Keeping another person's secret is a double-edged sword. On one hand, when people confide in us, we take it as an act of intimacy and it can bring the two of us closer, but on the other, the more sensitive the information (the more we feel we have to hide it on behalf of the confidant), the heavier it becomes for us.
So in an attempt to lighten the load everyone carries on their back, two Redditors asked them to share it. u/I_LIKE_YOU_ and u/daddydempy both created posts that invite other users to share some of the darkest secrets they know that could ruin someone else's life. And many have — here are some of the most popular replies.
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My younger sister was r*ped by her boyfriend, forced to give birth to his daughter, and then later killed when she tried to leave.
Their daughter is 17, currently acing her tests, and believes she's mine and my wife's daughter. I will never tell her.
I understand trying to protect her but just pray she never decided to do a DNA test. Finding out you have been lied to your whole life and your real mom essentially erased would be earth shattering.
I know that my grandpa had a second family that nobody else in my family knows about.
My grandma on my dad's side of the family died when I was still very young, but my grandpa lived until I was in my early 20's and we were pretty close. At one point when I was about 13 or 14 he got very sick and we all thought it was the end. I was sitting and talking to him one day (he was in bed) and he fell asleep. He was on a lot of medication including painkillers so this wasn't a shock. A few minutes later he woke, but was disoriented and talking to me like I was someone else. He was apologizing to me about not being there, which made no sense. I put together the pieces and suspected he was talking about (or thought he was talking to) someone he had had an affair with.
So he pulls through that illness and a few years later he and I went on a weekend fishing trip. On that trip I asked him about what he was saying and what I suspected he was talking about. He confessed to me that in the late 1950's he and my grandma were going through a rough patch. He met this other woman and saw her off and on for about a year then she ended up getting pregnant. He would go see her when possible and gave her money to support the kid. My grandma, dad and aunt (my dad's sister) never knew about this and he asked me to keep this between us. Over the course of the weekend he explained how his life was basically a hell of his own creating because he was lying to two different women and trying to basically juggle two different families. He told me to never do what he had done.
I never told anyone then a handful of years later he died. The lawyer contacted me about his will and said there was a special clause in the will just for me. Basically I got control of his safe deposit box, but the lawyer was supposed to not tell anyone else about the box, it was private and just for me. In the regular will the grandkids (there were four of us in all) got $5,000 each. In the safe deposit box was a letter he wrote me telling me how he appreciated me keeping his confidence and how he was proud of the man I had grown to become. There was also $25,000 in cash. I wasn't sure what to do with it. At first I was excited, but then it felt like I was being paid for my silence and it made me kind of ill. After much deliberation I gave the money to a group that helps abused and runaway kids.
I was homeless as a teen. I sold weed, because I wasn't legally allowed to work at that age in my state, wasn't willing to steal (I wanted to earn my money, legal or not), and I wasn't willing to sell something more profitable, and ruin people's lives with addiction.
So I was around a lot of crime, as a result. There's plenty of things that could have ruined lives if I had been willing to tell people, but I took the "you don't snitch" policy to heart. Except when it came to pedophiles, we regularly made exceptions for them, involving the police when we encountered them. Which was frequently.
Anyway, I had a friend who was my age. Wasn't homeless, but might as well have been. We ran the streets together, partying and having fun. One night, we got jumped by an adult. I was 13-14, he was 15, and this grown man was on top of my 3rd friend (also 15), just hitting him in the face over and over again. So I pushed him off him and my friend hit him the the face with a skate board.
That stopped him from attacking us any further, and we got out of there.
The cops caught up with us, the guy pointed me out as the one that hit him with a skateboard, and I wasn't willing to put my friend in jail to free myself.
I ended up locked up for a year and a half. I never regretted my decision, I always felt it was the right thing to do, but it did damage me mentally (children that age aren't capable of dealing with solitary confinement, let alone for a year and a half). And then my friend, the one who actually hit him, died in our 20's. And suddenly, that year and a half, became a huge percentage of his short life. And I'm so grateful I was able to give it to him.
wow... I'm sorry people have go through s**t like this, I have a single friend who did 8 yrs for his married brother.
