You’ve heard it a million times: somebody at the annual family reunion has a few too many drinks and a dark secret that meant to remain hidden from everyone comes flying out.

Uncle Tommy did what?!?! With who?!?! Why didn’t I know about this?!?!

Does this sound familiar to you?

I bet it does…

What big family secret finally came out?

Here’s what folks on AskReddit said.

1. Wow.

“We went to my grandmother’s for Christmas dinner like we did every year and my uncle drank too much, and kind of hinted that he had an affair with my mother. A couple of months and two DNA tests later we found out my sister is actually his daughter.

My dad never spoke to his brother again. And of course, my parents got divorced. And I needed a lot of therapy… and chocolate.

Gosh we are trash!”

2. The wedding.

“Great grandparents’ 60th anniversary party at hotel ballroom with cousins/2nd cousins who hadn’t seen each other in years. My mom and I were talking to my grandfather.

Mom: Wow. I haven’t seen Chuck, Fred, and a Claire in years.

Me: no kidding. When do you think we’ll get a group this big back together?

Mom: Gramps’ bday is in 6 months. We’ll see some people then.

Me: 6 months? Isn’t it his 60th?

All: …

Gramps: Huh. I never thought about that.

My grandfather was 60 when he realized his parents had a shotg** wedding.”

3. Confession time.

“When my sister was diagnosed with cancer and her survival chances were low, it inevitably came out that she wasn’t my sister.

My parents must have felt we should all know the truth just in case.

She survived her treatment, and will always be my sister.”

4. Huge scandal.

“My grandmother recently d**d.

She was famous in our town for her amazing cooking/catering, in particular her turkey dinners. Notably, her gravy was absolutely amazing. So delicious.

She had a heart attack several years ago and her near-d**th experience convinced her to share some of her secret recipes with me, all except for her gravy recipe. When she d**d this spring, I was going through her pantry and found an entire bucket of KFC gravy mix.

She was literally using KFC gravy mix as a base to make her incredible gravy. Huge scandal.”

5. Curveball.

“Due to 23&Me, my Dad learned that his recently deceased father was not his biological father.

It wasn’t a situation related to my grandma cheating either, it was a sperm donation. So, they knew this was the case his entire life.

Pretty crazy they never told him, his parents did not pass until he was ~65 years old.

Talk about a curveball.”

6. Family history.

“After my grandfather passed, we found out he had fathered a child when he was posted in Italy during WWII.

He never knew. His mother intercepted any letters from the Italian girl. He came home, met and married my grandmother and had 4 children.

I forget who in the family found out and how. It’s crazy to think we have a whole Italian family out there!To clarify I’m in the UK, not that it’s relevant to the story.

My oldest aunt is 77 so this ‘kid’ would be at least 79 by now I would think. We’ve considered doing the DNA testing but some family members aren’t comfortable with how those companies could use the information.

It’s a really sad story, but if his mother hadn’t intercepted the letters, I wouldn’t exist. It’s a weird place to be in emotionally!”

7. The truth.

“That my parents “had” to get married.

They always told us they got married in 1961, but it was 1962, 3 months before my sister was born.

What’s amusing is that my father was an accountant who was insanely fast with math. Whenever he was asked how many years they’d been married, he’d be off by one.

My mother would correct him through clenched teeth and then my father would nod and agree.”

8. This is nuts.

“That my grandfather was an atomic soldier.

Instead of sending him to fight in the Korean War, they sent him to Nevada, where (after having him turn away from the initial flash) he witnessed the mushroom cloud. After that was over, he was ordered to march to the detonation point, where he was unwittingly exposed to high amounts of radiation.

Luckily for my family, my grandpa is now in his 90s (even after a few cancer scares) and the rest of us (my mom, aunt, cousins, sister, and I) are cancer-free and fairly healthy, but this is medical information that we really should have known earlier!”

9. A sad story.

“As a young teenager, my grandma shot her pe**phile father in the back while he was sleeping. He had been molesting her and all her siblings.

She ran away after being hidden by her brother for some time. Her father survived though. Thankfully my grandma never faced any legal consequences, but she was bat-s**t crazy until the day she d**d.

My aunt told me at her funeral because I asked why grandma was the way she was.”

10. All kinds of stuff.

“When my mother fell ill and I took over her finances I found thousands of pounds of gambling debt on her credit cards.

Then I found adoption papers for a child she’d had before me that she’d never mentioned.

Then another family member told me my dad didn’t die in a car crash but committed s**cide in prison.”

11. Just found out.

“Last week I discovered that my dad d**d two years ago … And no one bothered to tell me.

I’d been looking for him. He was something off a drifter and most likely had Asperger’s. I’m his only child.

I stumbled across his headstone on findagrave.com while digging through Ancestry.

His marker was labeled “beloved brother”. My aunts and uncles are pieces of s**t … I’m not hard to find.

I don’t even know how he d**d. He d**d alone though. VA paid for his burial.”

12. Another child.

“My grandma had a daughter she gave up for adoption before she married my grandpa and had their 4 kids.

The daughter found my family through distant cousins or something and my grandpa was like “Cool! More family!”

But my grandma wants nothing to do with her and told my mom and aunt that they aren’t to contact the daughter until she dies.”

13. Dad.

“When I was 28, I found out that my dad was not my biological father.

The news came out via the following: my dad was battling depression and was s**cidal, so I had just flown home to try to take care of him and rescue him from my mom’s wrath. My mom had verbally and emotionally abused him during their entire relationship. He loved her so much, and he tolerated it.

Well, during a solemn walk w/ my dad, as I tried to help him out, he confided that he’s not my biological dad, and he went on to tell me he knew this all along but my mom lied to him and tried to convince him that he was my biological father. He knew he wasn’t, but he wanted to play the role.

When I was 10 years old, my mom finally confessed this to him, and he was worried that upon hearing the news, officially, he’d somehow let this affect his relationship with me.

So, when I was 28 years old, during this walk w/ my dad, as he pours out this story to me, he frames it by telling me that his two most proud items in his life are: (1) how I turned out / his raising me; (2) that he had completely forgot about the news my mom told him earlier in that day (when I was 10), about him not being my biological father, and that it was only upon tucking me in at night (when I was 10), that it briefly crossed his mind.

It was at that point that he knew nothing would ever come between us and our father-son relationship would be as awesome as ever.

He also confided that my mom did hard drugs while pregnant with me, and this broke his heart to witness firsthand. They were very poor. My dad grew up in a foster home without parents.

My mom grew up w/ 6 siblings and ill-equipped parents. She dropped out of 9th grade, whereas all of her other siblings dropped out earlier — many of them are barely literate.

I’m now mid-30s, and tragically, my dad committed s**cide mid-March 2020, right as COVID was hitting. I was out of the country at the time but immediately flew 30 hours (30-min layover) and made it in time for his funeral.

I do everything in his honor.”

Have you had any big family secrets come out lately?

If so, tell us about them in the comments.

We’d love to hear from you! Thanks!