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33 Family Skeletons That Came Tumbling Out Of The Closet, As Shared By People In This Online Thread
Most of us think our family history is a straightforward, open book. But what happens when you discover a hidden chapter, one that was intentionally ripped out? An online community posed a deeply personal question, asking people to share the most shocking secret they ever learned about their own family.
The responses that poured in were more than just skeletons in the closet; they were life-altering bombshells. These are stories of secret siblings discovered through DNA tests, grandparents who led double lives, and long-buried crimes that changed everything. We've gathered the most unbelievable revelations below. Prepare yourself.
More info: Reddit
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#1
That my father was actually my stepfather who took care of six children who were all my siblings as if he was our own father with ever-loving love unconditional love. So much that we remember even after 25 years of his passing away.
His heart should have never stopped beating. How could it? It's impossible. How could a heart stop beating when it's made of gold?
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#2
Grandpa ran away from home and joined the circus when he was a kid. Ran the shooting gallery. When he was old enough he joined the Air Force and fought in Korea. Was shot down and lived in a foxhole for 3 weeks, barely made it back to base with outdated codes. Came home, was a caddy for a famous golfer, Bill something out of Dallas after hitchhiking from Ohio. Started a family, and opened a bakery making donuts. Still kicking at 94. Takes zero medications, and lives alone now. Still mows his own yard, and plays golf.
#3
On my mother’s 70th birthday after quite a few drinks, my mother told my sister and I she had another kid before we were born.
At her 80th birthday party, he was a guest.
One of the most common and earth-shattering themes in these stories is the "identity bombshell." With the rise of at-home DNA testing kits, this once-rare revelation has become shockingly common. Countless stories in the online thread began with an innocent 23andMe or AncestryDNA test, only to uncover a secret affair, a previously unknown sibling, or the truth about their parents.
Long before DNA kits, Hollywood provided the ultimate example of this life-altering secret. Jack Nicholson grew up believing his grandmother was his mother, and that his biological mother, June, was his older sister. The family maintained this secret to protect June's reputation, as she was a young, unmarried showgirl when she had him.
Nicholson was a world-famous, 37-year-old movie star when a TIME magazine reporter uncovered the truth. It's a humbling reminder that these earth-shattering secrets can hide in plain sight, even in the most public of families.
#4
When I was 12, I found out that the man I called dad all those years wasnt my bio dad. I still call him dad and he will always be my dad.
#5
My mum's first marriage. Horribly a*****e. There's still a hole in the back of the cupboard from where he threw an iron at her. She left her dog with her parents because she couldn't guarantee his safety. She left this guy, he k****d himself. Good riddance. She never wanted me to know but Grandma loves spilling the tea. I hope her reason for keeping it secret isn't because she didn't want me to see her as a victim because I don't. She kept her dog safe and she left the relationship. She's a warrior.
#6
My great grandfather was a widower with 3 children. My great-grandmother agreed to marry him if he would get rid of the 3 children. He gave them to different family members and married my great-grandmother. They had 1 child together,but my great grandfather regretted turning away his children. He divorced his wife and married another woman. She was kind and brought the children back to where they belonged. All this happened around the 1920s.
Another recurring nightmare is the discovery of a grandparent's secret double life. Many online stories detailed finding evidence that a beloved grandfather had a whole other family in another state. This kind of revelation doesn't just change the past; it forces you to re-evaluate every memory you have of that person, turning a trusted family figure into a complete and mysterious stranger.
This theme of a patriarch hiding a dark secret to maintain a perfect public image has played out in some of America's most powerful families. Joseph Kennedy Sr., for instance, went to extreme lengths to protect his family's reputation.
His daughter, Rosemary, had developmental disabilities, and to prevent her from becoming a potential embarrassment to her brothers' political careers, he secretly arranged for her to have a prefrontal lobotomy at age 23. The procedure was a catastrophic failure, leaving her incapacitated for life. The family concealed the truth for decades, a chilling example of how far some will go to bury a secret.
#7
My grandmother raised her nephew after her sister and her husband died. I always thought it was a car accident or something, but one day I asked my mom what happened and she said that his father k****d his mother and then himself when she said she was leaving him. At least they are 99% sure that’s what happened, she had told family that she was going to tell him. My cousin was 8 and in the house. A neighbor saw him outside playing the next day and asked why he wasn’t at school. He said his parents were still sleeping. Neighbor thought that was odd so they went in and found them. My mom told me not to say anything to him because he had blocked it out of his memory. One day, probably 20 years after she told me that I was with my cousin talking about something totally different and he just stopped and asked if I knew what happened to his parents. I said yeah and he said, “I just remembered it a few weeks ago.” I didn’t know what to say and he quickly went back to the previous conversation. I went home and called my mom to tell her she may be getting a phone call. To the best of my knowledge, he has never said anything to anyone else.
