12 People Reveal Family Secrets That Shook Their World

Family is the closest bond for most of us, and we think we know everything about our nearest and dearest. But sometimes, secrets emerge that turn our lives completely upside down.

• When I was 3, my mom and her mother took a month-long vacation together. That was the only trip they ever took just by themselves. They told everyone they had been to Spain but didn’t bring back photos or tell stories. Dad’s parents looked after me in the meantime.
  She never showed me a passport stamp. For all I know, she never even had a passport. Once, Mom let it slip and said she never traveled overseas in her life. “There’s that month in Spain,” I replied. She fell silent. Apparently, she hoped I’d forgotten.
  Nothing made sense until years later when I realized her trip to Spain took place shortly before abortion was legalized where we were living. Mom, Dad, and I had been living in a one-bedroom apartment at the time. Mom and Grandma probably decided she couldn’t afford a second child. Dad never guessed a thing. © doublestitch / Reddit
• My mother always told me that my father had died a few months before I was born. I believed this until my mid-thirties, when I found my father on Facebook. © woogychuck / Reddit
• I found out my grandpa left me 10,000 shares of Coca-Cola when I was born in 1997. I discovered this when I was 19, helping my parents move and finding the document.
  It turns out my parents had already sold all the shares to pay off credit card debt. That money could have really helped me, especially since I was struggling to pay for college on my own. © IceBankYouuu / Reddit

• I found out at 20 that I had a twin, and my parents gave her up for adoption. © Phoenix-Rising77/ Reddit
• All my life, my parents told me I was severely allergic to eggs. We never had them in the house. One day, when I was 21, I accidentally ate a salad with mayo dressing and freaked out and panicked.
  I rushed to the hospital thinking I might die. After some tests, I discovered a disturbing detail. The doctor came to me, shocked; he told me I was not allergic to eggs, and he was 100% sure.
  I later confronted my parents, and they told me that they both “simply hated the taste of eggs,” so they found it convenient to tell me this lie in order to completely avoid having eggs around. This is the strangest thing that ever happened to me. I still can’t understand the reasoning behind their lie, especially since my parents are logical people, and this seems like such a weird thing for them to do.
• I just found out that I inherited a college fund but didn’t know about it, and my dad spent it on useless things. Life could have been so different... © grimreefer87 / Reddit

• My dad spent more than 10 years of his life in prison. I only found out about this nine years after his death when my aunt handed me his notes and letters. © Baeltane / Reddit
• I was diagnosed with bipolar type 2 in my early 30s. My mom said, “Is that the same as manic depression? The doctor told us you had that when you were 15.”
  Are you kidding me?! My life would have been so much easier if I’d known that and been medicated. © Remarkable-Emu5589 / Reddit
• When I was a senior in high school, my mother stole my acceptance letter to New York University. It was my dream school and my first choice. © mevman44 / Reddit
• I have an older brother. I never knew about him until two years ago, when I did a DNA test and discovered I had a half-brother. © CrayonEater_0311 / Reddit

• I recently found out I have a half-brother my dad somehow forgot to mention. I loved my dad, and he was a great father to me, but discovering he had a child on the side was disillusioning, especially when I learned he never contributed to this person’s upbringing or education. © phasefournow / Reddit
• “My Welsh great-grandmother had passage booked on the Titanic in 1912. She ended up not going because she ‘fell ill’. Turns out it was actually an out-of-wedlock pregnancy that gave her such bad morning sickness, she couldn’t go. She lost the baby. She came the following year in 1913 and met my great-grandfather. She only told my mom (who she helped raise during the summers) who then told me.” © sassy_steph_ / Reddit

As it turns out, uncovering family history isn’t for the faint of heart—you might stumble upon unexpected secrets. Here’s another collection of stories about hidden family secrets.