What's some --more-- juicy gossip that you can't share irl but can share with nosy strangers on mumsnet?

I used an online DNA test out of curiosity (and the fact that it was in a sale) and thought I found out that my Dad had another child a few years after I was born.
After some more digging, I found out it was actually my Mum who had kept the truth from me - my Dad was never my Dad, and I have a whole family I never knew anything about.
Also found out that I'm part French.

My DW knows, but I haven't told my family yet as my Mum died a few years ago and it would just cause a lot of upset.

Is two for Tuesday still a thing?!

Both sad and years ago:

My then manager told me his best mate had got divorced partially because they couldn't have children. Around the same time my then DP and I visited his newly married cousin, who had been married before. She'd got divorced due to DV and her ExH had beaten two early pregnancies out of her. I can't remember what made the penny drop but one crucial detail made it clear the cousin had been married to my manager's best mate. I kept that to myself.

And a friend with eastern European heritage once expressed sadness she knew little of her father's history, just a few bits about how he arrived in the UK after the war. He was quite old when she was born and had passed away years before I knew her. I got curious and did some digging on her behalf. He'd told her he'd been on the allies side but the few details she did know didn't add up to that. It seems very likely he was a member of a notorious Nazi SS Division made up of eastern European volunteers and that committed many atrocities. Another one to keep to myself.

A female colleague I worked with years ago, now husband, slept with her best friend. As far as I'm aware she still doesn't know about this and they are still best friends 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

@ElsieMc Can I ask what country this was in? Mine is Ireland. The sad thing is that my aunt is nearly 70 and time is ticking on, she should have told her daughters and united the three of them together instead of isolating her. My cousin must feel awful at the scale of the rejection. If fear that when my aunt dies, her daughter will introduce herself to the other two children and it will traumatise them.

@ToughStuff This sounds familiar. Years back when young, I visited my grandmother regularly. She had 8 children but I thought she had just had yet another one when my Uncle suddenly arrived. But he wasnt my Uncle, he was my cousin, who then died tragically at 14. My auntie was his mum.

I was adopted from a well known address in a nearby town. Turns out they used this address on birth certificates to save children from knowing they were from the workhouse. So much sadness and secrecy. Even now, only just being talked about.

I’m reading my way through the thread, and the more that I read, the more it reminds me of scandals that I know of.

This one probably sounds like it would be too of my list, but it’s honestly not something I think of often and it’s another post that reminded me.

When I was 17, my mum went missing for a night. Was scary at the time and we were all out looking for her. A few weeks later, she stopped the car and told me that she’d just found out my dad was having an affair, and had been for years. The woman had an 8 year old boy, and my mum didn’t know if he was my dad’s or not. Mum said that she was going to leave my dad.

She didn’t leave him, they stayed together and we’ve never spoken about it all since. I’m pretty sure the affair ended, but I never found out more about the boy and never asked. My siblings were younger than me, and so I was the only one who got told. I think my mum had needed someone to talk to and say it all out loud, but then regretted it once they realised they were staying together. I don’t even know if she told my dad that she’d told me.

I definitely have one half brother. My dad was absent when I was born and he would come and visit when I was very young and take me for play dates with my similarly aged half brother. I don’t remember but when my son was born I made an effort to find him and he told me. He thought I have other half siblings as well.

It is!

Contrary to popular belief, lots of US companies have generous paid sick leave, paid parental leave, annual leave allowance (my company has an ‘unlimited annual leave’ model, which is very common) etc. All of which can be utilised or ‘gamed’ when your workplace is a dumpster fire and you’re planning to leave anyway.

My aunt had a child that was adopted my grandmother, so she stayed in the family. She is no contact with her biological mother who has since gone on to have two other children of her own with someone else. Those two children think that their half sister is their aunt (they met her once at a family funeral). We all know and are expected to keep quiet.

