Betrayed People Share How They Discovered Their Parent Had A Secret Second Family
When the world’s against you, family will always be there to help lift you up. In every family, many secrets are kept between certain members. Whether it’s about a broken plate or some lost money, you know that it’ll be safe with the right people. Unfortunately, there are certain secrets that can change the entire family dynamic forever.
When it comes to hiding additional family members, some people find it harder than others to explain themselves. They know that Thanksgiving dinner will become a bit more awkward if they let it slip. When the truth eventually comes out, however, it’s up to everyone to try and come to a reasonable next step. Because of the situation, it should be given to a therapist to help them comprehend the situation.
Those with long-buried secrets took to Humaverse to discuss the surprising revelations of hidden family members. From a surprise at Christmas to a funeral shocker, these tales will certainly help you understand why its worth it to be honest next time.
Don’t forget to check the comment section below the article for more interesting stories!
#25 A Major Conundrum
My dad was talking with his secret family on the phone while my mom worked. He would just stay in the bedroom and talk on the phone and I told my mom about him being in the bedroom. So, then my mom discovered when she came home and heard him afterwards. I didn’t see him for one year. Then, he saw us every Saturday and Sunday, but after five months we didn’t see him again for five years. He basically left when I was in second grade now I’m going into 8th. He gifts us things that we don’t ask for. He randomly sees my sister and I. We’re living with my mom who works every day except Thursday; we have to live with two other people to pay rent for our two-bedroom apartment.
#24 Inheriting Disappointment
My mom’s dad walked out on his family when she was 13. No reason, no goodbye, just left when his kids were in school and his wife was at work. He was a drinker with a host of other issues, so everyone just figured he had finally snapped.
About 40 years later my mom gets a letter in the mail from a lawyer she had never heard of in a city two hours away from where she grew up. The letter was her dad’s will. My mom, her siblings, and my grandma were all in his will, but they were all removed a year before he left them.
Who did get his inheritance? His second family—with three kids and wife—who grew up two hours away. His second set of kids are all about the same age as my mom and her siblings.
#23 When We Were Young
My father told me he had a kid from when he was a teenager. I just asked him if my mother knew all along and if there was ever any cheating. She did and there wasn’t and that was it. I don’t hold his mistakes from when he was young against him. We’ve contacted the dude, he’s weird so it doesn’t look like we’ll meet.
#22 Unity For All
My father’s real dad died in the Vietnam war. His widow then married who I now know as my grandpa. My grandpa adopted my dad. My dad and his real family never met until last summer when my dad flew to San Diego to meet them. My family flew out this summer and met them. They’re really nice and genuine people.
#21 Scandal In The House
We suspect my grandfather (Mom’s dad) had a second family. He definitely left my grandma and started immediately living with another woman, and this woman had a son who would have been born during the time he’d been seeing this woman and he had an old family name. No one’s ever confirmed him as my Mom’s half-brother, it’s not like anyone has contact with any of them now my grandfather’s dead (been dead 25 years) but it’s widely assumed.
Incidentally, I’d never realized how scandalous my grandma had been; I’d always known my oldest aunt had a different father because she referred to my grandfather as Jim, but I was well into my twenties before I found out they all have different fathers!
#20 Kept In The Dark
My father left my mom and sister when I was two (my sister was just born).
Sister and I discovered early in life we had a half-sister. Later in life (mid-20s) my sister goes looking for our father to meet him.
Turns out the other family had no knowledge of our existence. They were more than a little shocked to find out.
Don’t know if we were the “other” family, as I was born first and my mom was married. In the end, it doesn’t matter. I’m very confident we got the long stick in the situation with him gone.
#19 Simply Water Cooler Talk For Mom
My mom just casually dropped on us one day that my much-beloved grandfather, who died when I was pretty young, had a previous wife and kid before he met my grandmother and never brought it up. I don’t think he ever divorced her, either, but this was many many years ago. I have no idea how my mom found out other than that she has a killer nose for gossip.
So I definitely have family out there that I’ll never know or meet.
Pexels#18 Talk To My Lawyer
This happened in my family. After my grandfather died, my dad and his siblings were contacted by a lawyer representing their father’s children with his first wife. This was all news to my dad and his siblings, but not apparently to my grandmother, who wouldn’t let him talk about his first wife and children.
It was quite the shock following the death of their father. As far as I know, neither my dad nor his siblings ever were in contact with the other family. The remaining family doesn’t even know the names of the first wife or children.
Pexels#17 A Christmas Miracle
My grandmother’s late husband’s son showed up at our door last Christmas. The kicker was that he was also named the same name as my uncle (both Jr. of said late grandfather). Both look exactly alike too, my family’s been kinda in a place since.
#16 Changing The Subject
My brother wanted to marry the first girl he brought home and to dissuade him my mother informed my brother and I that we had two long-lost half-brothers from when she had done the same thing prior to meeting my father. Nothing really changed.
#15 From Riches To Rags
My maternal grandfather had a second family. I found out in my late 20s at his funeral. My parents informed just before the service because I was about to run into my grandfather’s son who was my age. Sure enough, that family attended the funeral and I believe I even shook hands with my uncle/cousin briefly. It was weird because I don’t believe they considered themselves to be “the second or other family.” They had just lost their husband and father. It was hard to be upset with them, but it caused a big rift between my family and me because of the secrets.
My grandfather had been a very wealthy man when I was very young and, by the time I was a teenager, he had lost his fortune. I was never privy to how that happened either, but I guess supporting two families certainly won’t help. I was shocked to know that someone could keep an entire family secret for two decades.