#8
Aunt had a child no one knew about (maybe aside from her parents) back in the 50s. My dad (her little brother) thought she “went away for school for a year” but didn’t connect the dots.
My cousins and I had dinner with her (the baby, now a grown woman) and she’s absolutely fabulous. .
#9
My cousin was due to marry this big Shrek looking guy. We had the invite to the wedding and it was about a month away. Suddenly it's off and nobody is talking about it.
My mum told me at the time that he had hidden gambling debts from her and had planned for them to sell her house to pay them off when they got married.
I found out about 10 years later that although the gambling debts were real, the actual reason was that she found a laptop he had hidden in the attic which had CP on it and he had been sent to jail. (which was apparently tough to make happen because he was a policeman). I can understand why they didn't tell anyone at the time.
Sometimes, the secret isn't a hidden identity but a hidden scandal, kept quiet to protect a child from a chaotic truth. Rock and roll history is filled with these stories. For the first nine years of her life, actress Liv Tyler believed that rock star Todd Rundgren was her father. Her mother, model Bebe Buell, kept the fact that her real father was Aerosmith's Steven Tyler a secret to shield her from Tyler's addiction.
Liv eventually pieced the truth together after noticing her uncanny resemblance to Tyler's other daughter, Mia, at a concert. In this case, the secret wasn't born from malice but from a mother's protective instinct. Many of the online stories echo this sentiment, revealing secrets that, while shocking, were initially kept with the complex, misguided intention of protecting someone from a painful reality.
#10
Not my family but my friend was doing the genealogy and found out her dad's mother had two husbands at the same time. She was married to husband number one, he went off to war, they told her he was dead. So three years later, she remarried to husband number two. Two years after that, husband number one showed back up very much alive. (The Pacific theatre was crazy, y'all.)
So apparently she didn't want to divorce husband number two so she decided to keep both of them. They all lived in the same house.
Tabitha 2 months ago (edited)
A variation on the storyline for Tommy, only with a less violent ending.
Jean Jacket 2 months ago
I misread this comment as 'Tommy Boy' and was confused about what version was out there I didn't know about xD
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#11
My biological grandfather beat my grandmother to such an extent that, after many attempts, she was capable of leaving him (early 1960’s). My grandmother told her three daughters they had to choose. If they went with her they would never see their father again. My mother has a sister she hasn’t seen since 1962.
#12
My grandma did time in prison during the 60,s lol.
Beyond the grand bombshells are the slow-burn secrets, pieced together over years from whispers, old photographs, and deathbed confessions. The online threads were full of stories about people who spent decades trying to understand a mysterious family rift or a relative who was never spoken of, only to finally uncover the truth in an old diary or a conversation with a dying grandparent.
This gradual dawning of a hidden truth was the reality for another music legend, Eric Clapton. Like Jack Nicholson, he was raised by his grandparents and believed his mother, Patricia, was his older sister. He learned the truth slowly, and the emotional fallout from that revelation of abandonment and deception became a profound influence on his music and his life.
#13
My maternal grandmother died after my grandfather infected her with HIV.
He was a pastor. Obviously they lied and they both died of ”cancer”.
#14
My grandpa lived with his MIL, SIL and wife. Wife ran away, he slept with MIL and SIL, and the SIL who had the mental age of about 7 had a baby that they gave away for adoption. She carried a baby doll around for the rest of her life.
#15
My dads named Gerald Jr. He, my grandpa, and great grandpa go by “jerry.” I was curious as to why he wasn’t Gerald the third, since he’s named Jerry after his father and his grandpa. Turns out, my great grandma named my grandpa “Gerald” thinking that was my great grandpa’s full name. Great grandpa’s name is Gerard, not Gerald.
Ultimately, what makes these stories so compelling is witnessing the aftermath. Learning a family secret of this magnitude forces a person to rebuild their entire identity from the ground up. For some, it's a destructive force that shatters relationships and trust forever.
For others, however, it can be strangely liberating, providing a final answer to a lifetime of questions and even connecting them with new family members they never knew they had.
Whether it’s an anonymous person sharing their story online or a global superstar uncovering their past, these revelations prove that no family is as simple as it seems. They remind us that behind every family photo, there can be a complex web of secrets, sacrifices, and lies, just waiting for the right moment to finally come to light.
