12 People Who Revealed Secrets They Regretted Finding

We know that everyone keeps a secret — some are potentially more important, while others are more ordinary. Even we ourselves have stories we don’t like to share with anyone. However, problems can arise when we discover secrets we weren’t ready to hear; facing a truth before we’re prepared can be quite difficult. Still, that moment can help us grow and mature.

• He lied about where he went to undergrad. I suspected it while the relationship was still going on, but after he moved out, I found some of the stuff he left that included transcripts from a different university than he’d claimed. It wasn’t even in the same country. I’m fairly sure most of the stories he told about his childhood were lies. © ***ousbudgie / Reddit

• When I was around 2 years old, my grandmother (my mom’s mom) was watching my sisters and me while my parents worked in the city. She refused to let us see them for any reason, and we ended up staying with her for about six months. Turns out, our parents had been trapped in the city for two days due to a horrible snowstorm. Meanwhile, my grandmother went to the courthouse and claimed they had abandoned us. She gained temporary custody, forcing my parents to wait six months to be deemed “suitable” parents. © BloomieBoii / Reddit

• I hung up a towel to dry my hands in the bathroom. Sometimes I’d find it on the floor and think, “Hmmm, the towel fell off the rack.”
  Ten years go by! One day, my husband casually said, “You’re always so quick to do laundry—like if I accidentally pee on the floor and clean it up with the towel, it’s gone so fast.”
  I was like, “What... what? WHAT!!!!!!”
  So yeah, I’ve been drying my hands with pee towels for 10 years. © kperkins1982 / Reddit

• The pregnancy wasn’t a surprise or an accident. We talked and planned. He got a little overbearing during the pregnancy, like insisting on breastfeeding without even discussing it with me. I put it down to new dad nerves, and not knowing any better.
  Turns out that was only the tip of the iceberg. He believed that children were completely and totally a wife’s responsibility. He wouldn’t change a diaper. He wouldn’t pick up the baby when it cried.
  No way would he get up in the middle of the night. He expected me to work a full-time job, plus do all the childcare. At that point, I was confused and appalled, but I told myself he just needed time to adjust.
  I realized how delusional I was when the baby got sick while he was on a fishing trip. The doctors thought baby had meningitis. So not just sick, but life-threatening sick.
  I called and asked him to come home. He refused. He’d paid for two more days of fishing. He didn’t want to lose the money. © rusty0123 / Reddit

• My boyfriend would always leave the apartment to talk to his mom. Once, I asked, “Why don’t you call your mom here?” He brushed it off, saying it was their tradition.
  In the evening, I followed him. I was shocked when I saw him sitting on a park bench, laughing and talking with a woman who looked way too young to be his mom. I stepped out and shouted, “Who is she?” He turned pale and said, “She’s just my ex... she’s been going through a rough time.”
  The woman stared at me and asked, “You’re the roommate, right?” That’s when he confessed—he told both of us different stories. He’d been living a double life for months. I still can’t believe I missed the signs.

• About a year after getting married, he told me he was about to get full custody of his son. I didn’t know he had a son. © rtyjj / Reddit

• He had a notebook of every detail of my life (including menstrual cycle) and also kept all the details of my friends and family members. Even ones I had never mentioned. And we were only together for two months. © totalfranmove / Reddit

• He was always very secretive and a little paranoid. About 15 years into the relationship, I learned that his birthday is not in May like he said, but in November. When he moved to the US from England in the 1970s, they had written it down incorrectly in his passport, and he never changed it to his correct birthdate. I still don’t know why. © GorditoCat / Reddit

• About a month into our relationship, I found out she was friends with another woman who had stolen a lot of my property. It kind of ruined the relationship steadily over the next few months, because I let my paranoia get the better of me.
  Eventually, it broke down but looking back, I’m glad. I actually see a lot of immaturity now that I used to ignore when we were dating. I hope she grows out of it one day. © Practical-Shoe2404 / Reddit

• I learned that the man I married is a compulsive liar. I stay with him because of his extremely high income, but I am no longer invested in our marriage, our house, or the future. The deliberate lies have only started as years have gone by, and he knows my standards about how to treat each other and other people in general.
  I feel like I made the mistake of choosing to marry him 25 years ago, so the burden is mine. LOTS of gaslighting attempts on his part. Strangely, he is the most subservient man to all other people I’ve ever been around. © WaterLiliesInMyPool / Reddit

• I found out his ex-girlfriend was actually still his girlfriend. We broke up with him together and became great friends. © misdolnurs2517 / Reddit

• Early in our dating, he brought me home to meet his family. His parents pretended they were happily married and completely normal. He and the rest of the family knew they were separated and very volatile. Eventually, he and I got married.
  I learned the real story behind their divorce and realized the timeline meant that the whole “happy family” show was faked on my behalf. He said, “Well, you wouldn’t have wanted to date me if you knew how messed up my family was.” So yeah, gaslit from the beginning. © janes_america / Reddit

Friendship can be a pretty complex path. Behind all those shared stories, smiles, and hugs, there might be something darker. In this article, 12 people were caught off guard by their “friends,” and what started sweet ended up pretty sour.