My best friend's boyfriend (who I had known since I was three) was going to break up with her on Sunday night. He got in a motorcycle accident Sunday afternoon and passed away. This happened 3 years ago and she is still messed up about it because she loved him and they were still in a relationship when he passed, she still calls him her boyfriend.
A friend I grew up with and recently reconnected with had sex with his wife's sister. He got her pregnant, she had the baby and the wife doesn't know the "niece" she's babysitting daily is her husband's child.
I know a woman who was dating a child-free man. He was adamant about not ever having children while she was crazy about the opposite. She punctured condoms, stopped birth control (while pretending she never stopped) and lied about her period dates. Poor guy thought her birth control and the condoms he was using would keep him safe, but she got pregnant anyway. He doesn't know, he's miserable.
What a horrible thing for her to do. In this case, telling him may set him free. Or at least let him get out of that miserable relationship and possibly sue for rape. In some states removing birth control during sex without a partner's consent ( primarily aimed at stopping "steathing") counts as rape
I have three older sisters and one younger brother. When I was younger, about 11, I was supposed to be sleeping over at my aunt's house because my parents were at a wedding and knew they would probably come home drunk. Anyways I got upset with my cousin, so I snuck out of the house and walked home. I was sleeping when I was awoken by my parents arguing in the living room. I was always a nosey child so I sat up listening and I heard my dad say "Why would you do this to me, after I helped you fight in court for [my oldest sister's name] then helped you raise her and love her as my own" then I heard my mom tell him to never bring that up again then I heard a door slam. Up until then I always thought we all had the same father, even to this day 12 years later I'm the only one out of my siblings that know my oldest sister is not my father's biological daughter. I don't even think my sister knows. I just couldn't bring myself to ever tell her. I don't even think my parents know I know. They didn't even know I was home that night. I pretended to just be getting home later on that morning. I have never told anyone.
As someone who grew up in a situation similar to your sister- TELL HER NOW! She will eventually find out and when she does she may wish to find her biological father. IF like me, she finds him too late, I don't think it's outside of the question for her to hold it against you for not telling her sooner.
My mother starved my grandmother to death for her inheritance.
A good friend of mine is Indian and gay, which she knows her family won't accept. She about to have an arranged marriage to a man, who is also gay. Neither of there families know the truth and are excited about the upcoming wedding. The grooms boyfriend is part of the wedding party. They plan to have children via ivf at some point.
My boyfriend's first girlfriend's mother would always try to hook up with her daughter's boyfriends. But that's not the weirdest part.
After the mom tried putting the moves on him and he barricaded himself in the bathroom to wait for his GF to save him, girlfriend told him in the car that it was normal for her mom to have sex with her boyfriends and vice-versa (mom was a single parent). Not only that, but she and her mom would have threesomes together with the boyfriends.
My girlfriend's sister confided in me that her father used to molest her when they were little. She said she saved my girlfriend from it because she was old enough to know what was going on. My girlfriend doesn't know, and her dad visited recently and took us all out to dinner. Super uncomfortable.
Cut him off. Tell him you know, and if he doesn't stop contacting his daughters, threaten to tell your girlfriend.
My mom is the most straight laced, uptight person you can imagine and she works very high level financial jobs for the government. If you looked up "professional woman" in the dictionary it would probably just be a picture of her.
What no one else knows is that she has a tattoo on the back of her leg of a bear with penises instead of legs- like where it's legs would be there are just massive d**ks. She wears tights or pants to cover it all the time, as far as I know I'm the only person that knows about it. She was a very wild teenager and met up with an "aspiring tattoo artist" (aka rando with a tattoo gun) in a hotel room to get a tattoo of a bear when she was 16- the guy got a little excessively creative and gave her a bear with d**ks for legs.
It is so vulgar that if anyone saw it I think there's a good chance she's lose her job, or at least have some serious explaining to do. I once asked her why she doesn't get it removed and she says it's her "symbol to her stupid youth".
My friend comes from a pretty conservative family, which is fine, but some of them can be pretty judgmental. Anyway, after knowing her for a few years I found that her sister got pregnant at 16 and was shipped away to have the baby and have it adopted, and then she came home. They don't talk about it and act like it didn't happen.