Have you ever opened a skeleton-filled closet you wish could have been kept shut? Share your wild stories below!
#16
My grandma was a player AND a kook
Married grandpa, had 5 kids, (2 lived ☹️) - WWII was happening
left grandpa and left town in the dark of night with some guy she met at bingo (not clear who this guy was) and moved across the country
where she quickly dumped "bingo guy" and met Ken.
Divorced Grandpa, married Ken. Was with Ken for a few years and everything was cool
Suddenly ran away from Ken (who was a very nice man, apparently) back to Grandpa
Divorced Ken
Married Grandpa (again)
Ran off again with some rich dude named Clarence a couple years later
Did not divorce grandpa, but he was sick of her s**t.
Decided to leave Clarence and go back across the country.
Grandpa (her husband still) turned her down.
A few years later, she was found running around naked in her neighborhood with an axe looking for her "husbands" (she did not do d***s)
We started visiting grandma in the care home after that.
#17
That my mom was never married to my dad — and was in fact his mistress.
I knew my father was married to another woman and had 3 kids with her. But I thought he split with her and married my mom and they made my sister and I together… and then they split up and he got back with his original wife…
Nope. My mom was his mistress.
It’s weird to know that if my father had been faithful in his marriage, that neither my sister nor I would exist…. That we’re literally b*****d children.
geezeronthehill 2 months ago
I believe the polite term is 'natural child'. Not that the others are unnatural, though.
#18
My mum died from a stroke at the age of 61. When me and my brother were going through all her stuff we found old medical documents. We found out she had cancer when me and my brother were little kids but she kept it a secret from everyone apart from our grandma...this all happened shortly after my Dad had an affair and left. Life can be so unfair.
#19
I had family that died in the atomic b**bing of Hiroshima. I had always been told that we didn't and it wasnt until my sister and I did DNA tests that we found the family over in Japan that died during the war.
#20
Aunt had a secret relationship with her sister’s husband for 2 years. Came to light when he got her pregnant. My aunts no longer talk to each other and my aunt who got cheated on blames her divorce on her sister. Her ex-husband claimed he was SAed by my aunt he cheated with and somehow some of the family believed this clown.
Rika 2 months ago
What if the aunt r*ped her sister's husband one night he was drunk/dr*gged and threatened to tell her sister it was consensual if the man didn't do whatever she wanted ? These things happen in real life, too. Women know very few men will actually report SA because they won't be believed - and they'll be laughed at.
#22
One of my uncles shot the other. He practically gave his life savings to the other to purchase land in his name, and instead it was gambled away.
#23
I grew up with a younger brother and wondered if there was a third child. My mother read books about adopted children finding their birth families. She had graduated a year later than her twin because of rheumatic fever, and I wondered if it had been "romantic fever".
My dad died in 2006. In 2009, my mother called and said he had another daughter, who had been born and given up for adoption, before my father met my mother. My father told my mother about her when they dated, then swore her to secrecy. My father never, ever, wanted me or my brother to know about our sister.
So yes, I was right. In the happiest of circumstances, we live about 300 km apart. She's my best friend, and my brother likes her and has accepted her.
#24
Both of my uncles had illegitimate sons that were hidden from their families until both of my grandparents were dead. Both uncles went on to have wives and three daughters each, but none of them were aware of the sons. My uncles took almost all the possessions from my grandparents house after my grandma died and were total a******s to my mom, so she went scorched earth and blew the lid off.
#26
My mother had affairs with my dad’s best friend & his brother. She married my dads best friends brother then proceeded to have an affair with his nephew - my dads best friends son.
Then she had another affair and left my dad’s best friends brother and moved out of town to be with him & left us all.
She is the most high & mighty ‘my sh!f doesn’t stink’ individual I know.
She’s on her 5th husband now.
She’s exhausting.
#27
My great great grandma was Native American and literally purchased by my great great grandfather. My grandma thinks this is “so romantic” and it’s “so sweet they fell in love.” Meanwhile, my mom and I are still trying to get her to stop talking about it and romanticizing it.
Tabitha 2 months ago (edited)
Depends on the context. If they were in love, but for whatever f****d up reason the “purchase” had to happen for them to be together, then he did what he had to do to be with the woman he loved. If it wasn’t that, then it’s a hundred times more f****d up, and either amazing or even more f****d up that she fell for him.
#28
After my mom and dad passed away i ended up doing myheritage DNA and ancestry to see if i could find my maternal half brother. I found him, his daughter and two males with at least 11-14% DNA. Turns out those males were the sons of my half sister I knew nothing about. Turns out my mom had a baby girl less than two years after my brother and had her privately adopted right after she was born. Apparently the rest of the family knew. I was the last to find out.
