It isn't unusual to learn new things about your parents, family, or family history. However, sometimes, you find out something about your family that not only you couldn't even imagine, but is totally shocking.
And recently, I stumbled upon a very old Reddit thread that touched upon just that. In the thread, the now-deleted user asked, "What 'family secret' did you learn that totally shocked you?"
The thread went viral and got over 6K comments. Below are the top and best responses that are truly shocking:
1. "My great-grandfather was a quiet and kind man and treasurer for his chapter of the Elks Lodge in Texas. He was attacked on his way home from an Elks Lodge meeting. He suffered amnesia and regained consciousness as a sailor on his way to Haiti. After landing, he lived in the country for a few months before getting into a bar brawl with a police officer and getting knocked out. He regained consciousness in jail with a new-found memory of who he was."
"He told this tale to a priest from jail, who believed him and wanted to help. The priest wrote my great-grandmother and the American government and somehow convinced the Haitian government to let him return to the US.
My great-grandfather returned to my great-grandmother, had two children, and was a law-abiding citizen for the rest of his life. This story is so UNBELIEVABLE that when my mother told it to me six months ago, I was convinced it was a hoax. She has documents (the letters from the priest and others) and testimonials of his friends that say this behavior was uncharacteristic."
2. "My father had an affair with his brother's wife, so my cousin is also my half-brother. My cousin doesn't know, though. My grandma let this slip whilst wasted."
3. "So my grandpa used to go on these 'business trips' for years and years, and the vast majority of the family believed that he was really a marriage counselor. He ended up dying a few years ago, and it turns out he was a priest. The way we all found out was because we weren't invited to his funeral because his family had never heard of us. Because, ya know, priests can't get married."
4. "My aunt was adopted by my grandmother...or at least that was what she thought. About 30 years later, it was discovered that my grandfather was, in fact, her father, who had her with some sex worker whom he cheated on my grandmother with and who left the kid with him. So he convinced my grandmother to adopt the baby that was 'found at the hospital.' My grandmother died without knowing the truth about it."
5. "My dad is a straight man. Everyone in the family assumed he fell somewhere on the LGBTQ+ spectrum and that he had to marry my mom for appearance's sake back in the '60s. We were wrong. He fooled around on my mom with another woman."
6. "My aunt, with a very 'holier-than-thou' attitude, has been having a 40-plus year affair with a childhood sweetheart. This is the person who is always quick to criticize other people's family issues and tries so hard to present her and her family as 'perfect.' Her husband is an asshole to our family, and she lets him completely get away with it. I guess we know why now."
7. "My grandma inherited several hundred thousand dollars from her stepdad. The juicy part is that, to this day, no one knows how he got it. No one even knew he had that kind of money until he died. Since I'm from the South, my guess is rum-running or something like that, but we don't know and likely never will."
8. "The real reason my uncle wasn't able to make it to my parents' wedding was because he was in prison. He had the excellent idea to rob a convenience store by yelling at the cashier and throwing bananas at him. After stealing $8, he walked three doors down to a Chinese restaurant and sat down to eat. Since it was winter, the cops just followed his tracks, apparently."
9. "Not mine, but in my wife's family, her great uncle was killed by his wife and the hired hand. (Poison was assumed as he was just found dead in the field. They were farmers.) His wife married the red-headed hired hand, and 8 months after the death, she birthed a red-headed son. Everyone in the family and the neighborhood knew except, I guess, the RCMP. This was around 1935 in rural Alberta."
10. "Ages ago, I arranged a meeting with the local dope dealer through a real half-assed friend. Well, surprise, surprise, the dealer turned out to be my dad. Needless to say, major questions were asked on both sides. My God, the look on our faces must've been priceless!"
11. "That my great-grandmother was a vengeful woman. She found out that her husband (my great-grandfather) had cheated on her. He had a stroke and was bedridden in his fifties. So, she set up a mirror that made it so he could see the bed in the guest bedroom. Then she proceeded to screw every man in town; he was was unable to speak or move and was forced to watch. She also had no shame on who she screwed. She screwed the pastor and the sheriff, to name a few of her triumphs. This was in the early 1950s."
12. "When I was 14, I found an old wedding album at my grandma's house, which was of my mother's first wedding. She was married in 1959 when she was 19 to a man from a wealthy family. I had no idea that my father was her second husband."
"Then, when I was 17, my mother revealed that my older brother and sister were adopted. And not just adopted, but adopted during her first marriage. I had no idea they weren't my biological siblings. And they had never spilled the beans either."
