8 hours ago
4
I'm someone who always loves good tea; however, some secrets can be so unbelievable, or honestly, so dark, that I wouldn't know what to do if I heard them. Perhaps, like in this Reddit thread, when Safe_Caramel6279 asked, "What is the most fucked up thing you discovered by accident?"
Folks wrote in the wildest secrets they weren’t supposed to know, and well, I don't know if I should now look at grandparents differently, plus a few interesting random dark facts. Here's what people said:
Additional responses were found here.
1. "My grandparents didn't go to jail because they weren't paying their taxes — they went to jail because they were selling cocaine. I'd lived with the initial story since childhood and never questioned it. The true story came out years later after I connected with an estranged family member. We were reminiscing, and I brought up the family history, and they just stared blankly at me and said, ‘Wait...that's what your parents told you?’"
2. "I found strange connections on 23andMe. I found out my grandma was fooling around with the head of the family she nannied for. My grandfather is not my dad's real dad. Not only that, but two of his three brothers are also the guy’s sons she nannied for. Only the oldest brother is the actual son of my grandfather."
3. "I was helping my mom sort through my late grandma’s piles of paperwork, letters, etc., and discovered A) that she had a years-long affair with a married man, and B) that she had been writing erotic novels."
4. "When I was younger, I learned that girls.com is not, in fact, a website for little girls. But on the other hand, I will forever have the image of a big ol’ penis with a tiny Santa hat on its head. Which is pretty wonderful as an adult."
5. "The size of my stepdad's member. Why the fuck would you sleep with no pants on and with your bedroom door open, with four daughters in the house? Eight years later, he offered to pay me for sex when I was working at a strip club — strangers weren't as creepy."
6. "When I was about 10 years old, I found a dildo that belonged to my mother when I wanted to show my mates my dad's porn stash. I didn't know what it was. One of the other lads did. He reminded me of this just last weekend. We're 52 now."
7. "My adoptive mother lied about not knowing my real last name. I don’t know whether it was because she didn’t want me to figure out my roots (I’m from Russia). Six months ago, I went through a sealed file that was addressed to me; it had some old childhood memories — pictures of me as a kid, things I did in school, etc. — and then I found my original Russian birth certificate. I had a friend of mine who’s from Bosnia translate it for me, and she told me what it said. It made me really sad, if I’m being honest. I haven’t really picked up that paper since. I don’t know what the point of lying about something like that is. I think, for me, my adoptive mother never made it comfortable for me to openly ask questions about my birth parents or adoption, so I see it as more malicious and something she was purposely hiding from me so I wouldn’t ask questions or ‘explore.’"
"It’s as if she felt challenged by the idea that I wouldn’t have given her credit for raising me, which I most certainly do give her credit for. It just seems really strange to lie and say that she didn’t know when everyone has a birth certificate that states their full name."
8. "My VERY strict Southern Baptist great-grandfather (I never knew him) had a lifelong secret girlfriend, whom my even stricter Southern Baptist great-grandmother knew about. She had a deal with him that for every gift he bought for his girlfriend, he gave her one, too. We were going through her stuff after she died when I was in my early 20s, and there was a really nice fur coat in the back of her closet that I'd never seen. My mom told me about their arrangement and said she just really didn't like the coat, never wore it, but insisted he get it for her. She was always so prim and proper, but very judgmental of others, of course. Still blows my mind."
9. "I found out my 85-year-old dad is gay when he left his iPad on with a sexting message thread that included pictures. It has taken me years to reconcile the childhood I thought I had with the one I never noticed."
10. "At 21, I was looking for my real dad, who left when I was 4, and just as I was narrowing it down, he died from heart problems. After his death, I found out that he had had children with 13 different women. So even though I am an only child, I suddenly had 12 half-siblings out there. I’m 42 now, and have never met a single one of them."
11. "I never knew how many men had second families before the '70s. Many of them seemed like really good men; then you age a bit and find they have a second family somewhere. I wonder if birth control and smaller families basically put a stop to that, or maybe I'm just unaware that it’s still happening with so much frequency."
12. "A good friend of mine got pregnant by a Black man (she was white), and her parents made her give her daughter up for adoption because they refused to let her get an abortion because they were Catholics. After she had the baby, her mom refused to let her get on the Pill because it went against their beliefs. She was pregnant 4 months after she had her first child, but by a white guy this time, and her mom was excited about it. She was 16."
13. "Everyone in my elementary school whom I knew at the time was talking about me being adopted. I didn't believe them until I asked my mother when I got home. It turned out that my younger sister told them."
14. "Sweetbreads. I was excited when I saw them on a menu for the first time at a Spanish tapas place. No idea what they were, but I like sweet baked goods. So I ordered them with a bunch of other small plates, which are served throughout the evening. At the end, I asked my mother if they had forgotten to bring out the sweetbreads, and she said we had already eaten them. She was surprised because I'm a vegetarian, but I was so excited to try them. Then I found out what they were. I wanted to vomit."
15. "I never knew that B vitamins cause your urine to glow brightly under black light."
"Beets can make your pee turn red. That was a fun thing to discover as a child. My mom nearly fell over laughing when I found this out."
16. “A work friend was blasting the most gangster shit at work. I saw YouTube was on his phone, so I thought it would be funny if I switched up the music to Melissa Etheridge or something. The search bar on his YouTube… Oh man. It was: ‘Stinky feet,’ ‘cuck stinky feet,’ ‘woman with dirty feet,’ ‘dirty pregnant feet.’ IT WENT ALL THE WAY DOWN, BRO. HE LOVED FEET AND WATCHED FOOT VIDEOS. SO MANY FOOT VIDEOS.”
17. "Babies born intersex have their genitals carved up immediately after birth because the doctor always knows best. I learned this from a total stranger, too."
18. "Body odor can be so bad, it can set off a fire alarm."
19. And lastly, if you love spending hours on an internet spiral (beware): "A lot of the things we know about the human body and medical science came from Unit 731."
What's the most shocking secret you discovered about those closest to you? 👀 Let us know in the comments! Or, if you'd like to remain anonymous, you can fill out the form below.
Note: Responses have been edited for length/clarity.
English (US) 