People Are Sharing The Dark, Shocking Secrets Their Family Doesn’t Know About Them, And Some Of These Are Really Messed Up
Recently, we asked members of the BuzzFeed Community to share secrets they've kept from their parents over the years. Here's what they had to say!
Content Warning: Due to the nature of the secrets being shared in this post, some of the following responses do contain disturbing content, including mentions of sexual abuse and suicide. Please proceed with caution, and take care of yourselves.
1."I lost my virginity in my mom's bed when I was 14...will NEVER tell her."
2."That my husband cheated on me while I was eight months pregnant, and our child was born just over 24 hours after he admitted [it] to me, because my body decided I was no longer a healthy environment for my child."
"Those first few months after birth were the absolute lowest points in my entire life because I felt on edge, unloved by the one person I thought loved me most, and made the choice to pretend that everything was fine between the two of us. Especially when I was getting so many comments on how great of a husband and parent he was. He is and was an amazing parent, but at the time I hated how easily everyone else thought he was a great husband. We have stayed together and worked on our relationship through a lot of therapy both together and separate. It would break our families if they knew the truth."
—Anonymous
3."A friend of my dad's groomed me when I was 15–21. We'll call him D. He was 24, and he started with me when I was 15. As an adult, I realize now he was a pedophile and manipulator. As a teenager, I thought he cared about me and paid attention to me because I was pretty. My dad passed away years ago and never knew. I found out that D had been doing this with endless teenage girls over the years (I'm 29 now). His secrets started to come out and when his squeaky clean image exploded around him, he shot himself a couple weeks ago."
"My mom thinks it's so sad and thinks I'm upset, I'll never tell her and I'm glad my dad isn't here so he wouldn't find out."
—Anonymous
4."My mom used to take me to work parties because she'd had the same coworkers for years and I knew most of them. But at a summer party, there was a dude there I didn't know. He asked for my number and I gave it to him. I was 19, he was maybe 35. We went out once and I slept with him then he started emailing/calling constantly. Non-stop. He was my mother's supervisor."
"Fortunately it didn't cause her any problems at work, but I still feel bad. I was going through a lot of stuff at that time and wasn't thinking clearly at all but looking back I know it was a super not great situation."
—Anonymous
5."I know my father had a mistress. He’s long dead, but I could never tell my mother I know. It would kill her."
—Anonymous
6."My ex-fiancé was abusive, in all manners. The physical and sexual abuse didn't start until we moved in together, so my father had known him for a couple years and was very proud to say my ex was going to be his son-in-law. I left my ex in 2014, and at the time my father was constantly in and out of the hospital with complications from lung cancer. I knew my dad would be devastated, and he was so sick, so I decided not to tell him about any of it."
"He died in 2016 from the cancer, and to this day I feel ashamed for hiding what happened. He would have wanted to know, to be there for me, but I couldn't do that to him."
—Anonymous
7."How bad my dad's side of my family abused me. My grandmother dislocated one of my toes out of anger at me for nothing and would deny me food (she tried to give me an eating disorder while encouraging a relative to eat as much as she could). She also had my little cousin remind me I wasn't wanted. Everything that belonged to me I had to share with her, but never vice versa. My dad was leaving me out of his will, my family hates me, the works."
"I claim my Ohio relatives and they accept me. They also don't know I'm married to someone outside my race and that we are getting a huge settlement every five years thanks to my husband's smart grandfather."
—Anonymous
8."I live two lives. What they and the world see is the overachieving kid who was a four sport varsity athlete, played multiple instruments, [got] straight A’s and even had a job on top of it all. Little do they know I drink almost daily, have done copious amounts of drugs, and do cocaine to be able to live up to the pressure of being 'that' kid."
—Anonymous
9."My family doesn’t know that I’m a swinger. And not only that, but I actively participate in sex parties where I sleep with dozens of men a night. My partner watches, participates, and sleeps with his share of women at these parties. I love it, but they would never look at me the same."
—Anonymous
10."I discovered on 23andMe I have at least one aunt and a first cousin from my dad's side of the family that no one knows about. I'm not sure if the cousin is from the woman or another secret sibling we don't know about yet."
"My mom and sister know because the aunt popped up before my mom's test results came in, but we haven't told my dad or his family yet as my grandpa is still alive and we don't want to cause any stress that could lead to a health issue. But we are so conflicted [about whether] to tell anyone. My biggest fear is someone on that side gets a test too and I have to give them the heads up. Also I have not reached out to these secret family members nor have they reached out to me, and while I'm curious, I don't want to open up a can of worms."