#14 Once A Cheater…
Not really a surprise because my father had a history of cheating on my mom all the time. While they were dating, while she was pregnant…
Found out when my dad finally met a Korean woman who ‘took care of him the way he always wanted’ (and I’m pretty sure is a former patient of his, if not a current patient at the time they were dating), bullied my mom into signing her half of the house over before asking her for a divorce. Came home one day on holidays and he has a ‘surprise’ he needs to talk to us about. Turns out he also has a daughter, so I have a little half-sibling I am never allowed to meet (my mom has her own issues).
Joke’s on him, the woman got sick of his crap and sued him for a monthly $7,000 payment for the child and I don’t know what else. I’m assuming they’re not together anymore because my dad is currently dating his receptionist who is Thai (and who he will tell others is a nurse, when she isn’t).
#13 Very Anti-Climatic
Not really an entire family, but my stepdad had a daughter that no one knew about until we were about 16. My mom called me in, told me to sit down for the big news, told me, and my reaction was “hmm, ok” and I went back to my room.
She came to visit and was exactly like my stepdad, a complete narcissist. Never kept in contact after her visit never cared to.
#12 Searching For Evidence
My dad got married, had kids, and divorced at least three times. There are five of us that we know of and a suspicion of another sister but Google searching leads us to think she has died. There was also a suspicion he may have fathered another child while deployed in Germany.
#11 Separated For Life
My grandpa had a daughter from a previous marriage that we’ve never known. His ex-wife cheated on him with his brother and when he found out and wanted a divorce his parents basically forced him to give up parental rights to his daughter so her new stepdad could adopt her.
Sad really, until the day he died he never ever stopped loving her, we always knew how proud he was of “auntie Eliza”. She has two sons that we’ve also never met because when he contacted her when he was diagnosed terminal she couldn’t bring herself to start a relationship that she was gonna lose soon. I’ve never forgiven my great grandma for it; she purposefully kept her grandchildren separated (she saw both my mother and aunt and my grandpa’s daughter, but never let them meet each other). Horrible, vindictive old bat.
#10 Bottled Up Inside
A few years ago we discovered that my mom’s uncle had a secret family with four other kids. The most messed up thing is that he had been taking his son (my mom’s cousin) to his secret family since he was a child. To that cousin, he had two moms, brothers and sisters that he couldn’t talk about. It goes without saying that this cousin is today completely messed up.
#9 The World In My Eyes
I lived my entire life as the only child of two elderly parents. We didn’t get out much or do anything as a family because they were “too tired” it or it was “too late”, even at 3 PM. Years after one of them died, I checked online for their obituary information and found a list of people who I had never heard of. Long story short, I had siblings in a different state. It’s been a few years since. I traveled to meet them once but it’s still really difficult to process. They have a completely different story regarding my parents as if they were different people. It’s hard to imagine them through the eyes of my siblings.
#8 Cutting Them Off
One day my dad says, “Come on, we’re going out”, and there we are, in the car and we’ve been driving for about an hour when my dad turns to my sister and says, “So you know that your mother and I broke up for a while…”. I’m in the back with my brother, thinking, Wait, what? I tuned out the rest of their conversation but anyway. We end up at this house and meet two random strangers. Long story short, turns out my dad had an affair before I was born and had a daughter with this woman. We spent a few months seeing them on a semi-regular basis but then it abruptly stopped and I haven’t seen her since. This was about 9 or 10 years ago. I’m not bothered that I haven’t seen her since she’s a real piece of work.
#7 The Greatest Con Of All
My grandfather was a con man and led a second life. He had his other family completely convinced he was a traveling doctor.
#6 An iCloud Discovery
I found evidence of my dad’s second family on my mom’s iPad. We never talked about it, but there’s always been tension since then and a lot more distance between my family and I.
#5 Breaking And Entering
Boyfriend’s super Catholic uncle has an illegitimate son about 12 hours from us. They’ve always known about him and he has the family name. I don’t think he has anything to do with him. I think it’s funny because he shows up in “Florida Man” posts all the time. He got high and attempted to break into a jail to hang out with his friend.
#4 A Picture’s Worth A Second Family
A little late but my biological dad had a secret family in Peru (his home country). My mom found pictures of his other kid who looked just like him and his second wife. They divorced and he still financially supports his family but doesn’t go to see them as often.
#3 Carsick Reveal
I was sick one day at school and had to go home early. No one who usually picked me up could pick me up (mom, aunts/uncle, grandparents, neighbor, etc.). Finally, my dad pulled up. He had disappeared from our house a few years before with all his stuff— and some other stuff we had thought was ours. My siblings and I saw him occasionally, but could only contact him on his work phone. I got in the car and heard a noise in the back seat. It was a little kid, who said, “Hi!” My dad said, “That’s your little sister.” And I had to pretend I thought she was cute and not a complete shock while trying not to vomit all over myself.
I guess my mom found out about the second family (and kicked him out), but my siblings and I had no idea.
#2 Travel By Telephone
A friend of my mom’s had a husband who “traveled” a lot for work. The town we lived in has a railroad through it with a handful of crossings. Trains toot their horns at each crossing and depending on the engineer, the toots are different. This friend was on the phone with her husband while he was on a “trip”. A train went by her house tooting its horn. Then, only a minute later, she heard the same toot on his end of the call. She realized he was still in town, and soon found out he had a second family he was living with instead of traveling for work.
#1 More Questions Than Answers
My dad just blurted out one day in the middle of an unrelated conversation that I have siblings I don’t know about and that he was married before my mom. When asked to elaborate, he said ask your mom she knows. When I asked my mom, she said that’s your dad’s business to tell you if he wishes. I can only assume one of them tried to reach him and he feared they would also try to contact my siblings or I. I am unsure if I want to meet them, but at the same time, they could be the family I’ve always wanted.
Melissa Budish | Humaverse
