17 people reveal the family secret they're definitely not supposed to know.

Uncovering a juicy family secret can certainly spice up the family holiday after your great aunt sips too many spiked ciders...

While there are some silly traditions or sacred recipes in every family, there are other secrets that would have devastating results if they ever were revealed. So, when a Reddit user asked, 'What family secret do you know, that you're not supposed to know?' people were ready to share the juicy, scandalous, or truly shocking story they've chosen to keep to themselves. Don't tell grandma that every hates those Christmas cookies if you want to live!

1.

My Great grandmother had a step son the same age as her. He was the biological father of one of my great uncles. My cousins don't know. Always heard my Great uncle knew and had animosity towards my grandad because of it. - Secure-Particular286

2.

My mom lied to a man and told him I was his son and frequently extorted money from him by telling him she needed it to raise me. I found out when he showed up with gifts shortly after I had moved out on my own.

He had hired a PI after my mom refused to give him my contact info. He apologized for not being in my life and cried while telling me he was dying of pancreatic cancer and he didn't want to go without meeting me.

I asked my mom about it and she told me she told him that so she could get money for drugs after she left my dad. DNA tests confirmed he was not my dad.(tested myself against the man I was always told was my bio dad) I only ever met him the one time. I took the gifts because it was such a surreal experience I didn't know how to tell him anything other than that I forgave him. My mom is the only other person that knows this happened. - Brilliant_Succotash1

3.

My great-grandpa isn't related to us. He met my great-grandma when she was a teen. She had been assaulted by a traveling salesman and was pregnant, her family kicked her out. Great-grandpa couldn't have kids due to torture in a Japanese prison camp during WWII. He married her and raised my grandma as his own.

My great-grandma told me when she had dementia and forgot it was a secret. Great-Grandpa is 102 now and is the bedrock of our family. He's not blood but he's our family and he always will be. - TanichcaF

4.

My great grandparents were high school sweethearts and the only role models I'd ever had for a relationship since my grandparents and parents are divorced and hate each other. Then my mom tells me that my great grandma had an affair and that's why one of my grandma's sisters isn't like the others. So, there goes that. - Symnestra

5.

This is pretty mild, but a part of my mom's side is very, very convinced they're Irish. In all the American, 'kiss me I'm Irish' ways. My grandparents took a trip there. They spent a lot of time at a local pub, getting to know Irish singers and poets, my cousins have very Irish names, etc etc etc.

I took a few ancestry tests to nail down the rest of my mom's side, not a single percent Irish in any of them. The family name, common in Irish-Americans, is actually a Swiss surname that got translated at some point, according to the genealogy trace I also had done.

My now deceased grandparents want their ashes spread into the Irish sea and my mom and her siblings are planning a big trip to do it. I'm taking the secret to my grave. - LaLucertola

6.

My grandma was raised in a catholic orphanage under the pretext that she lost both her parents and siblings during the Spanish Influenza. Turns out her and her dad survived, but her dad didn’t want to take care of her so he left her at an orphanage in Brooklyn and moved to Europe and started a new family. - Human_Commercial_406

7.

My great-great grandfather moved from Romania to America and got married to another Romanian immigrant shortly after he arrived. Once they married he insisted they start using 'American' names, only speak English in public, never return to Romania, and refrain from communicating with family in the old country.

When my great-grandmother (his daughter) was a teenager it was discovered by the rest of the family that he actually abandoned his first wife and three children in Romania and left them in extreme poverty when he came to the states and married my great-great grandmother. Ya know, real upstanding guy. - SilentBlizzard1

8.

My mother had an affair on my father that he doesn’t know about way before he had an affair on her that blew up the family. - Alternative_Shame_73

9.

My older brother might only be my half brother. About ten or so years ago, I went out drinking with my dad for his birthday. He got hammered, and told me that when he and my mom first got together, she was still in a relationship with a really abusive guy.

She got pregnant around the time that she left him, so there's about a 50/50 chance that my older brother is the other guy's biological son. I asked him if he ever thought about getting tested to find out and he said 'No. I don't care what any test says - that is MY son.'

He also got emotional at one point and told me he really regretted talking me out of going to school for what I originally wanted to do in favor of what I do now. Later on, he punched the glass out of a jukebox because he thought it'd be funny. The whole night was a roller coaster.

The next day, he seemed to have no recollection of telling me that bombshell about my brother and I never brought it up again. I'll never tell my brother, and I'll never tell my parents that I know about it. As a side note, it would explain a lot.

My brother and I don't even look related, but we always just shrugged our shoulders whenever friends asked us how we could be siblings when we look so different. I feel the same way my dad does - he's my brother, not half-brother, no matter what any test might say. I'm at peace with the fact that I'll never really know for sure. - Cheese_Pancakes

10.

When my grandmother died, we found out she was married before my grandfather and had 4 kids. Her and that husband split up and just dumped the kids in an orphanage. Then she remarried later, had my dad and my aunt and just never mentioned the other kids at all. - PersonMcNugget

11.

That my mom banged 2 brothers, one of them is my biodad, and it's not the one she married. - Humble-Plankton2217

12.

My Welsh great-grandmother had passage booked on the Titanic in 1912. She ended up not going because she 'fell ill.' Turns out it was actually an out-of-wedlock pregnancy that gave her such bad morning sickness, she couldn't go.

She lost the baby. She came the following year in 1913 and met my great-grandfather. She only told my mom (who she helped raise during the summers) who then told me. Great-grandma getting knocked up saved an entire branch of our family tree! - sassy_steph_

13.

My Dad had a daughter before I was born and never admitted it to anyone in the family. He was basically on his death bed when he admitted it to me. I was able to track down my half sister a few years back and we were to meet but she was very emotional about the whole thing and she backed out at the last minute. I have since left her alone. - Hamfiter

14.

My great grandmother's famous pecan pie recipe is the one on the Karo bottle. I was gifted it when she died bc I went to school for baking. I noticed while making it BECAUSE IT'S ON THE BOTTLE!! I will tell no one. Maybe I told my sister though haha! - justcougit

15.

I got a boyfriend in 6th grade. Cutest boy in the class. Told my mom his name and she freaked out! Come to find out, his dad had a brief thing with my aunt (mom's sister) and that my aunts oldest daughter was actually my little boyfriend cousin's half sister.

Cousin does not know, and how on EARTH did a 6th grade me keep that secret?? I went to school the next day and told poor Jeremy I didn't like him anymore. - Peckish_Alystar

16.

My great uncle essentially ran a secret society in my hometown for many years with his “friends” and even some of my family members. They would screw over a lot of people and run away with the money they managed to make, and this went on for many years until the government came looking for money that he owed when he took out a loan to build a massive bar & grill.

And from there the whole thing came crashing down. To add insult to injury, my grandfather (his brother) was acting mayor at the time and had no knowledge of this, so to say “Sh*t hit the fan” would be the understatement of the century… - Phant0m640

17.

Grandma and Grandpa did love each other and were married but weren't 'together.' Grandma was gay and grandpa was her best friend. She wanted kids so they had kids but she had her love 'Auntie Doreen' we called her.

Grandpa was free to do whatever he wanted and to our knowledge never had a dedicated partner besides my grandmother. Just the times, glad they could make it work for them - Eas_Mackenzie