The Artful Dodger III
One of the worst news a family can receive is that the sole breadwinner of the family has gone missing, especially more than half a century back when the women’s rights movement was still not as large as today. But even worse is finding out later your husband just ran away to marry his mistress in Scotland!
That’s exactly what this guy’s great-uncle did which hurt the family he left behind so bad that they never discussed him ever again. This is why it’s a surprise this young lady and her sisters found out about it in the first place!
The Guest Lover
Some of the funniest family secrets are often very saucy. Take this story for example - this guy’s great-aunt eloped after taking part in a foreign student exchange program! Apparently, she and her husband took in a foreign exchange student who was devilishly good-looking.
Despite having children the young man’s age, the older lady got infatuated with him and ended up having an affair. Her emotions ran so strong that she divorced her husband and left her children to be with this guy. No wonder the family doesn’t want to talk about it!
The Murderous Grandma
Thriller and slasher movies are all fun and games until they hit a bit too close to home for comfort as this poor guy found out. His family had a very scary skeleton in the closet in the form of death in the family. It seems his grandmother killed his grandfather and no one could do anything about it.
His grandfather died falling down the stairs in the middle of the night, and everyone starting from the police to the family members suspected something was off about the circumstances of his death. However, since there wasn’t any proof there’s a good chance grandma got away with murder.
The Scammer Aunt
Everyone has that one crazy aunt who’s single still likes to think she’s a teenager and dresses like one, and just drinks way too much in family reunions. But some of these aunts often have shady and mysterious pasts that their later generations don’t even want to talk about, as in this case.
This great aunt from the swinging sixties is definitely a piece of work considering she ran pregnancy scams back when women’s rights weren’t still a thing. Definitely not an honest way to make a living which is why this secret only got revealed as a random tidbit of dark family history!
Some Skeletons Are Better Left Buried
Kid’s who grow up never knowing their dads often grow up with a trauma that normal kids would never understand. Even kids who grow up in dysfunctional or separated families know where they stand in this world, but not these poor kids. This is why a lot of people opt for a DNA test later in life to at least know the truth.
But sometimes not knowing can be the best thing as this poor guy’s mom found out to her detriment. His mom never knew her dad as his grandmother was promiscuous. But thanks to the internet and AncestryDNA the duo decided to find out who grandpa was. Imagine their shock when it turned out his grandmother’s grandfather’s first cousin was the father. Boy did things get complicated fast!
A Christmas Fiasco
Growing up most people don’t give a second thought about their parents having affairs unless it stares them right in the face. After a telltale cousin dropped some nasty truth bombs about the family on Christmas Eve, this poor chap and his younger sister found out that their older sister is a half-sibling.
The family was so ashamed of the affair that the older family members didn’t bring it up for 35 years. All we can say is that their dad was a large-hearted person to forgive and continue a family with the person who betrayed him so harshly.
The Holocaust Survivor
Sometimes people can be so good at keeping secrets that even their children don’t know them until the moment of truth arrives. The lady in this story successfully kept the horrors she suffered through from two generations of descendants until she got sick.
Turns out she was an actual Holocaust survivor who survived Hitler and his Gestapo. Since her husband had died when her children were young it was fairly easy for her to keep her secret until a DNA test brought the skeletons out of the closet.
An Inappropriate Marriage
While these days marrying your stepmother is something highly frowned upon in society a couple of centuries back it wasn’t so taboo. Nevertheless finding out that one of your ancestors committed incest is a bad shock for anyone’s system no matter which part of the globe they’re from.
In any other situation, an unlikely romance between an older woman and a younger man might have been considered romantic, but in this case, it was icky. We just have to wonder what the reactions of their other family members were at that time. It’s a safe bet to say that it probably wasn’t very positive.
A Major Makeover
Before America became the beacon of freedom and equality that it is today, a lot of religious and racial minorities were harassed to the point of persecution, especially the Jews and blacks. As a result, they often had to resort to extreme measures to escape the bigotry. This poor fellow probably had the shock of his life when his DNA report came back 25% Jewish which in his knowledge should have been impossible.
After double-checking the results with the service provider he did a little digging and it turned out that his maternal grandfather was originally a Jew who falsified his entire background after changing states to escape social persecution. It’s sad to see someone having to go through such lengths in the early days of America.
The Wild Bunch
Even back in the ‘90s one of the favorite past times of little boys growing up was playing cops and robbers with toy guns. While most kids left their criminal antics behind as they grew up, some followed through with their fantasy of being for and against the law by becoming real cops and criminals.
This chap found out much to his chagrin that his dad and uncles were bank robbers back in the day. The only good thing is that they had long passed when this secret was revealed. But on second thought, this guy probably missed out on some great conversations with his dad about his colorful past.
