We asked members of the BuzzFeed Community if they had any wild secrets they were keeping from their friends. Turns out, quite a few people are grappling with some secrets they haven't told their friends, but still need to get off their chests. Here's what they shared:
1. "My best friend was dating a new guy pretty seriously and brought him to dinner to introduce him to my husband and I. When they walked in, she was so excited, and I was excited to meet him. As soon as we locked eyes, I realized that her boyfriend was a friend that I used to have a 'friends with benefits'-type relationship with in college. There were no feelings involved at all, we just weren't interested in dating at the time, and it was a way to get what we both needed without any effort. This was years before I met her, but I was kind of panicking on the inside. He walked up, shook my husband's hand and my hand, and said it was nice to meet us. We acted like we had never met, and everything went great. They are perfect together, and we are currently helping him plan his proposal to her. But this is a secret we will be taking to the grave."
—Anonymous
2. "Some of my friends don’t know I do sex work. One of my closest friends doesn’t know. She isn’t anti-sex work, but I just don’t think she’d ever be okay with it or understand. I started it to get out of a bad financial situation that she knew I was in but didn’t know the extent of because it ultimately was the cause of my own bad decisions. I can tell her just about anything, but I don’t think I can tell her this."
—Anonymous
3. "I'm a guy and was in three gay porn videos 14 years ago when I was 20. I have since come out of the closet, but to this day, I have no shame in what I did. To my knowledge, no one knows my secrets...or that I have an OnlyFans account and make enough money per month to pay rent. Maybe someday someone close to me will find out, or maybe I'll tell someone."
—Anonymous
4. "That I got back with my ex. We were together for five years, and our relationship was very unhealthy. My friends were my emotional support while I ended things and through the whole year we’ve been apart. I believe that people can grow and change, and I feel strongly that we both have, but I don’t think my friends will understand."
—Anonymous
5. "My friends think I'm a pious Catholic girl. I'm actually an atheist, and I can't tell them because I don't want to risk my parents finding out. My friends' parents love me because they, like my friends, think I'm a well-behaved girl and a model student. I'm not. I went all the way with my first boyfriend years ago. I'm bisexual, I've drank with strangers, I've made out with strangers (girls) I met online, etc. They don't even know about my secret social media accounts, even though I've been friends with two of them since elementary school. I know my friends would never judge me for this, and I know this isn't that big a deal, but it feels weird to tell them. They can keep believing I'm a teetotaler church-going god-fearing virgin. I like living a double life."
—Anonymous
6. "At the end of 2021, I got a pay raise that quadrupled my income while still working three days a week from home. I'm a 27-year-old female with no degree, and I’m making a little over $20,000 a month. I know that if any of my friends knew, it would change our relationship. We are putting most of it into savings and traveling more, not living a flashy lifestyle. A few friends have made comments about our trips or new bags I have, but I downplay it constantly and say, 'The bag was a gift' or 'Oh, we have been saving for years to take a month off in the French Riviera.'"
—Anonymous
7. "During spring of 2022, I briefly sold nudes on Twitter and ran an NSFW account I posted regularly on. I don’t do it anymore, and I’m terrified to tell my friends and have them make fun of me."
—Anonymous
8. "My husband told me he is bisexual last summer, which some of our friends know. What they don't know is that we've decided to have an open relationship, and we're planning to have our first threesome with a guy next week."
—Anonymous
9. "When we were 15, we promised that we would always tell each other anything relationship-wise, even if it was embarrassing. Well, as it would turn out, she didn't keep that promise. Only about two months into my little brother's first year of college, I found out that she had been sleeping with my brother. When I confronted her, she came clean and said that this had been happening since my brother was a junior in high school! We are no longer friends, and it completely tore my family apart. Fast-forward a few years later, and I have a new friend. When she asked why I don't care about my brother's new kid, I said I didn't know that he had one. The truth was, it was my ex-best friend's kid, and I didn't want to be a part of their life."
—Anonymous
10. "I haven’t told most of my friends that I died two months ago and the doctors brought me back! I spent a week in ICU and was intubated for days because I couldn’t breathe on my own. At one point, my heart stopped, and I needed CPR to bring me back. We didn’t make this public knowledge, and a lot of my friends and I don’t speak every day, so going a week or so not speaking isn’t a big deal. When they texted me after I was already home, I just never told them."
11. "That I cannot remember the details of their lives. I'm talking the names of their husbands, children, where they went on holiday, their birthdays, etc. I really try and write down as much as I can to prompt myself, but I just cannot keep the information in my head. It gets awkward when they talk about Max needing an operation and I don't know if that's their husband, son, or dog."
12. "I slept with someone else several years ago while my spouse was on a several-months-long work trip. It was pretty much a full relationship except the other person knew that I would never commit and the whole thing would eventually end. We dressed up and went out for dinner, stayed at each other's houses overnight, had quickies during work breaks, and pretty much everything I did with my spouse before (and still do now). I stopped things with that person about two months before my spouse came home and have told no one ever. I still talk to that friend every day, and they have stayed the night several times at my family home while my spouse was there. Somehow, everything went back to normal."
—Anonymous
13. "I got a boob job almost two years ago, and almost no one knows. I did go somewhat modest, but at least to me, it's a huge difference. I can't decide if I'm offended or not that none of my friends noticed!"
—Anonymous
14. "That my boyfriend and I are sleeping together. I know doesn’t sound taboo, but he is a pastor, and all of our family and friends are very conservative Christians who value saving yourself until marriage. I cannot tell them I spend four out of seven nights a week in his bed, that I have a key to his apartment, or that I currently have the most healthy and respectful sex life I’ve ever had. If they knew, he would lose his job, and our friends would say we are 'living in sin.'"
—Anonymous
15. "My friend group had a Yahoo group for years post-college (when that was a thing). We had so many good memories, pictures, and messages saved there. A few years ago, Yahoo phased out groups and I, as admin, was supposed to download the data before it would be deleted. Spoiler: I did not do that. Recently, one of them asked about the group, and I totally lied and said I had saved it. Hoping no one asks about it again!"
—Anonymous
16. "I’m seeing a 42-year-old man that’s also my supervisor at work. It's a two-decade age difference between us, but right now, I’m living in the moment. My sister told me ages ago not to get involved in that way because he’s a lot older, but he just makes me happy, and I'm living in the moment right now. It’s not official between us due to the age gap, but we are open to options in case we find someone else."
—Anonymous
17. "I'm not a bitch who doesn't give a crap about anything, and I don't ghost friends because I don't care about them. I have severe depression, and I go into self-isolation mode. I love my friends, and I miss them."
18. "I had been catfishing a guy for about five years. I’m actually a lesbian. My friends knew about the guy, but just that we were 'long-distance friends.'"
—Anonymous
19. "I quit drinking. I have been alcohol-free for 87 days."
—Anonymous
20. "I run a pretty successful art Instagram and have made a profit doing commissions. One of my best online friends has nearly 100k followers, and I’m not far behind. I don't know why it’s so hard to tell people IRL about my art, but it IS."
—Anonymous
21. "I fooled around with my doctor and his wife when I was younger. They are family friends, and I see them at family events when we are all intoxicated, and they regularly invite my family out to dinners with no shame! They are known in our community as stand-up, successful people. They are nice people, and I have nothing negative to say about them to this day. Sweet couple, they just have a wild side. Hey, you have to keep the flame somehow."
—Anonymous
Wow! 😮 I guess everyone's got a secret or two...
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.