For me that was always something that I'd only seen in movies or read about. She has no idea I know. I was told by a mutual friend.
My grandmother married a divorcee. He developed Alzheimers and is now under nursing home care. She has since rewritten his will to financially exclude the daughters he had in his previous marriage and take all the money for herself. I know this because I overheard her talking with my aunt (she did not know I was in the house). I LOATHE her for doing it. It degrades her wholesome, grandmotherly status, and transforms her into an extremely immoral character in my life, but understand I can't say ANYTHING, or the entire family would spiral into more chaos than it's already in.
I don't know how I feel about this. OP is letting their grandmother destroy the lives of those women just to save themselves the drama.
Have a friend who had an affair with her older married boss and got pregnant, didn't realize it until she was too far along to get an ab*rtion. Boss tried to get her to agree to get an illegal ab*rtion (basically he "knew a guy," said guy was not an actual doctor working out of an actual clinic) which she flat out refused. Boss then ended up pressuring her to give the baby up for adoption ("I'll fire you and ruin your life if you don't," "I'll have you thrown out of your apartment" and other threats were made; this guy was a Big Name in our town and she took the threats seriously) and she eventually agreed. He's been sending her money every month since to keep her quiet about it.
When I was in my late teens I found a fishing tackle box in our garage with some personal effects and a su*cide note inside. I never told anyone but 30+ years I asked my Mom over coffee to tell me the story of her life.
She was given up by her mother as a toddler and raised by her Dad, Benny*. He worked as a seaman on boats on the Intracoastal Waterway of the southern US so she often stayed with friends and relatives while he was away. When she was about 14 she was orphaned and lived with whomever would have her. One time a foster family moved out of their house, leaving her behind, but the new owners of the home allowed her to stay with them.
Eventually she settled in with the married couple that I came to know as my grandparents, Archie & Edith. They were relatives of hers and did not have children of their own. Archie was a Merchant Marine beginning in WWII and Edith was a homemaker. The next property over from theirs was owned by a good family friend that I called Uncle Joe. Uncle Joe & my Mom's real father, Benny, worked together offshore.
Reveal: Mom explained that the tackle box I found was my real grandfather's (Benny) but she thought the su*cide note was fake. She explained that Edith & Uncle Joe were lovers while Archie was sailing the seven seas. She found them out and told her Dad, Benny, who allegedly threatened to out them to Archie. She said that Uncle Joe probably killed my real grandfather to hide the affair.
Exec Summary: The people who I thought were my maternal grandparents were merely distant relatives. My "grandmother" had an affair with an "uncle", who was actually of no relation to me, which culminated in the murder of my real grandfather who was about to squeal on them.
TL;DR: My mother was raised by the people who made her an orphan by murdering her father. JB
Thank you for the summary, it was a little mind bending trying to sort that out (in my head anyway)
My best friend was molested continuously through her childhood by her brother, who is ten years older than her. Her parents have no idea, and they're constantly pressuring her to write to her brother, who's currently in prison for meth.
Say this. Say it out loud, support your best friend. Cut off parents if they stand up for brother. This is a continuation of the violence.
I'm glad I get to dump this somewhere: I had this friend, John, for years... One of my best friends. We rode the same bus, I would walk to his house across the train tracks. We grew up together. The first night I ever tried cocaine, I tried it with John. 5AM, we'd been talking for hours. John decided it was confession time. He disclosed that he'd had homicidal ideations, for years, and fantasized about raping women. He told me about how he used to torture small animals... He told me that when he was 11 or 12 he had sex (multiple times) with the family dog. When he told me, he'd had this 'friends with benefits' who liked being pretend-raped, and didn't mind being humiliated by John... Who liked to put his finger in her butt and wipe poop on her face. John is now married with three kids.... I saw on Facebook; we never spoke again after that night.
