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48 People Share The Secrets They Accidentally Discovered About Someone And Can Never Unlearn Again
Everyone lies. Everyone keeps secrets. It’s 100% the natural, human thing to do. But secrets aren't made equal. Some are so devastating that, if they spread, they could shatter the foundations of entire families, relationships, and companies.
People who accidentally uncovered secrets that they were never meant to know are finally sharing what they’ve kept hidden for years or even decades in a viral thread online. We’re featuring the spiciest and most shameful stories that others desperately tried to hide.
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#1
An old woman told me that a tree fell on her a*****e husband. She watched it happen. Ran to help. Realized that he could d*e. She left and went grocery shopping. Came back a few hours later to make sure he was d**d. He was, so then she called for help. He SAed her daughters and beat her.
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#2
Well, when I was in second grade my mom let it slip that my best friend was adopted but then she said, omg, I don't know if she knows so you can't tell her, so I walk around until middle school knowing she was adopted and her parents didn't tell her until she was in middle school. She comes to school and tells us and on the inside I was just relieved to not be carrying that around any more, and I never told her I had known.
#3
Four separate female hospice patients over the years have told me that they had a direct hand in the deaths of their a*****e husbands. What was i gonna do, report them? They were d***h bed confessions.
Whether or not to disclose a secret is, at the end of the day, your personal decision, with all of the weight that this carries. In a nutshell, secrecy can sabotage your growth and undermine your relationships.
But a good rule of thumb to keep in mind is that you should be honest about things that affect other people. Meanwhile, you can choose to keep private things, well, private. And the timing of any revelations is absolutely everything.
#4
My rich uncle was breastfed until he was 5. One Thanksgiving my mom got really mad and shouted it in the middle of an argument about something else entirely. Best dinner ever.
#5
Coworker was pregnant. Told us baby died during delivery. Awful. Some of my colleagues cooked dinner for her family in the aftermath.
Turns out she’d cheated on her husband, got pregnant, gave birth and put it up for adoption. The babies father worked with us and was about 20 years younger. Wild.
#6
People don't notice me 3 feet away or think I can't hear. My managers slept together and he told another manager all the details with me 3 feet away doing my job. It's happened a few times. It's a mystery because I'll tell everyone and I did.
According to family therapist Evan Imber-Black, family secrets are destructive. And yet, it really does matter when you reveal them, as well as how. Timing is vital. You may want to avoid tackling such important issues around key moments like weddings, graduations, and new beginnings.
“From government conspiracies to couples having affairs, secrets permeate every level of society,” she writes.
#7
Looking for my Mum's birth cert I find my very religious grandmother,who beat the c**p out of us, got married a month before my Mum was born.
#8
I worked as a temp receptionist at a recruitment company 20+ years ago. One day I came into work and found a printout on the printer of an email exchange between one of the consultants and the previous receptionist indicating they had had an affair. The consultant had printed it by mistake. He was married at the time. I quietly shredded it and didn’t say a word. Not my circus.
#9
My great aunt researched our family tree and was pretty successful; tracing our line hundreds of years back in time. One day, she found out one of our ancestors was a pirate. She threw ALL of her research into the fire.
According to Imber-Black, family secrets “shape and scar us” in the following ways. They can:
- Divide and permanently estrange family members
- Discourage people from sharing information with people outside the family
- Freeze personal development and inhibit growth of self and identity
- Lead to painful miscommunication in the family, unnecessary guilt, and doubt
#10
I wasn’t supposed to know that my 20 years older male colleague didn’t want to have another kid and seriously considered getting a vasectomy and not telling his wife because he knew she wanted another baby. Him telling me all of that was somehow one of the least problematic things he did.
#11
I had an old nursing home patient who told me about how a*****e her ex husband was. What a game he played that she could never run away because all his friends were the cops, the judge in town, and all his friends were main jury members. They always brought her back. After she found out he hurt their kids,. She said “hmm he was gone after that…”. I said he died? She said yes, one day he fell asleep then never woke up.
#12
I was never supposed to know my husband's secret mormon temple name but he told me after we left the church lol.
“A person who seeks to undo the damage caused by family secrets must accept that revealing a secret is not a betrayal but a necessity,” Imber-Black says.
That being said, while there are no ‘perfect’ moments to reveal a secret, you should probably avoid important life moments. “Either the importance of the secret will be lost in the event, or the secret will diminish the importance of the ritual.”
In short, pick a regular day.
