Maintaining family relations can be a volatile business, and the bigger the concerned circles are, the messier it tends to be, demanding more work and attention. You need to get your hands dirty to keep the engine running smoothly. More screws need to be rechecked that might have loosened over time, causing emotional leaks that can be noxious if not addressed in time. A lack of care for a confidant in your circle of friends might result in outbursts that reveal things you hoped would never see the light of day.
Relationships quickly deteriorate when scandals and secrets are unexpectedly exposed by a loose tongue. When old crimes, past lecherous excursions, and secret affairs are brought to light, sweet family gatherings can quickly erupt into awkward affairs. If you’re here for the drama, so long as it’s someone else’s drama and not your own, we feel you! Read on for all the scandalous details.
Blunt Reply
A child’s intuition cannot be taken for granted. Kids are smarter than most adults are willing to give them credit for, sensitive to subtle details that go on at home. This 12-year-old detected a certain disconnect between himself and his dad, and the kid just would not let things be.
By pursuing the truth, the child found answers to his suspicions from a willing grandmother. She had apparently forgotten the unspoken protocol for gently breaking deep family secrets. Here’s hoping the kid and his parents were able to work through it in a healthy way.
A Family of Bandits
How this guy unearthed a “wealth” of information about his family history, including his own father’s wrongdoings, is not clear. But wealth indeed is the keyword that defines their past aims – the unlawful kind – all shocking and in contradiction to the values long inculcated in the family tree’s younger generation.
How one copes with this discovery is the question. Would there be delayed shame to face? This young man did, after all, trust someone who lied to him all his life. However, from the few lines he shared on the matter, it seems this guy is more interested in cool bank robbery stories than in pondering the morality of his dad’s actions.
Love in the Workplace
This person’s adopted uncle must be in awe of his biological parents. They brought him nine half-siblings, which is a lot of work! His parents were clearly both busy people in the bedroom, and he was the product of an office affair. This honestly sounds like a soap opera storyline!
Fortunately, this guy was understanding of his parents. They had to work long days and sometimes stay into the night. Over time, however, they started to find excuses to go into the office together – working weekends, taking breaks together, and letting things go a little bit too far.
Status: Convoluted
Life showed its wicked side and played a trick on this grandmother in mourning, choosing the funeral as a grand stage for revealing her deepest, darkest secret. Just when the family thought there was nothing left in life that could surprise them, they were hit with this wild news.
This person’s grandma was in for the shock of her life. Suddenly, the number of siblings she had nearly doubled! How crafty her father had been to run off with his wife’s twin’s best friend without anyone noticing. How betrayed the poor grandma must have felt when she realized she’d been kept in the dark most of her life.
Lasting Legacy
There is no better way to reveal the story of your life than in an autobiography. All you need to do is dedicate some time to harnessing memorable lessons from the ups and downs of your life and then share them with the world. This grandpa decided to ramble about his marital battles instead.
As if it was the war of the century against the wife, this man wrote a scathing novel and sent a copy to all their kids, hoping it would make them take his side in the divorce. This family went through their own private war, and grandpa was determined to come out the victor.
Family Outlaw
This storyteller understands why his father lied to him for so many years about his grandpa. Some people just don’t feel comfortable admitting that a family member spent time in prison with murderers, rapists, robbers, and arsonists. To this man, it was better to tell everyone that his father had served in the Vietnam war.
In truth, the patriarch of the family was a genuine outlaw – not a simple thief but a brigand, a highwayman of old times, the type to instill fear in the general public. The sharer may now feel the stain in his own blood, or perhaps he’s just amazed that his grandpa was such a commanding fellow.
A Cheater in the Family
A conflicting name and date on a birthday card prompted the writer’s mind to race and how remarkable our minds can be when sensing that something doesn’t add up at an instinctive glance. Like an accountant detecting an error in a balance sheet, this person knew something was up.