One time at a friends house i went into his closet to jump out and scare him when he came back to the room. Found out he has bottles and jugs stored in there for peeing. I think he was just being weird and did this while gaming and it got to the point that he cant go unless its into a bottle
One of my relatives was a musician with a very successful band. Then he dropped dead. The family put out word that he died of a heart attack. And that story stuck. To this day his fans, even his fellow band members think that's how he died. In reality, he dropped dead of a heroin overdose. Was shooting himself up in the bathroom when he ODed.
When we had a "problem employee" my boss had one of his kids call in death threats to the employee to keep them from coming to work.
My friend thinks her mom is on a long business trip but she's actually in rehab for being a coke addict. No one knows this besides her dad and my mom, but I overheard the phone convo :/
Worked for a credit union as a teller when I was younger, the town my branch was located in was very far from my town(never ran into a familiar face). Until one day a mutual friend's father walks in (has no idea who I am), this family is by no means well off, or so I thought. The father had three accounts that equaled out to almost a million dollars. Obviously I started doing my research and found out he was hiding his money from his family and they had no idea he had all this money. My guess he inherited the money because they never had new cars, lived very middle class, and had basic jobs. He purposely had this account almost an hour away from their home town so no one would know/see him is what I imagine. Pretty f**ked... One thing I learned after being a teller for some odd years. People are very sneaky with their money.
A coworker bragged (at work) about losing his virginity the night of his bachelor party but his wife still doesn't know and thinks they lost their virginity to each other on their wedding night. It's a VERY big deal to her and would most likely end in their divorce if she ever found out.
My friend's mom hooked up with an off-Broadway actor and got pregnant with him. She married her boyfriend and played him off as the boyfriend's kid. My friend doesn't know, but my mom does. She told me just in case something happens to her, so someone else knows the secret and can tell my friend if necessary sometime.
Friend: "You know, sometimes I wonder where I got my acting talent from!"
After a long discussion with my uncle about money would make you happy, my uncle showed me (only me) his bank account, while many from my family was together with us at the table. He would only show me, if i wouldn't ever tell, what number i saw. I have never told anyone.
(I think) the number was huge enough, to think that it is f**ked up, that he lives like he does.
Uncle clearly disagrees, preferring to live however he lives. Many people winning life-changing lottery amounts lose every friend and connection they have, because they are suddenly seen as ATMs; then they 'must' move to a much richer neighbourhood where they don't make any connections as these are typically more distant socially. Plus they suddenly 'must' fit in and spend much more time and money on clothes and appearances. Uncle may be right.
My girlfriend's mom seduced my girlfriend's sister's boyfriend, who was also hitting on my girlfriend at the time. Her mom sent nudes to the boy as well as wrote smut about him and my girlfriend. (confusing, right?) In other words: mom sends nudes to daughter's boyfriend, writes smut between boyfriend and OTHER daughter.
My friend's darling father is actually the head of an organised crime gang and organised the shooting dead of one of the heads of a major criminal gang in Ireland. My uncle, who was in prison, told me this (I've a feeling he's still somewhat involved in crime as well) and apparently it's becoming common knowledge among gangland Dublin to the detriment of my friend's father, who is a very respectable (and nice to meet) man. According to my uncle he'll be killed within six months once someone else fancies being the boss.
My friend constantly talks up her father and now I'm beginning to see it as some form of overcompensating. I wonder should I come clean and tell her I know what's going on (or maybe she doesn't know at all).
UNfriend! UNFRIEND! Do not stay friends with someone like that. Even if she doesn't seem to be involved herself, other criminals will get her involved, as an accomplice, collateral damage, kidnapping, etc. It's not safe.
My brother had an affair with one of my friends mums.
She used to give him a lift to work when he was 18 years old, and she started being suggestive on one drive so they pulled over and you know what. This continued for a long time, over six months. She ended up getting obsessed with him and he blocked her on all social media and his phone and basically buried his head in the sand. Her husband is a huge skin head scary guy that owns one of the pubs, and her son is a lifelong friend of mine.
None of them know. He only told me as she, seemingly, didn’t tell anyone. It’s pretty weird having such a weighted secret
My boyfriend told me that at one point he was going to break up with his ex but then she told him she was pregnant so he stayed with her. Then she had a miscarriage but he stayed. One day they were arguing and she let it slip that she lied from the start and was never pregnant nor had a miscarriage.