#13
I know someone who poisoned her ex because he wouldn’t leave her alone -despite going through EVERY legal process. No cop was helping her. He was threatening her HOURLY - he even showed up at MY house looking for her a ton of times. There was only one way to keep herself and her kids safe.. so she took that option.
#14
I worked at a shop that did undergarments for film/tv/Broadway costumes. I know lots of secrets but my personal fave is that there’s a pretty well known actor out there who wears padded underwear on all his projects because he’s self conscious about his flat b**t. Just walking around on TV with a fake b**t in his pants.
If you’re a mental health professional working with secrets, you can find yourself in a bind.
One study that looked at the experiences of family therapists working with family secrecy found that they present plenty of tough challenges for professionals.
One way that therapists can guard their position of trustworthiness for each family member is to avoid becoming stuck in secrecy in the first place.
“Furthermore, therapists explore ways to guide the family toward the disclosure of the secret in order to alleviate the toxicity of the secrecy.”
Another basic strategy involved therapists talking to the family about secrecy without aiming to disclose the secret.
#16
Older ladies (70s+) tell me about their illegal abortions all the time. I don’t know why, I must have a face that says I won’t judge them.
#17
I worked in a hotel with an acquaintance. We also went to the same church. She got pregnant. She was separated from her husband and he had been deployed overseas. She wouldn’t say who the father was. Anyhoo I guess she forgot about the cameras the previous manager had installed in the hallways and back parking lot. All those times the pastor stopped by the hotel and his car was there well into my night audit shift. Him leaving room 220, and her shortly after. That used to be my favorite show.
#18
Was friends with a couple. One night, we all got drunk at my house and for some reason, signed the inside of the cabinet in my kitchen, date included. Couple breaks up, she finds out shes pregnant, tells everyone its new guys. She comes over one day and is telling me how far along she is and I showed her the cabinet to prove she was still with her ex when she conceived. She swore me to secrecy. They (her and new guy) now have another kid together who looks nothing like the first one.
How honest a person do you consider yourself? How often do you lie, and how many secrets do you have that would devastate you if they ever got spilled? Are you good at keeping secrets for other people?
If you’re feeling up to it, share your thoughts about your personal relationship with secrecy and honesty in the comments. And if you feel like you need to vent about something spicy you’ve overheard, feel free to open up. Just keep it as anonymous as you can.
#19
A girl I knew in law school got diarrhea so bad on a first date that she had to sit on a tire in a vacant lot and do her business there. In front of her date. Who had to go to a nearby business and ask for some cocktail napkins and a cup of water to go.
#20
My childhood dentist thought I was completely out for an extraction, but I was not. I explicitly recall them talking about their affair and how she (the assistant/hygienist) didn't want to leave her husband and dogs. He was annoyed. I sorta woke up and he said "s**t s**t s**t" and then I was knocked out. I did question my brain, but shortly after she quit because people found out. She adopted a Dalmatian my mom rescued.
#21
A friend of mine in Christian home school told me she’d had a baby and put it up for adoption. We were 17. She swore me to secrecy and almost 30 years later I’ve never told a soul til now.
#22
The affair partner of a prominent business owner checked herself into the psych hospital at which I worked after the wife of the man with whom she was sleeping was m******d.
#23
My grandmother was 17 when my 24 year old grandfather got her pregnant and had to hurry up and marry her. My uncle was born 6 months later. Apparently we aren't supposed to know all that. My uncle was "born early" yeah ok.
#24
A friend of mine from over 10 years ago was a property manager for an apartment complex. She bounced around living in the ‘empty’ units for over a year because she couldn’t stand her mother. She wanted to officially move out but didn’t have the money/credit for it or something like that. We lost touch after I moved but I still wonder how she’s doing and if she ever got caught.
#26
I have a family member who takes pills to prevent hallucinations. I was young and dumb and snooping in the medicine cabinet. Never told that relative that I knew nor anyone else in the family. If they wanted us to know they would have told us.
#27
I know someone who has a “cousin brother”. This cousin is also his brother as his Dad cheated on his Mom with her Sister which resulted in his cousin/brother being born. They are a year apart and in their 40’s. The cousin brother doesn’t know he exists and believes his moms husband of 40+ years is his father as they chose to remain married despite the infidelity and raise the baby as their own.
#28
In college, I was in a bathroom stall at a party and heard two people getting at it in the next stall. Like full on. I’m nosy too, so after I finished, I hung around and drank until they emerged.
It was my boyfriend and my roommate. I held onto that little bit of info for a while.
