter for coming home smelling like cigarette smoke. It completely changed how I looked at him, and it helped me escape from a cult. Image source: emorrigan

#20

Image source: Playful_Assistance89, Alexander Mass/unsplash How my poor great grandma was able to afford a mink coat during the Grest Depression. She was a h**ker. Joe Louis bought her the coat after a fight because she was his favorite w***e.

#21

Image source: Auferstehen78, Port Morien Digital Archive/unsplash I took a DNA test 7 years ago on a whim. Found two things. My maternal grandfather had a kid out of wedlock before he met my grandmother. Not really a surprise as he was in the Navy and I have a photo album of all his girlfriends from that time. The shocker was that I had a biological father I wasn't aware of. Mom had lied and sadly passed away years before so I couldn't ask why. Met my biological father three years ago. I moved back to the US to be close to him and his family so I could get to know them better. It's so weird the amount of stuff we all have in common. I have two older brothers and four nieces and two nephews and now a great niece. I do wish I could find out why Mom didn't tell me.

#22

My aunt died in the 1970s, years before I was born. The "official" story that I had always heard was that there was a car accident and my aunt drowned in the car whilst her husband survived. When my grandparents sold their house in 2015, my dad and I were tasked with cleaning the house out. I found a box of letters in my mom's childhood room, and started going through some of them. One of the letters was from the neighbor of my aunt and her husband, urging my grandparents to go to to the FBI about the "accident" because the neighbors knew with utmost certainty that my aunt's husband had k**led her, and it wasn't an accident. I asked my grandma about it, but she said that the husband's entire family basically ran the local police force at the time and there was nothing that my grandparents could do about it without causing more issues for themselves, and the neighbors didn't have definitive proof, so they never pursued it. Image source: TheBaneofNewHaven

#23

Image source: firepitt, Andrej Lišakov/unsplash Using 23 and me, my sister found a lost first cousin. Turns out our (deceased) uncle, who had a perfect little family and can do no wrong, had an affair with a co-worker and they had a love child. We got in contact with her. She pressured her mother into admitting the affair. She doesn't want an open line of communication, though, because her father thinks she's his.

#24

Image source: The-disgracist, Getty Images/unsplash My friends discovered a family secret that even my family didn’t know. I am a junior so I have the exact same name as my dad. Back in the young days of the internet we would google each other for fun. My buddy was in school across the country and calls me to say I should google myself. He had found a website of a young woman looking for my father. She knew he was ALSO HER FATHER! TLDR my dad impregnated a working lady in the Philippines in 1977 and now I have a half sister I’ve never met.

#25

Image source: ZealCrow, Getty Images/unsplash My great great (great?) Grandfather was a doctor who bound a book he wrote in human skin, taken from a patient of his who died (Mary Lynch). UPenn owns the book.