When Your Parents Are Too Progressive
In yet another case of a DNA test outing some unexpected secret, this story is a bit of a strange one. This guy’s uncle was adopted by a lonely couple and had a normal childhood. But after growing up he decided he wanted to find out who his real parents were as he never got to know them.
After running some DNA tests he found his parents alright, but he also found out something that was an even bigger surprise- he had nine half-siblings around the world. Turns out his dad was quite the player and he was the result of an affair between a boss and a secretary.
When Mom Is Grandma
When the world learned about Eric Clapton’s childhood back in the seventies about how he was adopted by his grandmother and knew his mother to be his older sister for a large part of childhood many were saddened. What’s sadder is Clapton’s story is one of the many thousands of stories that have happened similarly.
The grandma of this Reddit user was too kind to throw away both her daughters after they had teen pregnancies to save their reputation. The kids didn’t know that their mom was grandma until one of their moms accidentally let it slip.
The Telltale Grandpa
Divorces aren’t usually a pretty sight but sometimes they can become quite hilarious indeed. Take this story for example where this young lady found out the real reason her grandparents got divorced while her mom was in her twenties which is quite the unusual age to get a divorce.
Turns out her grandfather did something no other man had done before- he wrote a novel in which he cleverly wrote down exactly what he thought about his wife through another character modeled after him and his wife, published it as a book in print, and then sent copies of it to his kids. Well, grandma didn’t take to this too kindly and hence the divorce. To be honest, we want to know the name of the book and whether it’s on Amazon.
A Lame Alternative
No one is proud of having a convict in the family no matter where they’re from. Some families are so ashamed of their jailbird family members that they often lie to the next generation about them to save face and avoid being associated with criminals.
For most of his life, this guy thought his grandfather to be a Vietnam veteran who proudly served his country and died when his father was young. Turns out he was a bank robber and died in prison while serving time. Sometimes not knowing the truth seems much better.
The Artful Dodger
Deadbeat dads are one of those family secrets that people don’t want to talk about but this story takes the cake for being, let's just say, extremely funny. This dude’s great-grandpa married, had a kid, and then abandoned the family to scoot off with someone else. What makes it uncomfortable is the fact that his new bride was twenty years younger and had the same name as his wife.
To make things more awkward he had a second daughter with his second wife and named her the same as his first daughter. Things got awkward when his double life was brought to light and both family members had the same first name. Makes us think this guy was either on drugs or had a very bad memory.
A Despicable Man
Sometimes family secrets about deadbeat dads aren’t exactly as funny as the previous story. This guy's grandpa was a sailor and was the embodiment of every negative stereotypical trait that people back in the day associated sailors with. Despite being married he cheated on his wife and slept with prostitutes.
Not only that he used to brag about his sexual adventures to his wife who didn’t take to these stories kindly. So she divorced him when she was pregnant with their first and only child and left him for good. When his grandson looked him up years later turns out he went to jail for grand larceny and died in prison.
A Sicilian Wedding
In this hilarious story, the groom was forced to marry the bride after getting her pregnant. This young lady’s mother was very born shortly after the marriage, her grandmother almost at the end of her pregnancy term at the time. Her sister-in-law had to hunt down the man who impregnated her, broke off the marriage, and forced him to marry the mother of his about-to-be-born child.
For sixty years this well-kept family secret law was low but finally made its way out in the open. While it doesn’t shine a good light on grandpa, we admire the spirit and indomitable strength of grandpa’s sister and her no-nonsense attitude.
When Uncles Have Strong Imagination
Some people just never grow out of their parent basement, and it’s a shameful situation for them. While most of them grow out of shame over time, this loudmouth uncle didn’t. To save face this nerdy uncle lied to his nephews and nieces about having a secret family.
The kids probably thought they were keeping a big secret for a long time until they realized they were lied to by their uncle. At least the uncle gets an A for effort in trying to save his face.
When Mom Is Grandma II
Back in the early 20th century teen pregnancies were highly frowned upon as it was considered a sign of a woman of bad character. So imagine the panic this woman’s grandmother must have felt when she was 13 years old and pregnant in the 1930s!
Naturally, like many teen pregnancies back in the day her daughter was also passed off as her sister. The secret was well kept for almost a century and was only found out recently by this Redditor.
When Family Relations Turn Gross
Keeping in the family gets a whole new meaning with this justifiably well-hidden family secret! Like many of the unwitting receivers of some whacky news after getting a DNA test, this one from Ancestry.com revealed that his father and his father’s cousin are siblings.
Now that’s one image he probably won’t be able to shake out of his head, but we would much rather know what his dad’s reaction was. After all, it’s not every day that you find out about incest in the family!
