People Reveal Secrets They Learned About Someone After Years Of Being Friends

Friendships are hugely important to our happiness, quality of life, and development. By the nature of these relationships, we generally reveal a lot to our friends and are super vulnerable with them.

It's painful when we discover that they haven't been the same as us.

Redditor RestretUS asked:

"What secret did you learn about someone after many years of friendship?"

Bowling Enthusiast

"I was on a team in high school for 4 years, got pretty close with the other girls on the team and we all hung out all of the time."

"We decided to go bowling together and one of these girls, who we had spent hours a week with for years and talked about everything under the sun with, showed up with her own shoes, gloves, bag, and bowling ball and crushed us all with a near-professional score."

"She had never mentioned bowling to any of us, even once, even when we were making plans to go bowling."

- listenyall

The Fakest Of Friends

"When my 'best friend' died, I learned that I never knew her at all. She was a pathological liar. She told me that she was born in New Zealand and moved to the U.S. when she was two."

"Nope, she was born and raised in New Jersey. She told me her middle name was different than on her obituary."

"The craziest lie was that she had a younger sister who was hit by a car as a toddler and died. She had a tattoo of roses that she swore was for her little sister. There was a specific day in November every year when she’d fall apart crying. She said it was her sister’s date of death."

"That sister never existed."

- mrsmoffbricks

Very Graceful

"I found out that a long-time golf buddy of mine was a professional ballroom dance teacher in his previous years. The guy is 300+ pounds and just didn’t give off 'ballroom dancer' vibes."

"My wife of 10 years used to work for Arthur Murray dance schools and didn’t believe he knew how to dance so she invited him and his wife over for dinner."

"Boy was she wrong."

"Golf buddy twirled her, dipped her, the whole 9 yards as both myself and his wife stood there with our jaws on the floor."

"After going through seven different dances with my wife, he twirled her one last time towards me and said, 'Told you so.'"

"We had a great dinner and I learned something new about the 300lb Samoan that I golf with every weekend."

- this-aint-frankie

Sparing Them The Front Porch Conversation

"In my youth, I learned my friend of six or seven years was a Jehovah’s Witness, I had no idea. Sitting there talking to him one day, I asked him if he was ready for Christmas and he said no and that’s when he told me he was a Jehovah’s Witness, I had no idea."

"Later I found out that he was the reason why every time the Jehovah’s Witnesses went up and down the street in our neighborhood, they always skipped my house."

- Vulturev4

A Family Man

"A good friend of mine that I'd known over 20 years died in 2021 from the pandemic. I noticed a bunch of children at the funeral that I didn't know. I asked who they were, and I was told that they were his children. He told me he had no kids but actually had 10. 10 kids!"

- CascadeJ1980

The Thunder And Lightning

"My grandfather was always jumpy around thunderstorms. We assumed it was because he was shot down during the war and it sounded like anti-aircraft fire. Nope! Turns out, when he was a teenager, he got struck by lightning! The craziest part was, this happened the day before he started dating my grandmother. And she'd never heard that story!"

- kingsmen06

Friendship: On Ice!

"I found out that one of my best friends used to be a competitive figure skater! We’d been friends for years and she never mentioned it."

"One day, we were talking about childhood hobbies, and she casually mentioned she used to compete at a national level. I was shocked! She even showed me some old photos and videos; it was so cool to see a completely different side of her."

- Bunnyagents

A Secret Fame

"I worked summers as a ticket booth operator at a minor league baseball stadium for around three years."

"The owner was this really nice old guy (mid to late 80s) who always showed up in a wheelchair being walked by his daughter."

"He always rewarded his employees with bonuses for good work. he even gave me $300 once for helping cash out one of his close childhood friends."

"One of the final games I worked there, he called me into his owner's box and gave me beer and free food as well as $1500, just to thank me for all the hard work I did for him over the years."

"He told me the reason he liked me so much was because I didn't pretend to like him because of who he was. Confused, I asked him to clarify. And he asked me if I seriously didn't know. I was still confused and then he told me the truth, he was actually a Hall of Fame pitcher who played with the Cleveland Indians and Philadelphia A's from the 1940s-early 1960s and even served in WW2. And showed me a replica of his Hall of Fame plaque."

"We laughed about it and he further insinuated why he liked me so much."

"He passed away around a year after this and I attended his funeral."

"All around an amazing dude and I feel like such and id**t for not knowing who he was."

- Turbulent_Archer_727

Makes You Wonder How Often They Tuned Their Friend Out...