This reminded me of the old Bird’s Eye chicken pie adverts with June Whitfield. Absolute classics of the 70s.

https://tvark.org/birds-eye-chicken-pies

My friend (kept at a distance now) got married after telling me and the rest of her hen party that her ex who left her was the love of her life and she was only marrying her fiance because he had money. They now have two children and he has no idea.

One of my best friends is a gay man, married to his husband. When we go out drinking, he sometimes meets up with his trans woman friend and we all drink together. The two of them get absolutely hounded by “straight” men all night. It’s constant how much attention the two of them get from men who are married. I’m a teacher, and I’ve been there while some of my kids’ married dads chat them up, and it’s really shameless. They’re not embarrassed when I turn up with a drink and don’t turn and run, the just carry on and don’t see to care.

The amount of affairs is staggering!

Gone off sick? I wonder if he's thrown her out and she's staying with a friend/relative?

Where i used to work there was a man and woman from different departments who both suddenly went AWOL from their jobs one day. Then the man's wife turned up trying to find him as he wasn't at home either. It turned out they had eloped to Spain to start a new life together. The woman was single, but the man had a wife and two primary aged kids! And what's worse is the wife he left used to be his 'other woman' from a previous marriage he'd walked out on (also with kids). He was a real schmoozer - i really can't understand why all those women were dying to be with him.

She’s gone off on sick. He’s still working there. DH doesn’t fully know what’s gone on with him, due to him being with a different company, but apparently he’s been given a verbal warning and nothing else. I think it’s a bit muddled with the husband and wife working for different companies. The husband is also a lot higher in his company than she is in hers.

🤣 love this

Wow! Did he get a disciplinary? What did she do??

This actually happened to someone I went to school with. We were about 14/15, and she was going out with a lad a couple of years older, proper 'serious' relationship. They had been together a while, when they somehow found out they had the same father. It was the scandal of the school for a while, and they obviously split up and she was devastated.

My male colleague (and who was my boss for a while) is married with 4 kids, 2 with first wife, 2 with second wife. He has them all full time. A few years ago, my friend at work split with her long term partner and at the Christmas night out my male colleague "missed" his last train home and stayed with my friend at her flat. She told me they kissed and cuddled on her couch but she looked shifty when she told me so I know she's lying and they most likely had full sex.

She told me he admitted to her that he likes swinging and kinky sex and at every opportunity will go to "work events" I presume to upkeep that lifestyle. He also had a PA for a year from new zealand who he was having an affair with and her very angry new Zealand boyfriend who'd moved over with her was aggressive with everyone at an office night out. He started the affair with his PA after the thing with my friend, which really was a one nighter( or so she told me, who knows!). It's weird to me as he's pretty average, a bit of a schmoozer but I wouldn't have had him down as a cheating Casanova.

He knows I know about him and my friend but he doesn't know that I'm aware of the other stuff too. His wife doesn't know a thing. Also, when this happened with my friend he was my boss (not hers though, she worked in a different area of our business, same office though).

Ok I have one that I’ll have to adapt slightly in case it’s recognised, but:

DH works in a big office in town. They’re shared offices, so while he works alongside people on his floor, they don’t work for the same companies.

A married woman on his floor is known for sleeping with other married coworkers, which is made even more awkward by the fact that her husband also works in the building, albeit on a different floor.

Recently, she started getting internal mail from a disgruntled wife, calling her lots of names and accusing her of being a homewrecker and a whore. It was distressing for her, and an investigation was set up to try and see who was the source of it, but it could have been anyone from any of the businesses using the building and the internal mail. It was all kept quiet while they investigated, and she couldn’t even go to her husband for support as then she’d be admitting to the affairs and not knowing which wife she’d pissed off.

Well, they managed to use security cameras to eventually track down the letter sender. It was her own husband!

Cook (the posh ready-meal chain) always used to sell terracotta baking dishes the same size as their meals so that you could pretend that you had cooked it yourself.

@Avantiagain

Stop it! Are you for real with that one 🤣

My Nan adopted her own nephew when she was pregnant with my mum. There's only 4 months between my mum and her 'brother'. The brother's kids (my cousins) have no idea.