19 People Tell Their Family's Dark Secrets

1.

"When we were little, my sibling and I were never allowed to tell anyone our names unless our parents approved or answered the phone/front door first. We later learned that it was because our grandfather was a kidnapper and a hit man, and they didn't know if he was trying to find us..." "Thankfully, he died about 20 years ago."

2.

"After my grandma died, my aunt found her diary, and WOW. Basically, before my grandparents dated, my grandpa was dating another woman. My grandma decided that she wanted my grandpa for herself, and in a Mafia-style warning, she lured his girlfriend into some bushes, and then my grandma and her friends beat the cr#p out of her..." "They told her to stay away and that he (my grandfather) was her man now. She then went up to my grandpa and was like, 'We're dating now.' And you know what? They got married, had four kids, and happily stayed together until her death."

3.

"When my great-uncle died in the '90s, my family went through his stuff before selling the house. They found the dead, decomposed body of a woman in the basement freezer..." "It turned out to be a woman who went 'missing' in the '60s. The woman also happened to be his girlfriend at the time. Newspaper clippings showed that her family thought she ran away to Europe, and my great-uncle had 'confirmed' that she did. My family still refuses to talk about it."

4.

"My mom’s uncle faked his own drowning and left to start a new life. His wife and son found out years later."

5.

"My stepmother let it slip that my aunt and uncle were swingers for a long time. They ended up quitting after a guy dropped dead on top of my aunt in a motel during a nooner."

6.

"My grandparents kidnapped my aunt from her front yard in the '30s. She was 3 at the time, her biological mom was a teenager, and her biological dad was in jail and a member of a minority group, so a fight to find my aunt never happened, according to my grandma..." "This all took place after the Lindbergh kidnapping, so my grandparents kept it quiet from anyone who wasn't family. Apparently the young woman didn't really want my aunt to begin with, but an abortion wasn't an option. Years later, my aunt met her biological mom, and they both realized that she was better off with my grandparents. My aunt has since made peace with everyone involved. She married her high school sweetheart, had five sons, a ton of grandkids, and even more great-grandkids. She turns 90 this year, and I'm pretty sure she'll outlive us all."

7.

"My grandma was sleeping with her husband’s nephew (he was 20, and she was 32 at the time). My mom is a product of that relationship. My grandma didn’t tell her until she was 36 years old."

8.

"My ex-boyfriend and I had a newborn and were living with my parents. One night, my dad confessed to me that his wife was sleeping with my boyfriend. He said it'd been happening for a while, and he just didn’t know how to tell me. This wasn’t even the first time she tried to mess around with one of my boyfriends. She also kissed my fiancé."

9.

"One of my uncles had a baby with a woman. After they broke up, my other uncle got that same woman pregnant. We don’t speak to them because of it, and I’ve never known them, but I technically have cousins who are also half-siblings. What the f@#k."

10.

"My grandfather has 22 siblings: 11 were from his father and mother, and the other 11 were from his father and his brother's girlfriend."

11.

"My partner's mom, who was one of five, found out after her dad died that he had an entire secret family with five other kids. I guess he took off one day from his first family, met and married her mother, and started a whole new family. It wasn't until both families were mentioned in his obituaries that either family found out about the other."

12.

"After my uncle died, we discovered he had a second wife whom he spent most of his time with. Literally no one on either side knew this for over 25 years. He also purchased the same prefab house, same furniture, and same everything for each of his wives so their houses mirrored each other (and probably helped him to keep his story straight)."

13.

"I thought my stepfather had been awarded custody of my half brother and me in 1990. I found out in 2015 that he actually kidnapped us..." "He died in 2005 (I was 24), so he was never punished. We never understood what truly happened to us. My biological mom had been trying to find us for years. We finally got in contact with her."

14.

"My nana's first husband went off to fight in World War II and never came back, so he was assumed dead. My nana was left with my aunt, but she ultimately moved on, remarried, and had more kids. Years later, her first husband came back. He wasn't dead. He had run away with a French woman he met during the war..." "My aunt tried to get to know her biological dad, but she couldn't find a way to like him. She considered my papa to be her real father instead. None of my other cousins know — not even my aunt's kids."

15.

"My aunt mysteriously disappeared before I was born. Her car was found, still running, parked off the side of the road. Her purse was still inside. No one knows what happened to her. They didn’t even fill out a missing person report..." "It looked as if she ran away, but we haven't seen or heard from her since. There’s a possibility it was murder, but my family is still very hush-hush about the whole situation."

16.

"My mom revealed that our Dutch ancestors hid a Jewish family in their attic and forged food stamps during World War II. If caught, they would have been killed, so it stayed a secret for a long time. No one in my family knew what happened to the Jewish family after the war. I hope they survived."

17.

"My grandma was kidnapped when she was 12. She was ultimately returned two days later, but everyone pretended like nothing had happened, including her own mother. Everyone refused to talk about it, even to this day. It's so sketchy."

18.

"My great-grandmother was married to my great-grandpa, who was an identical twin. She secretly started sleeping with his twin and got pregnant. To this day, no one knows who the real father is..." "No one ever told my great-grandpa. Technically, we don't even know if he's my real great-grandpa or not."

19.

"My great-great-grandma was married to a man she hated. They had a hired hand on their farm, and one day she made a casual comment about how much she hated her husband and wished he was dead. The next day, the husband was murdered, and the helper on the farm was nowhere to be found..." "My great-great-grandma then got remarried to a man she actually liked. She'd occasionally leave food and money in the woods for 'someone' (our guess was the hired hand who probably killed her first husband). They never prosecuted her for the murder because there was no actual evidence that she paid someone to kill her first husband, and also the village she lived near was genuinely convinced that she was a witch and would curse them."