People keep secrets for a variety of reasons.
Some may be a part of a surprise event for a friend's birthday. Others may be obligated to secrecy tied to a nondisclosure agreement.
Most of the time, however, the biggest secrets are due for reasons of being scandalous in nature. Perhaps it is an elicit affair or an embarrassing history or quirk that would be far too embarrassing if friends or family found out.
Under the guise of anonymity, strangers online spilled some tea when an anonymous Redditor asked:
"What’s the craziest secret you discovered about someone you know?"
Everyone has a kink, so shamers, shame on you.
Scene Of The Crime
"My friend's wife runs a YouTube channel where she steps on things. No face revealed. Just videos of her stepping on toys, food, glass, and so on in boots."
"A mutual friend sent me a YT link last year with a message like, 'Does that backyard look familiar?'. It did. My friend's house has a very visually distinct rock garden."
– Eurymedion
Hush-Hush, Puppy
"This sounds mild compared to some of these replies, but around five years into our relationship, I discovered my ex was a regular participant in very explicit online furry role play chat. That was a secret she kept for a long time until one day she forgot to close a browser window."
– Buhpuh
The past catches up to the present.
Dark History
"The man who owned the corner store we shopped at when I was a kid was one of the survivors of the Bataan Death March and fought the Japanese with other American guerrillas in the Philippines."
– Klutzy-Ad-6705
"My great-uncle was a survivor as well; the Army gave him (and others) a lobotomy in the hopes of making them forget. For as long as he lived, every time we’d visit, he’d be sitting in a recliner in the living room, staring out the front window. My aunt would always announce who was visiting, sometimes he’d turn his head towards us, but it was obvious he wasn’t really seeing or registering us."
"When I was old enough to understand what had happened to him, I’d sit in the living room with him and talk to him while the family visited in the kitchen. I had no idea whether he knew, like maybe a coma patient can hear you, but it made me feel better to try."
"It haunts me to this day, not knowing whether the lobotomy did help him forget, or trapped him inside his head with those memories."
"ETA: just realized he was in the Marine Corps, not the Army."
– Final_Candidate_7603
Gramps' Ordeal
"My grandfather fought for the italian army during ww2 in Africa and after he was captured he was sent to the Usa (texas at cam hereford) as a pow for the remaining of the war."
"He and other italian pows worked for a farmer who supplied the camp, and as time went by they become close to the point that ,from time to time he would eat at the farmer house and at the end of the war ,the farmer offered to him to be his 'sponsor' so that he could stay in the Usa. Grampa decided to return in Italy where he met my grandma and raised a family."
"When my granpa passed away we received an email by an american woman who claimed to be my granpa daughter ,and her mother was the daughter of the farmer. We arranged a meeting and she came here. She showed us my grandpa letters , the pictures of him and her mother and told us that he was constantly sending her money to pay for her education."
"We did a dna test and she was indeed my grandpa's daughter! She told us she didn't want anything from us (a relative was afraid she would ask us to have her part of my grandpa's inheritance) but she was just eager to meet her italian siblings."
"I dont know if my grandma who passed away before my grandpa ever knew about this story, but i know that now that woman is part of our family and since the first meeting we have been visiting each other country many times :)"
– suckmyf'k91
Family tree roots run deep.
Secret Child
"That my next door neighbour had been sent to a mother and baby home in 1990 at the age of 18. After 2 years she was sent to another one further away so her family wouldn't know where to find her and the baby. Her own mother secretly kept in touch with her."
– coffee_and-cats
Granny's Deception
"I am adopted and for a while I didn’t know who my bio dad was. My partner’s maternal side used to make fun of me for that. (Mostly his grandma, his aunt and his mom, who also used to beg him to leave me.)"
"One day he took a 23&me test and it turns out, grandma cheated and none of her kids are biologically related to her late husband, the man who raised them."
"The feeling of cosmic justice was so sweet. Added bonus that the mom and grandma had a falling out over this. Mom called to apologize to me for her and her mother’s behavior towards me. We are cool now."
"(note, my partner didn’t get hurt from this, he was just excited for new cousins.)"
– Domestic_Supply
Seedy Operation
"My grandfather has always been wealthy, and he loved to tell me about how you achieve anything with effort and will. His favorite story was about how he would ride his bicycle as a teenager every day from morning to sundown, making loops to the city, buying tobacco and selling it at his village."
"Then with age came dementia, and he started to confuse my father and me; the stories change to all the wild sh*t 'I and my brother' did before getting married, and his favorite history is about 'paying a visit' to the cops so they keep their mouth shut."
"Looking back it didn't make sense so much wealth coming from a tiny shop in a village, but I admit that I had been clueless the entire time."
– fity0208
You Get A Relative
"My grandfather had a secret child that we never knew about. Recently one of the family members reached out to my cousins after doing a DNA test and finding that connection, and we discovered a whole branch of relatives we didn't know we had."
– cloclop
Autumnal Nuptials
"I come from a bigish family ( my dad was the youngest of seven, 5 sisters and 1 brother ) and one of my cousins is really into the family history. I've had heaps of discussions with her about various relatives and what was going on in their lives way back but one recent chat really was a curve ball."
"We always knew that my grandmother had had a child before she married my grandfather and the child was brought up by my grandparents together after they got married. What I didn't know was that my grandmother was actually in labour when she married my grandfather!!!"
"The wedding happened in the bedroom where she was lying and because it was pumpkin season she was surrounded by pumpkin flowers and leaves.The minister and the doctor were in the room as well as the groom. This happened in the early 1920's so of course it was a scandal."
"Now I knew my grandmother, we would visit her often as kids but my grandfather had passed when I was 6 months old so all I had were stories of how strict he was regarding his daughters. A trait my father also had with my sister and I growing up."
"Now I'm almost 72 and had never heard of this till early this year and I'm amazed that none of the aunties or my father ever talked about it. And yes my aunts loved a good gossip yet not a single peep out of them."
– Spiritual-Duck1846
Most of us have that one shameful secret we intend to take with us to the grave.
But with all the technological advances in our modern world, with all our activity somehow being tracked and leaving a paper trail, is anything really that sacred?
Do you ever wonder whether coming clean on your own terms while you're still alive to unburden yourself of that longheld embarrassment or shameful deed might be worth it? Are we our own worst critic?
These are the ruminations I have from time to time, and I know I'm not alone. Right?
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