"They have a lisp. No bulls**tting, I never noticed the lisp until my wife met him and pointed it out. Then bam, I notice the lisp now. Son of a b***h slipped it by me."

- bnetana1

The Truth Of Love

"That the man she claimed was harassing her actually took a restraining order out against her because she'd been the one stalking him the entire time."

"This was going on for years. He had video proof. It was unsettling to think of how easily she lied for years and years to so many of us."

- pralineislife

A Slow Convergence

"It wasn't really a secret so I don't know if it qualifies. But I have a work friend we've known each other for years. Grab beers together, and hang out outside of work from time to time. Turns out we've been in each other's orbits since birth. He mentioned his mom knowing someone I knew via my mom."

"We started going through contacts. We'd attended the same schools just different classes that never blended. His brother dated my cousin's best friend. We'd worked for the same companies just a mix of one of coming in as the other was leaving or the company was big enough for paths to never cross. We'd lived in the same neighborhoods multiple times. We had the same favorite restaurant in one place we just had different regular days to go."

- tdasnowman

Surprise Responsibility

"Not so much a secret but news to me."

"My roommate and I were in the USMC together and if you aren’t married then you must maintain a barracks room. Most people take that as meaning you have to live in the barracks, but if you show up to field day and keep your room clean you can’t technically get in trouble if you decide you don’t want to stay there all the time."

"My buddy was married at the time so he had his own house off base, and after getting tired of the barracks life I started staying at his house more and more helping out and whatnot. We were definitely friends, always had each other's backs and had similar humor, really growing close, getting into each other’s hobbies."

"Well, one day, almost out of the blue, his wife leaves him to 'find herself,' which is pretty f**ked as they had a child together. So, buddy is now single and back in the barracks almost ready to EAS, basically get out of the USMC, so he lets his now ex-wife have custody for a few months back in their home state so he can get his shit together to presumably work out a custody deal. Nothing too notable happens, we have a sending-off party for him and he heads back home."

"I spend another like six months to maybe a year still in, I’m pretty s*itty when it comes to keeping in touch with people, so I figure he probably feels a little betrayed I didn’t reach out a whole lot during that time. I get out and move in with my parents, I saved quite a bit of money not having a car, mostly living in the barracks and eating at the chow hall, so I take a year off. Spent time with my family, didn’t have any friends really, when my buddy starts reaching out."

"Every few months or so he’d say stuff like there’s a really good job here, you wouldn’t have to rent a place you could stay with me, I could stay there rent free if I looked after his kid, at this point he had him every other week, another job opportunity, you should just visit so we can hang out or whatever."

"I finally think to myself why not, it seems to me he’s either lonely or trying to look out for me, so fly out see his house and boom pandemic shuts down airports and sh*t and I don’t have a car. So, basically become a live in nanny, but it’s not so bad we’re having fun and have each others backs again."

"One day we get completely sh*t wrecked drunk, happens sometimes, but he tells me something that just shocked me: I am the main benefactor of his will. Here I am thinking we’re just good friends and dudes like no you have the responsibility of making sure that whatever I have is used to help my son live a good life. Damn, that hit me right in the feels."

"Edit I had been the beneficiary of his will for a few years by the time he told me."

- Spare_Library1601

A Handy Thing To Know

"He knew American sign language."

"I knew the guy for a few years, just a regular guy. One day I met him for breakfast to find him deep in conversation with a deaf dude."

- 04221970

A Lifelong Bond

"In my 70s. My best friend of 40 years and I were talking, she was very fond of my mother, who has been dead for many years. She said something about how much I must miss her..."

"I didn't say anything. She pushed."

"I finally said, 'I never say this to people who liked her, but she was extremely abusive, and I was greatly relieved when she died. She once threatened to c*t my cat's throat.'"

"There was a long pause. She said, 'Mine was too.'"

"All those years and we never shared that."

"That was quite a talk."

"It's amazing the things you hide."

- Any_Assumption_2023

Drop A Beat!

"I found out he can breakdance."

"It was a squadron Christmas party (USAF) and one of my buddies is s**t-faced drunk and pushes our commander off the dance floor and starts legit breakdancing on the floor, like the whole leg scoops, head spins, handstands all that."

"And typically, he’s just this slow-moving, barely animated character, but he becomes a whole lot more lively after that alcohol hits."

- zotonn

Friendships are meant to be really open and honest with one another, so it's always shocking to realize that our friends have not shared something with us, especially when it's something big. It's no wonder that some of these Redditors were shocked.