People Who Discovered Someone Was Living A Double Life Share What Went Down

Secrets always have a way of coming out.

At least 99% of most secrets, that's what it feels like anyway.

That's why I'm truly amazed at people who can live double lives.

Every time I see it on a Dateline NBC, I'm astonished.

How does nobody notice the glaring red flags?

How do you keep a secret family or jobs?

I'm a good liar, but never that level of genius.

Redditor Langzwaard wanted to hear about some of the scandalous lives certain people are living and what happened in the fallout from being exposed, so they asked:

"People who found out about someone else’s double life; what’s the story?"

Pray for Me

"My office hired a new admin/receptionist. He seemed nice and normal in the interview, but then stopped showing up to work, always leaving voicemails with more and more elaborate and dramatic excuses about why he was out (e.g., he was in a car accident and in the hospital fighting for his life: 'pray for me')."

"Turns out he had accepted multiple other jobs and wasn’t showing up to any of them either. But he was getting paid by all of them!"

- StarBabyDreamChild

Bored Season 3 GIF by The Office Giphy

Times 3

"Retired lawyer here. I once represented a widow who was seeking survivor’s benefits from her husband’s military pension. Turns out the old goat was a trigamist who somehow managed to juggle three families without any of them learning about the other two, although there were enough unexplained absences and such that none of the three were terribly surprised."

- silviazbitch

Zero Clue

"Around year eight of my marriage, I met my then-husband’s girlfriend of nine months. He told me he was working doubles on his night off (night shift worker), but he was bunking at her place those nights and crawling out of her bed at 5 am to 'come home from work.' I was packing him lunches for his f*cking sleepovers with her."

"Once she and I knew about each other, we swapped photos and stories. Her apartment was full of photos of them together; she even had him on her insurance plan. She had ZERO clue he was married, thought they were endgame, the whole thing. Once I filed for divorce, I let her know he was all hers and apparently they stayed together for about two months… then he cheated on her with the next one."

- catsweedcoffee

When in Europe

"My Aunt was a stewardess in the 80s. She married a foreign businessman she met while working international flights. He seemed like a nice guy. They were married for like 12 years. I was traveling through Europe and was going to be in a city where he had an apartment, so I had planned to stay with him. "

"Everything was fine, except he wasn't around much. He made some excuse about having to work a bunch. In the 10 days I spent there, he never slept at the apartment, and I only saw him for a couple of hours every day. I was 17, and I guess my parents were under the impression my Uncle was going to chaperone me."

"After I told them about my trip, my mom gave my aunt a ration of sh*t for letting me roam the streets for 10 days. My Aunt went and had a fight with my uncle over it... and it came out that he didn't really live at the apartment, that was his mistress's shack-up spot. He had a wife and children. My Aunt was the mistress."

- -im-your-huckleberry

23 and Me

"My aunt did 23andMe... and that's how we all found out about the second family my late grandpa had, and abandoned, in the 1960s. Turns out I have two extra uncles."

"My mom's family moved to the other side of the USA in the late 1960s. My mom now believes that they moved because my grandma found out about my grandpa's mistress."

"My grandpa always doted on me and his other grandchildren from the kids he had in wedlock. It's been hard to wrap my head around the fact that he straight-up abandoned two of his kids, and might even have grandchildren that he never met."

- celiacsunshine

What happens in Vegas...

"My mom is 86. We found a bunch of journals that she wrote in shorthand. In the late 1950s, she worked as a call girl in Las Vegas.

- Peace-Goal1976

las vegas fun GIF Giphy

John

In college, I had been dating a dude for several years. He had a sister who was an overnight nurse with a live-in boyfriend. The live-in boyfriend managed a large grocery store. I met up with a friend for lunch one day whose mom (and she) happened to work at the same grocery store in management. I said, 'Oh! She must know John! My man’s sister’s live-in boyfriend!' She said, 'No, there is only one John and he’s dating another manager at the store.'"

"'They’ve been dating for several years, ' well, turns out it was the same John. He was able to get away with it because of the overnight nurse aspect. Never invited her to company outings or holiday parties. Wouldn’t be her friend on Facebook. Hindsight… but pretty crazy to be the one to navigate breaking that secret wide open."

- Dull_Razzmatazz_5934

On TV

"My friend was married to a man who traveled a lot for work for several years of their marriage. One day, she was watching the news that had a live broadcast of a wounded soldier returning to his fiancée after several years. It was my friend’s husband. He wasn’t in the military. Or wounded. And boy was he surprised that his 'future in-laws' called the news station."

"He’s in prison now. I don’t know the details, but it had to do with defrauding the government."

- Tynebeaner

In the Bag

"Only very recently, but my Grandmother. Currently, we are cleaning out my Grandma and Grandpa's house, as she passed away a few years ago, and he is now living in a home."

While emptying out cupboards in their bedroom, my Aunt and Mother found a ziplock bag of $6,000 in a handbag, and then $8,000 in a suitcase."

"There were also very detailed notebooks with people's names, money logs, and weights. We have no idea where the money came from or why those details have been recorded. We can't ask my Pops, cause unfortunately, he barely remembers my Mum some days, so it'll be a mystery in our family."

- missymia161

Let's Pretend

"Found out that someone within a friend group completely faked being a student at a relatively prestigious University in the area. Nobody had a clue. He basically came and hung out with people and pretended he attended classes. But actually, he dropped out years ago and just pretended to be a student. He even pretended that he graduated and was at the graduation ceremony."

- harryhov

Same School

"Found out that a successful man at my kids' private school actually had another family at the same school. Original wife apparently never knew- kids found out when their mom accidentally died in her garage. He married the other woman a few weeks later."

- Positive-Position-11

Looking Back To School GIF Giphy

The Traveling Guy

"My aunt's husband was a 'traveling jewelry salesman.' He had a second family in a faraway state. He had 7-year-old twin daughters when my aunt found out."

"My other aunt was married to a co-owner of a strip club. He was definitely a part of the mob. My dad is significantly younger than his siblings, and remembers bullet holes in his car and helping him count cash. Then one day, he kicked my aunt and his 2-year-old daughter out for no apparent reason (I assume for their safety). He came to my cousin's wedding and told everyone there a different place where he was supposedly living."

- Shoddy-Secretary-712

Money Issues

"Parents were friends with a younger couple; they never got out to do much because the husband worked in nautical repairs/engineering for the Coast Guard. They had 1 car, lived out in the middle of nowhere, and the wife was stranded because he took the car up and down the coast repairing vehicles."

"The flip - the dude actually made incredible money, it was just spread thin between his two families. He has a second family, kids, and it was wild. I was 14 when this happened and didn't know this was something humans could do."

- RealLiveLawyer

Fun.

"A man messaged me and told me his fiancè and my boyfriend were on a secret trip away together under the guise of work, he'd become suspicious and read her emails. When that was uncovered, we both discovered they had a secret flat together. Fun."

- TrixieLaBouche

How do people pull that much lying off?

Some of these are genuinely impressive.

I would fold almost immediately.

Secret families are always astonishing to me.

When I'm in a relationship, I know where you are at ALL times.

How does a partner just spend months at a time away?

Strange.