My mom cheated on my dad at some point. I over heard my parents arguing once and they brought that up. I don't know when or to what extent but it happened.
Men should take control of their own reproductive system and this wouldn't happen... easy!
Note: this post originally had 89 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
What is this with all the people knowing about cheaters and keeping their mouths shut? How can you live with yourself? I'd tell the cheater to confess or I'd tell the victim myself. F**k that 'keep it under the rug' culture. That's how you get all this s**t, by staying silent about it. It's never going to change if all the cheaters and rapists know that no one will tell on them anyway.
Well...let's see. I'm a single woman and the last time I was faced with this moral dilemma... I outed the cheater. Then I spent a year hiding from him until he got arrested for threatening me. Now he's out again. Why wouldn't someone tell....
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It’s weird how most of these stories are about someone’s friend and not the boring gossipy storyteller
I think a lot of these stories are made up by teens.
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Not my secret, but one I overheard as a child and I've never forgotten - my nanny (I must have been about 9 or 10 years old) told me that a classmate of mine's nanny had told her the girl was adopted - and didn't know about it. In retrospect, it freaks me out that her parents would have shared that information with the nanny, with the risk of the nanny telling other people (as she did!) and the child accidentally hearing that information... Of course, I never told anyone, but sometimes I wonder if the girl ever found out
For ten or eleven years, I had no idea my dad’s father was a drug addict and had gone to jail several times. Very recently he got a DUI after he got in a wreck, soon after his best friend died. My grandfather was the reason why my dad wanted to be a DEA agent as a kid. But from the stories my dad tells me about his dad teaching him to drive, he seemed to be a very funny and colorful guy, much like my dad. My parents were worried that I’d turn out like my grandfather after I was diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 8 or so and prescribed Adderall. The side effects were pretty bad and the meds didn’t really change much so I haven’t taken them for years.
Two of my classmates (a boy and a girl) from kindergarten to 3rd grade of elementary school shared the same father, but they didn't know. It's really a small world, because of all the schools they ended up in the same kinder and elementary, and same group. The boy's mom was "the other", who got pregnant with the girl's father's baby in a "rough patch" he had with the girl's mom.
the boy's mom was very shy, but somehow she became friends with my mom, and one day when she saw the girl's father picking her up from school, she obviously recognized him, and told my mom the story. The father ended up going back with his wife after he found out she was pregnant. The boy's birthday was in June and the girl's in August. As far as I know, they never knew, and somehow I ended up becoming friends with the two of them, so their parents always saw them together, but he didn't pass 3rd grade, and stopped talking to us. I guess to this day none of them know about it, at least I'm sure the girl (now 28) still doesn't know and I feel kinda guilty, but I feel like it's not me who should tell her.
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If you know someone who has been molested, and they haven't told anyone but you, TELL SOMEBODY. ESPECIALLY if it was by a close family member. Things like that really screw up your brain, and it makes it really, really difficult to function in everyday life. Please, please, please, please don't just ignore it, or sweep it under the rug. Please
My big secret that I've kept from what remains of my family is that I have an uncle from my mother's side who was in the IRA. He was part of the cell that targeted Birmingham and Guildford (The first non military targets). I am utterly ashamed and disappointed in that side of the family.
Idk what you mean by “hmmm” but they could be fake names?
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If I knew about someone cheating on their partner I would tell them as soon as possible it’s just common curtesy and if they decide they want to carry on with their relationship that’s their problem and I would walk away
I tried this once it did NOT work out well for me. I now have a policy of letting people experience their own shitshows. As I said in comments above, when you see a shitshow, you walk far away from it and stop communicating with all involved as far as possible. S**t spreads and lands everywhere and you don't need it.
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The illiteracy of these storytellers is abhorrent, and publishing them unedited and without commentary is the laziest form of "writing." Off to the front page to vote this down.
For a long time, my aunt had no idea that her father molested my mother. My sister and I knew, but we were told not to tell my aunt because my mom didn't want her feelings about her father to change. A few years ago, she found out the truth because someone mentioned to her that her father did those things and she asked my mom if it was true and my mom felt it was time to tell her the truth. She did not take the news well, but her feelings for her father have not changed.