The strange name on this old birthday card triggered the release of a long-held family secret that tore these sisters apart for a while. Though we’re sad to learn that this family went through a tough time, it’s nice to know that they mended their relationships so well that this kid had no idea there had ever been a rift.
Same Name, Different Lady
The odds of remarrying a woman with the same name as the first wife are pretty low, especially if you’ve abandoned the first wife and would rather not think about her (or the guilt) again. It seems that this grandpa was perfectly alright with dumping one family and starting over again with a new one.
Fast forward into the future, and it did get a bit weird for his kids and grandkids. We wonder if he genuinely never felt guilty about leaving his first wife and daughter or if he was just very good at keeping those feelings repressed. The fact that he mixed the names up suggests that he has some kind of emotional tie to his first family.
The Tale of the Homewrecker
Noble pursuits can sometimes lead to shady endings, and these occurrences may not be as rare as we think. Unfortunately, the storyteller’s former great-uncle learned this lesson through hard first-hand experience, losing his wife to a young lad to whom they had opened the doors of their home.
Once the good-looking young man was accepted into their home, all logic was apparently thrown out the window. What was supposed to be a kind act to support an exchange program turned into a messy divorce.
Mishap or Murder?
The shrill cries of a seemingly helpless old woman pressured the police to rule out foul play in the death of her husband. They officially judged it a closed case that needed no further investigation, despite the subtle holes in her explanation and in the evidence. Grandpa was feeble, and it was dark – his hand must have missed the handrail.
They turned a blind eye and left, but their daughter wasn’t born yesterday. Her intuition keeps telling her that something is amiss. Her mom is acting weird, and she just knows the story doesn’t add up. We can’t even imagine what it would be like to fear that your mother is a cold-hearted killer.
A Medical Scare Uncovers the Truth
The truth has an uncanny talent for finding its way out into the open. Just as the patient’s mother thought she had pulled off the perfect crime of deceiving her husband and having a child with his best friend, the truth found a way to come out. In some parts of the world, they refer to this scenario as bad karma.
Now, the family has more than one problem to deal with. The couple’s relationship has been permanently fragmented, and this is the kind of revelation that could lead to divorce. We just hope everyone is able to prioritize the health of the child over all else.
Conned in More Ways Than One
Situations like this don’t just happen. It has to be the work of a major con artist who went out there in the world to deliberately defraud men. There is a sense of egotism imbued in all those acts as if to say that she is above the law and beyond caring about their petty emotions.
Upon hearing this shocking revelation from her mother, the woman had to reimagine her great-aunt. All the while, she thought of her as a sweet older lady, but in reality, the woman was a low-key gangster. We don’t condone this behavior at all, but we’re sure this fraudster had her reasons.
A Grand Reunion
This colossal family had a grand reunion, but the patriarch, who actually isn’t the birth father of the storyteller’s dad, had a lot to explain to the sixty-something siblings concerned. He now has to be prepared for some backlash.
If this man had known all his siblings from the start, his backyard would have been a mighty playground. If they played army games, they wouldn’t just have a squad but an entire troop. How insane and yet so fun.
It’s Complicated
The sharer’s mother now understands the secrecy involved regarding her roots but must be shocked nonetheless with the information she now has in her hands. It has given her a glimpse of a side of her mother she didn’t know existed, offering more insights into a nature that makes her balk yet love her more at the same time.
People are strange that way. We are often attracted to complicated things, preferring the mysterious, troubled path. In this case, the grandmother chose taboo over a relationship that could have been plain and simple. Grandma must’ve been a wild one at heart.
Almost Unlawful
This love story also toys around the borderline of taboo. For years, the stepmother tried her best to be there for the family – as a wife and extended parent – and she must have done a splendid job at that to end up being loved by all the men of the house.
It’s a relationship that falls short of being technically unlawful. Indeed, in some societies, particularly in the past, it wouldn’t have been frowned on at all. The woman must have understood her stepson/husband better than anyone else could. However, we imagine family gatherings got a bit awkward after this relationship was revealed!
