Imagine getting married and then getting to know a deep, dark family secret that you cannot tell your partner. However, it may just come out eventually, so you contemplate what to do next. This is exactly what happened with Reddit user Ok_Lavishness_1167.
The user said she was “deeply shaken” after her mother-in-law (MIL) dropped a bombshell secret on her that hadn’t been revealed in the last 30 years.
The woman posted on Reddit’s viral relationship advice forum, explaining that she and her husband decided to take ancestry DNA tests to learn more about their genetics and lineage. She casually mentioned this to her mother-in-law, 55, not thinking much of it.
The following day, she received a message from her saying she had some “serious and important information” to share. Reportedly, the MIL begged her not to tell anyone this information.
Naturally, the woman immediately called her MIL and what she revealed changed her entire life in seconds.
Her husband has two siblings — an elder brother and a younger sister. The MIL confessed that her husband’s dad is not his biological father, nor is his sister’s biological father.
The MIL goes on to explain that after the birth of her first child, her husband (the user’s father-in-law) became emotionally abusive and detached. She then met a guy at work who happened to be her “soulmate connection” and got pregnant.
Shortly after the user’s husband was born, she again got pregnant by the same guy and had her husband’s younger sister.
Interestingly, the work guy was also married and had kids, so neither of them ever told anyone anything. This guy knows about her illegitimate children and even visited them in the hospital after their birth.
However, no one else knows, and neither does the MIL plan to tell anyone. Her husband thinks all the three kids belong to him and has no clue that his wife has repeatedly thought of leaving him these last 30 years.
The Reddit user then wrote:
“This secret has been kept for over 30 years and now I’m the only person that she has told. She said she told me because of the fact that we are doing the DNA tests.”
“She’s worried about my husband finding out through the DNA test because his ancestry will look completely different than what he was expecting.”
She added that her mother-in-law allegedly begged her not to say anything because her husband’s father was “very medically fragile” and she feared the information could “send him over the edge.”
The 29-year-old now holds the key to her husband’s entire “happy family” and is in a dilemma whether to reveal this information to her husband. She shared:
“This is life changing information. Everything my husband knows is not true and the man that raised him isn’t even his real father. I have a feeling my husband will have a huge identity crisis.”
She even went online and looked up her husband’s biological father. Apparently, the two have an uncanny resemblance.
The post received massive attention on Reddit, garnering significant upvotes. Other Redditors find it cruel that the MIL gave her her burden and said, “That is so extremely cruel of her to give you that burden.”
Considering the ancestry DNA result would come out soon and her husband would get to know anyway, many users have advised her to tell her husband and claimed, “Marriages cannot survive these type of secrets.”
Some suggest that she confront her MIL to confront her husband about the truth. Redditor jerseygirl414 said:
“Oh boy…. He needs to know. I think you need to tell MIL she has 24 hours to tell him or you will tell it how and to whom you see fit. She probably wants to control the narrative and would do it herself.”
User Elmindria agreed and added:
“This is the correct answer. You give her the opportunity to tell but with a firm time frame. If she fails to do so, then you tell your husband.
She can’t expect you to keep this secret for her. It’s too big a burden and means you will be lying to your husband.”