#29
I know several women who are now ultra conservative Trump s***s who had abortions. One of them had even taken a kissy face selfie with her paperwork from the clinic at one point years ago.
#30
I well remember a fellow army officer coming out to me- in the days before ‘don’t ask don’t tell’ and such an admission could end a man’s career - I suppose because I seems trustworthy and wouldn’t rat out a fellow officer. Which I didn’t. We doctors know discretion.
#31
My great grandmother had 16 children. All the boys (9 of them)- just the boys- died "unexpectedly" in infancy. All the girls survived to adulthood.
#32
A place I worked at was owned by a married couple until the husband had an affair with a significantly younger employee who was also dating his son.
#33
My mom was a nurse on an urology floor at a bougie hospital. She told me all the local celebs who had vasectomy reversals.
#34
there is an entire s*****r neighborhood in my area. adjacent to the local mega church and a lot of them are members. i’ve been propositioned, i know others who have, and i dated someone who lived there and was involved so I absolutely believe it. the ick i feel about the whole deal is TREMENDOUS. incidentally i’m sure, herpes is a big problem around here.
#35
I know about a guy who cheated on his wife while out of town at a conference. He went to his grave with his wife not knowing. I know. I wish I didn’t know.
#36
I work for a Fortune 500 company; a man in a leadership role suddenly left the company and so did his admin. Someone saw on the news in his home state that he was arrested for human trafficking, i.e. pimping out his admin (she was also arrested) to customers of the business, which I assume is how the police got involved, he apparently offered her to the wrong person, a customer who was not amused and reported it..
#37
My great-grandmother on my mom's side was not her parents' biological daughter. The details are a little sketchy, but someone told her on her wedding day that the parents she'd grown up with were not actually her parents; she was so upset that she almost didn't get married that day.
#38
My former best friend likely faked breast cancer right after I cut her and her enablers off, to get pity from them and distract from other messed up s**t she’d done. I was contacted in the following weeks and months by several random other mutuals who saw her posts about it, didn’t realize we weren’t still friends, and were trying to delicately find out if it was real because her story wasn’t adding up. I was also the only one she had told that she was planning breast augmentation surgery…
#39
Two of my coworkers were dating for about 20 years. He had a side relationship. I heard him ordering roses for his mistress and he had them delivered to her "job"....it wasn't our job.
She ended up leaving him and marrying another (younger and more handsome) coworker.
#40
I used to do reception/scheduling in a family medical clinic. Back then we were developing a new program where patients could email providers. I read the emails for the first step of the whole process. One married doc received an email from a woman about their rendezvous the coming weekend, not knowing that his work email was no longer private & was now opened up to others’ eyes. I printed the email & deleted it, put it under his desk blotter, told him there was something private under.
#41
Family friends never told their adult children that the father had a previous but short-lived marriage before theirs. Even when their son was going through a painful divorce of his own. My mom, confounded by their choice, shared the story with me and now she’s gone so I’m the Keeper of The Dirt. Everyone else is still alive.
#42
At my grandpas funeral I found out he wasn’t the biological father of my oldest aunt. My great aunt mentioned it thinking I knew already. My mom didn’t even know.
#43
I mean, not lawsuit worthy I guess anymore, but my great grandfather was a lieutenant in the German Air Force in WWII. My great grandma left him in Germany and brought my grandma, her only child, to the US to start over. My grandma never really talked about it. I’ve had to piece together lore over the years.
#44
I just so happen to know one of my former coworkers has syphilis.
Poor lady had a baby and the hospital performs a syph/rubella/hep panel on new moms and it comes to our lab for testing. Her name showed up on a quality event, otherwise I never would have known (and would have preferred never knowing).
#45
I knew someone who would mention having health issues but never went into the specifics. I figured out what it was because I was in his office and saw several books about a specific health condition. Never told him I knew but I did go on a walk for it a few years ago.
#47
My grandma was married before my grandpa, and had two kids that died. She never told her kids, and her family all kept the secret. My dad found out in his 50s when his birth certificate said he was birth 5 of 5, instead of 3 of 3. We have no idea if she divorced her first husband or ran away, but the theory is that he was a*****e. My dad and I disagree on the children’s d***h and gender. I found 2 female birth certificates and one female d***h certificate due to prematurity. My dad thinks they.
#48
Someone in my family was going to hire a hitman, another family member was the hit but apparently hitmen are too expensive.
Many years later, same hitman-seeking hitman may or may not have had something to do with something going to sleep to their forever nap.
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