The Psychotic Grandma
Ever got so mad at someone in the family member that you burned the entire house down? By all accounts, this guy’s step-grandma did just that purely out of spite for her stepson, While it’s OK to tell off an adult if they’re still living with their parents what she did is psychotic.
Ignoring the fact that she also lost her own home in the process, grandma also tried to blame it on her stepson but got caught. With someone this psychotic in the family, no wonder it was a family secret they didn’t want anyone else to know.
A True Heartbreak
A lot of soldiers who serve on the frontlines for their countries often have to leave their boyfriend/girlfriend back home. This is a separation that’s unbearable for both parties, so many often tend to break up. But imagine going to war and coming back home to find out your dad married your girlfriend!
This is exactly what happened to this guy’s poor great-grandpa who went off to WWI hoping to come back to his sweetheart and marry her. Imagine going through the horrors of one of the most brutal wars in history only to come back and find the two people dearest to you betrayed you. Shows not even your parents can be trusted in certain instances.
A Weird Arrangement
Having an open relationship might sound very progressive and adventurous, but many of those who get into them, married couples to be specific, often don’t consider the impact of their actions on their kids and family members. This young lady is privy to an open family secret, but she’s not exactly comfortable with her aunt swinging.
Though everything seems normal on the surface, with her aunt and uncle even having good relationships with the colleague she’s having an affair with and his daughter. We can only hope the kids don’t turn dysfunctional thanks to this weird polyamorous relationship.
An Unlikely Meeting
Sometimes fate has a weird way to bring people together even if it seems that they’re destined to not know each other. The guy who posted this story has an adopted sister in the family who is quite older than him. She was the result of a teen pregnancy so she was given away for adoption while her mother went on to marry and have a son.
This son ended up being in the same class as the author’s older brother who attended the same genealogy class as him. After some conversation, both young men realized that they had the same older sister. Just goes on to show how weird life and secrets can get!
A Trashy Husband
Some people take the ‘till death do us part’ oath of marriage seriously and stick with their spouses through thick and thin while others discard their garbage at the first possible opportunity. The great-grandfather of this young lady was at first married to a mentally unstable woman, but unable to cope with the responsibility of taking care of her he ditched her in a psychiatric hospital and ran. And to make things worse, he left kids behind.
After relocating and changing his name he married again and never looked back at the family he abandoned. The secret only came out after one of the descendants of his second family ran a DNA test and found out about the descendants of the first one.
The Artful Dodger II
Ever heard those stories where a guy plays multiple women, and dates them at the same time only to get caught after the girls meet up? Well, the story of this guy’s great-great-grandfather puts all players to shame as he not only managed to marry 3 times but avoid all responsibilities to his previous families by faking his death. Using this tactic he ended up not getting caught in his lifetime.
He kept his whole life a secret so well that the whole affair got exposed after his death when all his wives filed for his pension. The first wife had been living off his pension for decades, so it must have been quite the shock for his second and third families to find themselves penniless!
When Mom's the Competition
In another instance of parents being total douchebags, the aunt of this Redditor had an affair with her daughter’s ex for years. While it isn’t exactly in the same league as your dad marrying your girlfriend, it still reflects poorly on the aunt nonetheless.
While there’s no denying the fact that you don’t choose who you fall in love with, some lines should not be crossed. Her aunt knew it full well, which is why she hid the affair from her daughter in the first place and tried to keep it a secret.
No Forgiveness for You
Cheating has always been a part of human nature which is why a lot of spouses or significant others often choose to forgive their partner’s indiscretion. But sometimes the betrayal is so hard that even time is not enough to health the wound. Turns out grandpa couldn’t keep it in his pants and slept with grandma’s first cousin who was visiting them over the summer.
Given that she hasn’t forgiven him even after sixty years it’s a surprise why she didn’t divorce him rather than put up with negative emotions for most of her life. We sincerely hope no woman has to end up with a guy like this.
The Gangster Grandpa
Sometimes grandpas can be badass, especially if they have lived a rough life or were in the army. But the grandpa in this story deserves a spot in any list of top 10 badass grandpas. This guy found out about his grandfather's colorful criminal past which can be easily turned into a movie.
According to his mom, he was a money launderer who laundered money for the mob and the Yakuza which put him in the crosshairs of the FBI. He also claimed to be close with Charles Manson whom he befriended during prison therapy.
The Friends of Bonny and Clyde
When it comes to famous pop culture figures in American history, few names are as recognizable as Bonnie and Clyde, the sensational criminal couple who shot their way through the Central USA with their gang at the height of The Great Depression.
No matter how cool they might seem, finding out your ancestors helped hide this infamous duo when they were on the run must have been quite a surprise to this guy. But at least they were a hidden part of history from a bygone era.