13. "I found out when I was 22, but apparently, I had an older sister. She died very young due to a heart defect or something before I was born, but yeah no one in my (very, very large) family ever let it slip the whole time. I only found out because my other two older sisters found a letter buried in a closet one day years ago, and they told me about it way after the fact.
"I never asked my parents about it. I can only imagine what kind of old wound that would dig up, and they don't need that. I just quietly visited the grave by myself once to leave a flower. It was a pretty unreal feeling."
—[deleted]
14. "My white, Jewish grandfather was once part of a Black gang."
15. "My mom married my stepfather in the mid-'80s. My mom and dad had been divorced since my birth in the early '70s. I always knew there was something a little off with my stepfather. Couldn't ever really pin down what it was, but he was just off, if ever so slightly. But hey, my mom really liked this guy, so I was in. I made my way through some awkward teenage years with him in my life and went off to college."
"Then, in 1997, my mom and stepdad divorced. Towards the end, he would grow very impatient, and I guess they would fight a lot, but I wasn't around to see it as I had long since moved out and had my own life to live in a different state. Didn't ever hear him come up much in conversation after that.
Now, fast forward to 2007. My mom, unfortunately, had cancer, and it was nearing the end of her life. I spent the last two weeks with her at her house, just talking and letting her know how much I loved her and what a great mom she had been. So, sitting on the couch next to her one of those days, she exclaimed, 'Well, I suppose I can tell you about your stepfather now.' My eyes perked right up, I knew it I knew it, something was off about him! Maybe he went AWOL from the Army? Maybe he had a kid I didn't know about? She continued on, 'Your stepfather was a gay porn star in the '70s.' This, I had not expected."
16. "My grandfather had an affair with my dad's first wife. When my dad found out, he pulled a gun on him. The only reason my dad didn't shoot him was 'to protect' my grandma from knowing what my grandfather was really like. My dad had a one-night stand out of anger and revenge. That woman got pregnant with my oldest sister. The rest is history."
17. "That all the women that my dad was having sex with (cheating on my mom) were actually all men. Bonus: They are still married 30 years later."
18. "My friend turned 15 and was told she was adopted. Turns out that both her parents died in a car crash when she was just a baby, and her uncle adopted her and raised her. Told her that both parents were dead. A year later, a man messages her on Facebook, saying that he's her half-brother. Turns out the dad lived through the car crash and later remarried, her adopted parents were lying to her as they knew all along, the dad just didn't want to keep and raise her."
"That's the 'secret,' so to speak. However, the story continues, as her biological father wanted to meet her. She flies out to meet him, stays with him, met his wife and her half-siblings. She struggled with the idea of reconnecting with him because she both loathes and loves him. Loathes him for not wanting her and for getting a new family. Loves him for wanting to make a difference in her life and reconnect. She takes the plunge anyway. Six months later, he died from lung cancer."
19. "My great-grandpa was a decorated soldier who fought in the Indian regiment of British troops in WWI. In reality, he was a cook who deserted after seeing men sent to attack machine guns with their bodies. He and a bunch of others nope'd the f*** out of there while stealing a bunch of supplies."
"It took them a few years to get from France to Vadodara in the current state of Gujarat, India They sold the guns and rations along the way for money. My great-grandpa even picked up an STI from a sex worker. They blame the STI on why he went 'funny' in the head towards his end.
Also, the little bit of money he brought back from the stolen and sold army gear helped my grandpa buy some land and kick-start my family's fortunes so that we could move out of the untouchable class."
20. "Patty had older parents (CJ and DJ) and an older sister, Diana (who is about 18 years older). Patty's parents died when Patty was about 38 years old. At the funeral, the big family secret came out: Diana (Patty's sister) was actually Patty's birth mother. Because Diana had Patty so young, in a different time for pregnant teens, they pretended Patty was CJ and DJ's child and Diana's sister."
"So, in a short amount of time, my friend lost her parents, found out her parents were actually her grandparents, her sister was actually her mom, and that her father was never in the picture, and they have no idea who he is. I have no idea how that could not f*** someone up, but she seemed fine with it."
21. And lastly, "A family that I've known my whole life lived across the street, the family's daughter married a cousin of mine, etc. I learned just a couple of years ago that the family's dad didn't go away to the Peace Corps for those years — he was gone in the '80s when we were kids. He was in prison for trying to rob a bank because the family hit such hard times when their second kid was born. The dad is the sweetest person ever and we never doubted for a second that he would do something like join the Peace Corps (that kind of guy), but the prison thing was a real WTF moment for EVERYONE."
—[deleted]
You can read the original thread on Reddit.
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.