Reddit Users Are Sharing Deep Family Secrets That Finally Came to Light

Do you have any skeletons in your closet you'd like to divulge publicly? If so, we recommend checking out an April 18 post by Redditor @AbsoluteHavoc, which posed the provocative question, "What family secret was finally spilled in your family?"

In the two and a half weeks since @AbsoluteHavoc pressed "send," the post has accrued 66.0k upvotes and 17.4k comments, apparently striking a chord with many of the platform's users. Who knew that so many people were itching for a chance to air their dirty laundry on the internet?

Unsurprisingly, many of the secrets involve dramatic revelations about parentage. While the invention of paternity tests has resolved many a court case, it has also forced countless hard conversations between spouses. In one of the thread's more popular replies, @voice_of_craisin revealed that the woman she was raised to believe was her cousin is actually her sister.

"Apparently my mom got pregnant really young and her much older sister adopted my sister and raised her as her own. It was actually an amazing moment when we found out. My cousin (sister) and the sister I was raised with and I are really really close. Just happened last year. We're all old now (I'm 50 and my cousin/sister is 58) so it's just a really neat thing that makes us all happy," they wrote.

Not all stories had such a wholesome ending. In a reply that has 25.0k likes, @SquirrelsandCrayons revealed that their grandfather fathered a child with a local woman while stationed in Italy during World War II before returning to the United States. While the Italian woman attempted to correspond with him over the years, his mother intercepted every letter, à la Allie's mother in the 2004 romantic movie The Notebook.

"It's a really sad story, but if his mother hadn't intercepted the letters, I wouldn't exist. It's a weird place to be in emotionally!" @SquirrelsandCrayons wrote of their mixed feelings about their great-grandmother's actions.

Compelling as @ voice_of_craisin and @SquirrelsandCrayons's were, some commenters thought that @oliveotherraindeer's family secret took the cake. One Christmas, @oliveotherraindeer wrote, their father's brother drank a little too much and hinted that he had had an affair with their mother, their father's wife. Thanks to the power of genetic comparison, the family eventually managed to confirm his story. Not only had @oliveotherraindeer's uncle slept with their mother, he had fathered their sister.

"My dad never spoke to his brother again. And of course, my parents got divorced. And I needed a lot of therapy... and chocolate. Gosh we are trash!" @oliveotherraindeer wrote.

May our Christmases never be as explosive as that one was.