What is this with all the people knowing about cheaters and keeping their mouths shut? How can you live with yourself? I'd tell the cheater to confess or I'd tell the victim myself. F**k that 'keep it under the rug' culture. That's how you get all this s**t, by staying silent about it. It's never going to change if all the cheaters and rapists know that no one will tell on them anyway.
Well...let's see. I'm a single woman and the last time I was faced with this moral dilemma... I outed the cheater. Then I spent a year hiding from him until he got arrested for threatening me. Now he's out again. Why wouldn't someone tell....
Load More Replies... It’s weird how most of these stories are about someone’s friend and not the boring gossipy storyteller
I think a lot of these stories are made up by teens.
Load More Replies... Not my secret, but one I overheard as a child and I've never forgotten - my nanny (I must have been about 9 or 10 years old) told me that a classmate of mine's nanny had told her the girl was adopted - and didn't know about it. In retrospect, it freaks me out that her parents would have shared that information with the nanny, with the risk of the nanny telling other people (as she did!) and the child accidentally hearing that information... Of course, I never told anyone, but sometimes I wonder if the girl ever found out
For ten or eleven years, I had no idea my dad’s father was a drug addict and had gone to jail several times. Very recently he got a DUI after he got in a wreck, soon after his best friend died. My grandfather was the reason why my dad wanted to be a DEA agent as a kid. But from the stories my dad tells me about his dad teaching him to drive, he seemed to be a very funny and colorful guy, much like my dad. My parents were worried that I’d turn out like my grandfather after I was diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 8 or so and prescribed Adderall. The side effects were pretty bad and the meds didn’t really change much so I haven’t taken them for years.
Two of my classmates (a boy and a girl) from kindergarten to 3rd grade of elementary school shared the same father, but they didn't know. It's really a small world, because of all the schools they ended up in the same kinder and elementary, and same group. The boy's mom was "the other", who got pregnant with the girl's father's baby in a "rough patch" he had with the girl's mom.
the boy's mom was very shy, but somehow she became friends with my mom, and one day when she saw the girl's father picking her up from school, she obviously recognized him, and told my mom the story. The father ended up going back with his wife after he found out she was pregnant. The boy's birthday was in June and the girl's in August. As far as I know, they never knew, and somehow I ended up becoming friends with the two of them, so their parents always saw them together, but he didn't pass 3rd grade, and stopped talking to us. I guess to this day none of them know about it, at least I'm sure the girl (now 28) still doesn't know and I feel kinda guilty, but I feel like it's not me who should tell her.
Load More Replies... If you know someone who has been molested, and they haven't told anyone but you, TELL SOMEBODY. ESPECIALLY if it was by a close family member. Things like that really screw up your brain, and it makes it really, really difficult to function in everyday life. Please, please, please, please don't just ignore it, or sweep it under the rug. Please
My big secret that I've kept from what remains of my family is that I have an uncle from my mother's side who was in the IRA. He was part of the cell that targeted Birmingham and Guildford (The first non military targets). I am utterly ashamed and disappointed in that side of the family.
Idk what you mean by “hmmm” but they could be fake names?
Load More Replies... If I knew about someone cheating on their partner I would tell them as soon as possible it’s just common curtesy and if they decide they want to carry on with their relationship that’s their problem and I would walk away
I tried this once it did NOT work out well for me. I now have a policy of letting people experience their own shitshows. As I said in comments above, when you see a shitshow, you walk far away from it and stop communicating with all involved as far as possible. S**t spreads and lands everywhere and you don't need it.
Load More Replies... The illiteracy of these storytellers is abhorrent, and publishing them unedited and without commentary is the laziest form of "writing." Off to the front page to vote this down.
For a long time, my aunt had no idea that her father molested my mother. My sister and I knew, but we were told not to tell my aunt because my mom didn't want her feelings about her father to change. A few years ago, she found out the truth because someone mentioned to her that her father did those things and she asked my mom if it was true and my mom felt it was time to tell her the truth. She did not take the news well, but her feelings for her father have not changed.