Movie Material
This child’s birth was preceded by an abundance of events that, if bundled up meticulously, could make for rich movie material. This is the kind of story that Hollywood would masterfully take advantage of, with its legion of followers willing to pay good money to catch it on the silver screen.
The prison therapy with Charles Manson alone could be expounded into a novel, spiced by the insights shared or harvested from the mind of a one-of-a-kind cult leader and murderer-by-proxy, dramatizing how the Beatle’s Helter Skelter became a “message from Go
The Barrow Gang
The legend of Bonnie and Clyde – by some twist of fate and the workings of Hollywood and the media – has grown to be idolized by the general public. People love to re-read accounts of how the duo wantonly robbed restaurants, gas stations, and banks. Even their gratuitous killings are appreciated when presented on the silver screen.
To find out that your family had not only been in contact with the Barrow Gang in their time, knew them personally, but had offered them shelter when Frank Hamer was on their tail would just blow your mind.
An Anthology of Past Loves
Matrimony is a figurative door to a brand new life together, legally bestowing upon the spouses a set of rights and obligations to each other and any future children. This is when young adults are expected to “straighten up.” The days of drunken revelry with old friends and college buddies are no more, and money is to be saved conscientiously for posterity.
Naming one’s children after ex-girlfriends is not exactly what “moving on” means. It is an anthology of past loves – a figment of the past brought into the future for no clear purpose. It is having one foot still out of the door.
Grandma to the Rescue
This person’s cousins had no idea that they were the product of young and passionate love. These kids were born from schoolyard affairs and dances at the town hall where afterward, slightly inebriated, a life of forever-love was promised to each other.
Untimely pregnancies were the result. While these children weren’t planned, they certainly were wanted. So, grandma came to their rescue. Grandma had lived her life, seen the world, and come back home to love these youngsters unconditionally. Awkwardness only arose when a cousin let the family secret slip.
Love Child
Though a person may be faithful in mind and intention, taming the physical needs on long lonesome nights can be difficult. Being a military man in the ‘60s, stationed in Germany, and not knowing how the future may take shape, grandpa must have thought that an occasional chat with a friendly local lady wouldn’t be bad. It would lift his spirits up momentarily and help him forget that a war was raging.
An hour of chatting stretched out into the late afternoon, and as the shadows grew longer, the two found themselves deeply ensconced in the lush secrecy of the evening. One thing led to another, and a seed was planted in the fields of Germany – one that would grow into a long-held family secret.
X Out
We all get upset with our loved ones from time to time, especially when people get in our way or our expectations aren’t met. But to hate a person is quite another thing, and to resort to murder is simply unthinkable.
This mother must have had serious personal issues to be so upset at her son’s marriage that she’d put a hit out on her daughter-in-law. Apparently, having friendly connections with the mob can serve you well! Indeed, this was the only thing that stood between a happy marriage and being buried six feet under.
Accessory After the Fact
Diary writing might have evolved from an old religious practice. People would write their wishes, or in some cases, their sins, and burn the written paper as an offering to the gods. Burning these confessions also helped them ensure nosy neighbors and family members never saw any juicy details.
This woman didn’t burn her confession. Instead, she stored it in a diary that would one day be found by her family. While she didn’t have to deal with any of the consequences, her sister and the rest of the family did. We hope they were able to heal the rift eventually.
Spoiler Alert
Genetic testing has been a godsend for people who are proactively concerned about the health of their unborn child. This technology gives us medical forecasting and awareness of potential disease vulnerability. On an entirely different front, it’s done wonders for our authorities in their mission to solve crimes, including those long-buried in dusty unresolved file depositories.
In this case, genetic testing broke apart the false privacy of a man who had been hiding from his first family. It picked up the pieces more effectively than any paper trail or footprint could, clawing him back into the shame of his actions and possibly leading to legal repercussions.