A German Affair
War can lead to some whacky situations as demonstrated by this story. This guy's grandfather was an American soldier posted in Germany during the ‘60s and ended up having an affair that resulted in a love child. After he left he never kept in touch with them, but the truth eventually came out.
While he did manage to keep the secret from his wife with the help of his sisters, his granddaughter ended up discovering it after her half-aunt reached out to one of her cousins. It turns out her dad and aunts were in on the secret as well which is why her grandma was oblivious for decades.
A Well-Connected Grandma
While we all have heard stories of moms not being fans of the girl their sons are dating, this mom took it to the next level. This particular great-grandma was a vicious and murderous piece of work, going as far as to hire mobsters to get rid of the woman whom her son wanted to marry.
But to her shock, the mobsters knew the girl's family and adored them. So when they heard her offer they instead threatened her to stop her stupidity or suffer for it. It’s a surprise this grandkid even found out about this hilarious story after so many decades!
Families Are Complicated
Sometimes family secrets can sour relationships quite badly if not handled carefully. This young lady’s cousin was in mourning after her mother died so the narrator's mom decided to help her go through and clean up the house. But during the cleanup, the cousin found a diary that exposed the truth that the man she knew as her father her whole life was not her biological father.
It also turned out that her aunt knew about her mother’s affair as well and chose to keep it a secret for 27 years. This immediately created a rift between the two women that wouldn’t heal for the next 15 years.
Business Savvy Grandparents
When the Prohibition Era many Americans lost access to two of their most common vices- whiskey and prostitutes. To meet up with the demand, many entrepreneurial folks opened up illegal establishments such as underground speakeasies and brothels that supplied these vices to the general public.
When this guy found out that his grandparents not only ran an illegal booze and prostitution joint he probably laughed. They even paid their tithe to the local police chief to make sure their customers didn’t get harassed by any cops.
The Killer Runaway
If you’ve seen the Godfather II or read the original novel then you know the story of Vito Corleone who was forced to flee Sicily and ended up in America where he married and eventually made his criminal empire. It seems this guy's grandfather also has a similar story except for the fact that he did murder someone back in Ireland which forced him to migrate to America.
Fortunately for his grandson, grandpa eventually turned a new leaf after marrying grandma. Nonetheless, knowing there’s a murderer in the family must still have been quite the shock for this young man!
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Discoveries Caught on Nanny Cams
Most parents find nanny cams to be extremely useful and use them as a way to ensure their child is safe at all times. The nannies, however, don’t love it as much as the parents. Knowing that you’re being watched can be nerve-wracking and can result in poor performance. But sometimes the nannies don't even know they're being watched...
Regardless, parents would rather be safe than sorry and we can see why because you get some bizarre situations caught on nanny cams such as these stories. Here are the most intriguing and sometimes upsetting things that have been caught on the nanny cam.
Who’s Drinking All the Milk?
This crazy story will make you want to get a nanny cam right away. When a mom had the realization that her child was drinking way more milk when being taken care of by the babysitter, something just didn’t add up. The woman decided to set up some nanny cams to get down to the bottom of things.
You can only imagine this mother’s surprise when she discovered that it wasn’t her child drinking the breast milk, it was the babysitter! The nanny was a fitness junkie and was under the impression that breastmilk is extremely good for you. No matter his excuse, this was just creepy and not okay.
Get Out of My Bed
While most nanny cam situations discussed will be about humans, there are the odd few that capture the cuteness of your furry friends in the house. We can agree that these situations are much cuter and more pleasing to watch on the nanny cam for the parents.
Through the use of a nanny cam, one guy observed that his dog and cat both enjoy napping in his child’s crib. Sounds cute right? Until he discovered the dog and cat didn’t have the intention of cuddling his son, they push him to the side and wanted the crib to themselves.
Who Cares About Germs Anyway?
This one has us all rather disturbed and questioning whether we should all get nanny cams to know what goes on behind the scenes. Some babysitters just take things too far and leave us completely grossed out, such as this nanny.
The babysitter was cutting apples and when she was done instead of washing them, the babysitter licked the knife that was just used till it was “clean” and put it back in the drawer. Safe to say, all kitchen utensils should be given a good scrub after watching that.
Nanny to the Rescue
When you get a nanny cam, you can expect to see some strange activities by the people you’re watching on it. We all let our weird side out when we don’t think anyone is watching. Sadly for this nanny, they were being watched. The footage shows the nanny going full superhero mode with a cape and everything.
The first thought would be that it was just the babysitter entertaining the children...but that wasn’t the case. The nanny used a blanket as a cape and started pretending to fly around the room like a superhero. It would’ve been better if the nanny was just being weird, but unfortunately, the parents soon learned that the nanny was actually under the influence.