Throughout the decade, we asked the BuzzFeed Community to tell us their biggest family secrets. Here are the wild results.
1."My great-grandmother raised my grandfather as her own. A generous deed after having pushed his ACTUAL mother out a window, killing her."
2."I thought my stepfather had been awarded custody of me and my half-brother in 1990. I found out in 2015 he actually kidnapped us..."
3."My great-grandfather was murdered in his sleep in a hotel room, and his body was set on fire. He was a gambler. We always thought the local casino got tired of him not paying his debts and murdered him..."
4."My dad created a Ponzi scheme of sorts by claiming he created an invention that turned water into energy. He defrauded thousands of people out of their money..."
5."My stepmother let it slip that my aunt and uncle were swingers for a long time. They ended up quitting after a guy dropped dead on top of my aunt in a motel during a nooner."
6."After my parents divorced, my mom had a one-night stand with a guy and got pregnant, but she never told him about the baby. A year later, by sheer coincidence, my mom married that guy's brother and had a baby with him as well..."
7."My dad told us that my great-grandfather trafficked weapons during Mexico's revolution. He had to run away and hide out in a very small town because the government was trying to kill him for helping the revolutionaries."
8."My grandmother got pregnant at 16 and married the father before she had the baby. He died in a car crash shortly after her child was born, and my grandmother was comforted by his older brother. They ultimately got married and had two kids, so my dad’s sister is actually his cousin and his sister."
9."My grandma got wasted and let it slip that my biological grandfather wasn’t actually my grandfather. My real grandfather was their married neighbor who ultimately wanted nothing to do with her after she got pregnant."
10."When my great-uncle died in the '90s, my family went through his stuff before selling the house. They found a very decomposed dead body of a woman in the basement freezer..."
11."My dad faked his own death in an attempt to get back at my mom for cheating on him..."
12."When we were teenagers, my brother and I found out that we might not be our dad's biological kids because my mom had an affair... with our dad's brother."
13."My grandma’s infant sister went missing in the early '30s. Her father was highly abusive and was convinced that my great-grandma was unfaithful, so he believed the baby wasn’t his. My grandma was sent away to a girls camp for the summer, and when she came back her sister was gone..."
14."My great-grandfather’s second wife had an affair... with her stepson."
15."My aunt mysteriously disappeared before I was born. Her car was found running and her purse was still inside, parked off the side of the road. No one knows what happened to her. They didn’t even fill out a missing person's report. It’s as if she 'ran away.' We’ve not seen or heard from her ever since. There’s a possibility it was murder, but my family is very hush-hush about the whole situation."
16."My father had an affair with his brother's wife, and she got pregnant. So I guess my cousin is also my brother. My grandma let that slip while wasted. My cousin doesn't know."
17."After my uncle died, we discovered that he had a second wife who he spent most of his time with. Literally no one on either side knew this for over 25 years..."
18."My grandma had an affair and got pregnant, so my grandfather got back at her by sleeping with the wife of the guy she had an affair with. Because of this, my uncle is technically only my half-uncle."
19."My aunt poisoned my grandma for her inheritance. Everyone in my family knows about it, but it's just not talked about."
20."I found out by accident via a 23andMe DNA test that I'm not my dad's biological child. Apparently my parents broke up for a few months years ago, and my mom got pregnant. She didn't find out she was pregnant until she was back together with my dad, so she decided not to say anything."
21."My real mom died of a heroin overdose after she gave birth to me. My dad got remarried to my stepmother and told me she was my real mom."
22."My grandfather was dating a woman who had an identical twin. Her twin got pregnant and the man left her, so my grandfather decided to marry his girlfriend's twin and raise the child as his own..."
23."My cousin is secretly a porn star. No, I won’t say who. Yes, I found out that way, by stumbling across her in a video."
24."My uncle accidentally killed a fellow soldier while in Vietnam..."
25."My great-great-aunt hid Jews in her apartment in Denmark during WWII. One of her neighbors saw a man in her apartment through the window and asked her about it. She knew she'd be killed if people caught her hiding Jews, so she said it was her boyfriend..."
