My favourite uncle cheated on my auntie. Ended up knocking the woman up. She had the child and my uncle was forced to tell my aunt. Aunt divorced my uncle. He became an alcoholic and I had absolutely no idea. I thought all the times we were going for car rides as a kid, he purposely drove crazy because it was entertaining for me and my cousins but it turned out he was just plastered.

Maybe an inverse sort of deal, but my family were apparently millionaires in the late 1800s. I guess they had always been very wealthy. But between that wealth getting split up every generation and my family living on the run for many generations, all that money was gone by the time I came around. Only thing left was a chunk of property in Mexico that is completely worthless aside from a small bit of money from it cause there's a highway going through it. This totally shocked me because in my lifetime my family has been quite poor. Full on redneck on top of that. And lots of issues with addiction.

I was adopted by the man I always knew as 'Dad'. I was always asked "did you think of him differently after you found out?" My response has and always will be yes. I respect him a hell of a lot more than I ever did before.

Ages ago I arranged a meeting with the local dope dealer through a real half a*s friend and surprise surprise it was my dad. Needless to say major questions were asked on both sides. My god the look on our faces must've been priceless!

Found out when I was 22 but apparently I had an older sister. She died very young due to a heart defect or something before I was born but yeah no one in my (very very large) family ever let it slip the whole time. I only found out because my other 2 older sisters found a letter buried in a closet one day years ago and they told me about it way after the fact. Never asked my parents about it, I can only imagine what kind of old wound that would dig up and they don't need that - I just quietly visited the grave by myself once to leave a flower. It was a pretty unreal feeling.

My mom married my stepfather in the mid 80s. My mom and dad had been divorced since my birth in the early 70s. So, living primarily with my mom, she would of course go out on dates, and eventually I would get the old boyfriend introduction which usually went well. With my soon to be step father, I always knew there was something a little off. Couldn't ever really pin down what it was, but he was just off, if ever so slightly. But hey, my mom really liked this guy, so I was in. Made my way through some awkward teenage years with him, and off to college. Still, I felt like I was missing something with him. Then, in 1997, and my mom and step dad divorce. Towards then end, he would grow very impatient and I guess they would fight a lot, but I wasn't around to see it as I had long since moved out and had my own life to lead in a different state. Didn't ever hear him come up much in conversation after that. Now, fast forward to 2007. My mom, unfortunately had cancer and it was nearing the end of her life. I spent the last two weeks with her at her house, just talking and letting her know how much I loved her and what a great mom she had been. For those that have never seen a loved one pass away from cancer, it's not very pleasant. They tend to get a little loopy, forgetful and generally speaking, aren't 109% with it. So, sitting on the couch next to her on one of these days, she exclaims "Well, I suppose I can tell you about your stepfather now". My eyes perked right up, I knew it I knew it, something was off about him! Maybe he went AWOL from the Army? Maybe he had a kid I didn't know about? She continued on "Your stepfather was a gay porn star in the 70s". This, I had not expected.

My family owned black slaves. We're Native American.

My father had an affair with his brother's wife so my cousin is also my brother. my cousin doesn't know though, grandma let this slip whilst wasted

That my "mom" is actually my grandma, my "dad" is my step grandpa, and my "sister" who is 13 years older than me is my mom. And my biological dad was 21 when he got her pregnant.

That my mom had fake boobs from a career as a swimsuit model in the 80s.

I found out that my mom had this pet puppy that played too rough with her one evening and bit her hand (didn't break the skin, just freaked her out since she wasn't used to puppies) and my grandpa had everyone leave the house and he murdered the dog in the living room. The day after I learned this, my mom and I went to visit my grandpa who was preparing to move out of state and wanted to give her some pictures he found. One of the pictures was of the little white dog and he caught my mom staring at it. My grandpa took it, chuckled to himself, and just lightly said, "Took care of that little guy." Absolute pyschopath.

My aunt with a very "holier-than-thou" attitude has been having a 40+ year affair with a childhood sweetheart. This is a person that was always quick to criticize other people's family issues and tried so hard to present her and her family as "perfect". Her husband is an as**ole to our family and she lets him completely get away with it. I guess we know why now.

My great grandfather was a horrible gambler. He was always losing money. In order to pay it back he "lent" out his daughters, he had 5 of them. They would do "wife" duties for the men who he owed money. It could be anything from making dinner, cleaning the house or having sex. I dont know for sure when it started but it ended when my grandmother was 8 and she was the youngest, the oldest was 17.

My great uncle was a boot legger in the Mafia that had the FBI searching for him. He ran to Canada and they never found him.

That the women that my dad was having sex with (cheating on my mom) were all men. Bonus: They are still married 30 years later.

My grandma inherited several hundred thousand dollars from her step dad. The juicy part is that to this day, no one knows how he got it. No one even knew he had that kind of money until he died. Since I'm from the south, my guess is rum running or something like that but we don't know and likely never will.

Not my family, but I thought I'd contribute. Friend turns 15, and she's told she's adopted. Turns out that both her parents died in a car crash when she was just a baby, and her uncle adopted her and raised her. Told her that both parents were dead. A year later, a man messages her on Facebook saying that he's her half brother. Turns out the dad lived through the car crash and later remarried, her adopted parents were lying to her as they knew all along, the dad just didn't want to keep her. That's the "secret", so to speak. However, the story continues, as her biological father wanted to meet her. She flies out to meet him, stays with him, meet his wife and her half-siblings. Struggles with the idea of reconnecting with him, because she both loathes and loves him. Loathes him for not wanting her and getting a new family, loves him for wanting to make a difference in her life and reconnect. She takes the plunge anyway. 6 months later he dies from lung cancer. Life's cruel joke on her.

My grandmother as I knew her was a hyper religious Christian woman that had every bit of conservative 1950's social viewpoints (she was racist, sexist, etc) Found out she was pimped out at 16, got pregnant by the pimp, she didn't want the kids as her father would kill her as they were mixed-race, so the pimp took custody and moved to a different state. She was the door kicker in a motorcycle gang. Her brother killed a guy and is serving life in prison - she was part of the same gang. My uncle being a murderer wasn't a shock as he's been imprisoned since before I was born and I had visited him when I was young.

One is mine. One is my friends Mine: Uncle killed a man in the old country. Gang fight. Picked up one of those big cigarette garbage things and hit another dude in the head. He did time in jail and was disowned by his family. My mom is the only person to visit him. My friend. He was told his parents died. Turns out his dad is his uncle and the woman who raised him (his "aunt") is actually his mom

I found out very recently that my maiden name (and subsequently rest of my family's name) was supposed to be completely different but was changed by deed poll when my grandfather was 11 by his stepfather. So before my father, we aren't actually related to anyone with this surname, it means nothing to our heritage or whatever

When I was 13 years old, I was initiated into the family witchcraft tradition. The biggest shock was running into two classmates at a Sabbat (Pagan holiday).