I grew up as an only child, finding out I have two older half siblings still f***s with me. There is also a chance I might have another half sibling from my dad. I haven’t found any leads on that, only time will tell.
Also my mother’s side of the family is mafia through and through. I thought it was b******t but the newspapers and court documents say otherwise.
I’m convinced that if my dad never married my mom, I would have been adopted out. I mean…her track record.
Nuku Nyara 2 months ago
My siblings and I aren't supposed to "know" about 3 siblings my dad had with other women while he was married to my mom. Not counting those 3 mystery siblings, there's already 10 of us between my 2 parents. Some of the 10 siblings are half siblings and some are my dad's with different wives and some are my mom's with different men😓
#29
Not as shocking as some, but I found out that one of my cousins had a child out of wedlock when she was in highschool. Her parents sent her to a 'boarding school' out in California, where she had a little boy that she gave up for adoption. Not sure if it was her choice to do that, but this was the 50s. Plus her parents were well regarded in the community and this would have made them, especially my military uncle, look very bad to have a 'wayward daughter.'
Interesting follow up: Years later, my uncle went to the trouble of tracking down that child, and found him still in California with a wife and kids, and doing well. He asked his SIL (my mom) and his wife if he should tell my cousin, and it was decided not to. My cousin had gotten married in the meantime to a man who had a couple of kids from his first marriage, and I suspect his wife had never told him about the son she gave up.
Not very exciting, just heartbreaking. I don't know if the son ever tried to find his bio family.
Debby Keir 2 months ago
It really p*sses me off that someone has a 'wayward daughter' but no one ever has a 'wayward son'.
#30
My supposedly sterile great-uncle left bastards all over western PA. Averaging finding a new cousin every other month or so.
Also, my great-great grandfather was busted by the feds for running moonshine in and around Clearfield.
#31
One of my great-grandmothers had her first child at the age of twelve. She was 14 years younger than my great-grandfather. Kinda makes me wonder, how old she was when they had s*x for the first time. They went on to have five more children.
#32
That my grandfather was part of the reason my uncle shot himself at 13. The day of his funeral, my grandfather laid on his grave and cried in the rain. Because he lost his only boy.
At a later point, my grandmother dared step outside their front door to stop some kids that were bullying my aunt out front. My grandfather came home from work and saw her and beat her. Which led to her losing her pregnancy. Which was in fact a boy.
Bob died back in 2024 but I found out everything after. .
#33
There may have been some light treason.
What do you think ?
Gingersnap In Iowa 2 months ago
My mom found out that the man who raised her wasn't her biological father after her mother died. My grandma's "friend from California" who visited when my mom was growing up was actually her aunt, her biological father's sister.
Miss Ann Thrope 2 months ago
I've been researching me genealogy and found things I didn't know. Nothing as dramatic as this, but still I wonder why no one said anything. My grandfather remarried after my grandmother died. I never knew. I had a relation that lived in the same town as me. Had no idea. My maternal grandmother may have had two husbands. One in the old country, one in the US. It's all funny now.
TheElderNom 2 months ago
My father eats kiwis whole, just taking bites like it was an apple, eating the hairy skin and all. I lived for about 30 years before I found it out.
Huddo's sister 1 month ago
My brother does that. Even if I liked kiwis, no way could I deal with the texture.
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Lee Gilliland 2 months ago
Our family not-so-secret is grandpa died from a heart attack while being naughty with grandma. At 67.
Gingersnap In Iowa 2 months ago
My mom found out that the man who raised her wasn't her biological father after her mother died. My grandma's "friend from California" who visited when my mom was growing up was actually her aunt, her biological father's sister.
Miss Ann Thrope 2 months ago
I've been researching me genealogy and found things I didn't know. Nothing as dramatic as this, but still I wonder why no one said anything. My grandfather remarried after my grandmother died. I never knew. I had a relation that lived in the same town as me. Had no idea. My maternal grandmother may have had two husbands. One in the old country, one in the US. It's all funny now.
TheElderNom 2 months ago
My father eats kiwis whole, just taking bites like it was an apple, eating the hairy skin and all. I lived for about 30 years before I found it out.
Huddo's sister 1 month ago
My brother does that. Even if I liked kiwis, no way could I deal with the texture.
Load More Replies... Lee Gilliland 2 months ago
Our family not-so-secret is grandpa died from a heart attack while being naughty with grandma. At 67.
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