Protection Money
When the Prohibition took effect in the United States, the sale of liquor went underground, dragging down along with it local clubs, speakeasies, manufacturers, and many other businesses linked to the alcohol products that had been rendered illegal.
This person found out that instead of helplessly running aground like everyone else, their grandparents thought out of the box to survive and smartly decided to cruise on with their businesses by eliminating the threat itself… at least for a while. They bought themselves time by associating with rum-runners, the mob, and no less than the local police chief.
Quick Change of Tack
As a young man, never in his wildest dreams did he think that one day he’d live in America. The distant land was so far from his birthplace, and he had no desire to leave the neighborhood he grew up in, where he had known people since they were kids playing on street corners. Then, the unthinkable happened.
A fatal swing at the wrong time and place changed his circumstances, and suddenly life was no longer just a game he played as a lad. He had taken a life, and the consequences were bearing down on him. So, he moved to the US, hid from his past, and started a family. Now, his descendant has been left with the strange understanding that his life came at the cost of someone else’s.
On the Side
When friends and family party together, with music warming the atmosphere and alcohol flushing people’s cheeks, something fast and loose can easily develop. A breakaway from the norms of friendship erupted between this person’s mother and secret father.
This young fellow always felt that he was the odd one out, and it seems his perception was on point. His mother temporarily lost her mind and slipped away for a love-making session with a family friend. We hope this secret didn’t cause too much damage when it was revealed!
Grandpa, the Once Handsome Rapscallion
The contrasting images might be a little too much to reconcile now, but this calm, soft-spoken grandfather used to have long dark hair and a silver tongue that could win over any woman. He was the bad boy that girls loved to hate but secretly admired.
If there’s one takeaway from this story, it’s that we should never give up on the ones we love. People change. Grandma had the wisdom to see that capability in him and deserves the reward of his eternal affection.
The Ultimate Freeloader
Since childhood and for most of his adult life, this man lived under the same roof as his mother, who probably had no choice but to let him. Of course, this can be a lovely thing for many parents who feel needed, loved, and appreciated. They also never have to feel the pangs of loneliness as their child is always nearby. In this case, however, the child in question was a grown man with a dark secret.
He has a wife and two kids hidden somewhere. We’re assuming this family has a home of their own. Perhaps the man supports them by living with his mother to keep his own expenses low. We’ll never know for sure, but that’s one heck of a secret to keep from your loved ones!
Underaged Parent in Disguise
Thirteen-year-olds in the 1930s spent most of their time at home or at their neighbors’ playing Monopoly. There really weren’t many options like today for entertainment, so they huddled around the radio to hear from Joe DiMaggio or Babe Ruth, and that was a big deal. To be pregnant at 13 would have been nothing short of scandalous. Even in today’s society, it would rock most families.
For people to be suspicious of grandma’s sister is understandable. However, if this choice helped her avoid being stigmatized, then so be it. Let people speculate if they must – some things are best kept secret.
If Walls Could Talk
If the walls of this family’s house could testify, they would speak of kisses snatched behind the kitchen counter while the wife was happily daydreaming in the living room, imagining her future child. Meanwhile, her husband had stealthily taken her cousin’s hand and pushed their connection a little too far.
If the walls could speak the unbridled truth, it might kill grandma with a heart attack. Thank goodness houses can’t speak. The poor woman was pregnant when it all happened. She was betrayed in her own home, and we can understand why she still feels the pain.
An Odd Encounter
Like a curious cat coming out of a dark corner, this young man approached his sister. In the process, he caused a major rift in the family. All he wanted to do was meet his father, his sister, and his other blood relations. However, the dad did not want his dark secrets revealed.
He just wanted to come out of obscurity without a care for any legal implications. He was no different from a stage performer, a novelist, or a rank-and-file employee in a corporation raring for recognition – the poor young man just wanted to be acknowledged.
Incendiary Motives
Grandma should never have struck that match. It lit up terrible ideas that should have remained in the dark. But that’s what loneliness and boredom can sometimes do to a person’s mind. Who knows why she hated her stepson so much, but as those feelings grew in her heart, so did an ominous plan.
