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

[mumofoneAloneandwell]

To improve an otherwise boring friday night in front of the TV, with my slightly poorly DD x

👀👀

Uni friend had a promiscuous phase while working abroad after graduating. She was very quiet and studious, had only had one previous boyfriend, the last person you would expect to have a wild phase. Several celebrities were involved in this man-eating period.

Meanwhile I was stuck in a small English town...

A colleague who is currently on maternity leave’s husband has been sleeping with a friend of mine. The husband had presented himself as a single, childless man and my friend was heartbroken when she showed me pictures of her new boyfriend and I explained how I knew him (she has obviously ended it)

I’m unsure whether to tell my colleague as she started her relationship with her husband fully aware that he was married with a 6 month old baby. The husband is also a colleague and I can barely look at him.

Got a feeling @simonjt is not a perfect wife but a perfect husband: but what a brilliant thing to do. This is what lasting marriages are made of.

Bloody good for her. I’d have been much more sexually active if I’d had the chance and been more confident.

Squeee! Me too. On tenterhooks, I keep checking my phone as I think they’ll call. He’s asked her siblings, DH and me, the grannys…

I quit my job 6 months ago, but I haven't told a soul. I had a lot of stressful changes in my life, and I just couldn't cope with it any longer because my boss was quite temperamental and unpredictable. I just quit one day after working out that financially I could afford to retire a little earlier than planned, or that I could afford to take a year out now, and find a new job next year.

I haven't told my kids, or friends, or even my partner. I wfh on my laptop, so nobody really sees me work etc, but I just don't want to have to justify it and explain myself to people. When I'm speaking to people and they ask what I do, I just pretend I'm still doing it (whilst smiling on the inside)! I've managed for this long without telling, that I'm starting to wonder if and when I should tell anybody at all. it feels like a nice secret!

Oh wow you are the kind of friend I want OP. That is superb.

A female relative of mine had an affair with someone on the same shifts as her at 530am in the mornings. I do not blame her at all for this but I was pretty shocked when she told me as I had no idea.

Her husband has probably been having a gay relationship outside the marriage for half a century. There is a lot of it about.

Another person I know of who is now unfortunately suffering from dementia turned out to have had a VERY colourful sexual history including many standard affairs and a few relationships that are banned by professional regulatory frameworks. Again, didn’t come out until old age.

None of this is gossip in the sense you’d think of, but it does go to show that people often have complicated lives.

I have much, much more sympathy for women who broke rules 30,40 and 50 years ago because the rules were skewed against them. They were basically trapped by finances.

Worked with a lovely, gorgeous guy for 5 years at a company where workplace romance is very much frowned upon.

Fast forward to my leaving party, we kissed, then spent a few nights together before I moved 900 miles away for a new job.

I cant stop thinking about him 😔

Ps. I know this isnt really gossip as its me, but I've not been able to tell anyone

(sorry that my post wasn't gossip... just a secret... but I wanted to tell someone!)

What a fabulous present! And you have to keep that under your hat for nearly a year??? Wow. When do you think you'll tell him?

@usernumber284 blimey! That’s some mental gymnastics. I think I’d just tell them I’d now resigned and get on with life. No need for a big reveal about it having taken place months ago, but equally you don’t need the mental work of managing people’s expectations. Plus honesty is usually the best thing in close relationships - I’d feel a bit weird if I found out someone I cared about left a job ages ago but didn’t tell me.

No shame in being retired and you won’t have to pretend to be engaged at the PC ;) You could even tell them why you didn’t spill beforehand - presumably because you didn’t want to explain the work nonsense and deal with the well-meaning advice to ‘try and work things out’. You’ve been fine financially and could always get a workaday job to pay the bills. Might be best to fess up for your own well-being.

You’ve contradicted yourself.

Absolutely. I was green with envy. I got vicarious enjoyment from hearing about it, though.

See, I thought Rochelle H* but who knows

Omg please tell me your aquaintance has her ducks in a row. What a bastard. I hope she calmly tells him she knows and says nothing else let him think he got off lightly then when the divorce proceedings start let him see exactly what evidence she has. That would be the karma bus running over and reversing on him 🤣🤣

(NC) I found out last week that I'm about to receive a six-figure inheritance. Completely unexpected, life-changing. Have actually spent the last few years building a nice life for myself and my little cat, following an abusive relationship and being forced out of my job. Got the news in the middle of uploading a bunch of old clothes to sell on Vinted to make the cash to get a new(ish) autumn coat.

That seems quite exciting though (as long as you don't act on it) 😬

I'm quite a private person but reading some of the posts make me think I wouldn't be too averse to being the subject of some minor office gossip - I've had an almighty crush on a woman at work for absolutely ages. I'm amazed nobody has picked up on it since I'm like a dizzy teenager despite my best efforts to be a normal 40-something woman. Or maybe they have!

at previous position i offered my help to management but my line manager seemed against me helping other departments for some reason. so instead i talked to all the other managers myself and offered my assistance, because then its upto those managers if they needed me. and they did use my assistance at times and the look on my managers face and reaction was omg,

All the best and positivity

You mean me? Yeah I have a bit. That’s life - different options. If it were me, I’d spill all but not everyone is like me 🤷‍♀️

Courtesy of Ancestry we’ve recently discovered that my DM and her brother are only half siblings. Turns out he’s half Jew, and he has family in America. We suspect my grandmother had a dalliance with an American GI while my grandfather was away fighting in the war.

Considering he’s nearly 80 and lived his whole life assuming another man is his father he’s taken it pretty well. He’s starting addressing my DM as his ‘gentile sister’ in messages, and joking about having a joint 80th/bar mitzvah 🤣

I found out recently that a woman up the road doesn't know that one of closest friends is sleeping with her son. (He's in his late 20s). It's nothing to do with me and I've no intention of getting involved, but I wish I didn't know about it.

@LittleBitButthurt what a shock that must be in your 80s - although maybe he already had an inkling. Families think they are brilliant at keeping secrets, but kids do notice discrepancies. I think every kid wonders about their biological provenance at some point: I certainly did, despite no real obvious red flags.

Two of my colleagues (both married) are having an affair despite working from home in different cities. I regularly have to access both their calendars and there are too many "private appointments" in at the same time to be a co-incidence... There are other clues but that's the main one. Plus whenever I have thought that two people I know are secretly shagging, it all comes out later and I have never, ever been wrong!