—Anonymous
11."My resume is almost completely fake. The most recent jobs are real. But my 'early career' is just a made up story. I lied because I didn’t have the experience but knew I had the talent to do the jobs I wanted to do. I just changed the early part of my resume from retail jobs to jobs that made sense for what I wanted to do. I’d add fake references and use a phone number generator to make their contact info. I taught myself everything I needed to know, besides what I learned in college, and learned how to be confident in interviews and it just worked."
"Even when my background check came out 'inconclusive' no one questioned it because I was confident. I even made fake pay stubs to prove my 'previous employment.' I’m now a director at a multi-billion dollar company making six figures before 30. Not a single soul on this planet knows how much I lied to get where I am today. But it worked and I don’t regret it at all."
—Anonymous
12."They don't know half of my life. From my sexuality or my gender identity to my promotions at work. Still, the biggest thing I hid from them was that I once threw away an old cell phone of mine that I no longer used just so they wouldn't find out about my chats with my 'best friend' (my ex-girlfriend). When one day they looked for it to reset it and sell it, I said that I hadn't seen it for a long time. The sad thing is that I love my parents, and that's why I hide those things from them, because I don't want them to hate me."
—Anonymous
13.“I’ve never believed in the strict religion I was brought up with, but I can’t leave because I’ll be shunned by my family members. They have no idea."
14."I was arrested for shoplifting many years ago. Never told anyone about it. I spent the night in jail and the next day I just pretended I was at a party."
—Anonymous
15."I know my sister cheated on her husband about 20 years ago. My sister is 10 years older than me and got married young. I found out because I went to her house to drop off something. She wasn’t there, and I didn’t have a cell phone at the time. It was when internet was still dial up, so I went to turn off her computer to use her phone to call my mom. She had emails up between her and some guy talking about the trip to Chicago she just went on. Told everyone it was for work but really it was to see the other guy."
"Sad thing is, she had two young kids at the time. They are now 23 and 21. She knows I know and she knows I won’t tell anyone. It still eats me alive because she is so mean to her husband. My mom considers my sister the perfect child and it would break her heart if she knew."
16."I found VERY dirty messages between my mom and her best friend's husband on her phone that I was obviously never meant to see."
—Anonymous
17."Last year, I got scammed out of a large sum of money. My parents think I lost it because I accidentally clicked 'send' too many times but I didn't tell them that it was on purpose because I was threatened and harassed. I also didn't tell them I borrowed money from a friend and had my grandpa pay her back in cash. I hope they never find out about this part."
—Anonymous
18."I faked having a job for months because I was mid mental breakdown and too embarrassed to tell them (at this point I'd been fired from two or three jobs in a row and I have helicopter parents). They came to visit me once during my months of unemployment, and I went to the lengths to ride the bus downtown and hid in a library for eight hours during the days they were visiting me. I had to withdraw money from my 401k when they would have willingly helped me (with conditions) and in my mind lying straight to their faces was easier."
—Anonymous
19."My mom thinks we have the best relationship with each other and that it’s a relationship that takes constant work (which she thinks is normal for every mother and daughter), but what she doesn’t know is that our relationship is like that because I don’t actually like her. My body remembers the trauma she put me through during my childhood so anytime my head or my heart wants to forgive and repair I immediately feel disgusted and repulsed on a real chemical level."
—Anonymous
20."I used hard drugs for about four years of my life after college. After deciding it was time to stop, I was able to do it cold-turkey and have been sober for seven years now. To this day my mother and father have no clue. The only family member that knows is my cousin. My mother would be mortified if she found out."
—Anonymous
21."I (female) used to use the bristle side of my mom's electric toothbrush to masturbate and then put it back."
—Anonymous
22."My stepdad's nephew came to live with us for a few months while he saved up money to rent a place. We started hooking up all over the house while everyone was home, and no one had a clue. He ended up moving out and no one ever found out. Best sex of my life."
—Anonymous
23."I’ve been married for almost four years now and no one in my family knows."
—Anonymous
24.And finally..."When I was little, I was scared of the dark so I didn’t like going to the toilet. Plus you had to walk through my parents bedroom to get to the toilet. So I used to just hang my ass over the edge of my top bunk on our bunkbeds and piss on the carpet. Whilst my little brother slept soundly unaware on the bottom bunk below."
"Once my dad complained of the bedroom smelling of urine and ripped up the carpet…I blamed it on my little brother and said he kept peeing on the floor in the night. I only admitted to this three years ago at age 22 at Christmas."
—Anonymous