Most people resort to rude remarks or the silent treatment when they’re upset with a family member. This woman went straight to the most extreme option – lighting her house on fire. Simple misunderstandings with her stepson converted into hatred, and that hatred went up in flames.
Fiancée First, Stepmother Later
Wars are brutal. Beyond the trenches lie countless dead and mangled bodies, and if you survive, the faces of the dead still haunt you. This young soldier made it home in one piece, but what he found there simply added to his devastation.
When he arrived home, he realized that the brutality he experienced in battle was not done with him yet. His lover – the woman he still loved with all his heart – had married his father and become his step-mother. For a moment, he wished he had died in the war so he didn’t have to feel the pain of this double-barreled betrayal.
Open Secret
Open relationships are increasingly common these days. If a couple sets clear boundaries, operates with complete honesty, and seeks professional guidance from a psychologist whenever issues crop up, it’s entirely possible for such arrangements to be mutually beneficial.
Of course, there’s a huge difference between an open relationship that both parties want and an open relationship that results from one-sided infidelity. These two need to get to couple’s counseling pronto! We hope the family is able to unravel this complex situation.
Adoptions and Embarrassing Discoveries
Adoptions are often kept under wraps to prevent future conflicts between the families involved. That way, the child is given a fresh start with their new relations, and the anonymity ensures the adoptive family will be able to discuss the situation with their child when the time is right for them.
DNA testing, genealogy, and other investigative processes have a way of shedding light on ancient family secrets. They are the new spoilers that adoptive parents don’t wish to see, revealing links that used to be invisible, sparking awkward discoveries beyond the general notion that we are all connected to each other.
Til Inconvenience Do Us Part
Many people decide to proclaim their unwavering love for each other at the church’s altar, in the presence of family and friends, who serve as witnesses to the momentous event. However, quite a few of these people undertake this ceremony without really internalizing their vows.
Of course, it’s natural for people to grow apart sometimes, and we don’t know what this man went through, but on the surface, it seems like he abandoned his wife when things got difficult. We hope his first wife found her own happiness.
Too Many Families to Count
Great great grandpa took advantage of the lack of tracking and interconnected communication systems that existed back then. Prior to the internet, advanced technology, and AI, it would have been near-impossible to unearth all his faked deaths, false claims, identity fabrications, and whatnot.
The Internet isn’t a bad thing, as some people claim. It’s how we use it that matters. It could be a weapon, a vessel for proliferating fake news, or it could help us seek the truth. In this case, it could have saved these three ladies a lot of distress and confusion!
Getting the Party Started
A cousin visiting for the holidays had a little too much to drink – as is often the case when troubles unexpectedly start – and he turned into a loose cannon. The hosts of the party found out the hard way that alcohol is the secret ingredient for truth bombs.
These truth bombs are definitely going to create permanent cracks in their family, and such trust issues are very hard to fix. Only the dog in this picture remained unconcerned – he was just excited about all the untouched food that was left for him to consume.
Surprising Revelations
This young woman tried her hardest to make things work with her then-boyfriend. They’d had a wonderful time in the summer – what a waste it would be to let their relationship slip. She was looking forward to spending more time with him, but he never seemed to reciprocate her efforts.
It turned out that he was more attracted to her mother, and the feeling was mutual. It took some time to get to this revelation, but, as they say, if there’s smoke, there’s fire. We can’t imagine how awkward it was when the truth came out.
Polyamorous Uncle
The great uncle was often regarded as a silent, contemplative man with the tendency to overthink and evaluate his emotions too much. He often ruminated on his happiness until the process itself led him to become unhappy. He was unable to appreciate the blessings he had in his family.
One day, he silently slipped away. He ran as far as he could in pursuit of happiness, and since it remained a well-kept secret, no one really knows if bailing on his first family and starting a new one brought him the peace he was seeking.