Yeah sure relationships are "all about honesty" blah blah blah. But most people in relationships are keeping a secret or many secrets from their partner—or at least, they think they are. Being intimately involved with someone often means you discover more about the person than they want you to know, whether it's an accident or the result of snooping. And then you have to lead them to believe that you don't know they know, because sometimes love requires a little bit of lying, or a whole web of them.
Here are 21 stories from people who discovered a secret about their partner that the partner doesn't realize they know (unless they frequently browse Reddit, in which case, they know now!).
1.) From LeZygo:
The first time my SO and I slept together I woke up during the night to use the bathroom. I came back in the room and she farted one of the loudest farts I've ever heard. I started laughing like crazy and she almost woke up. Almost. We've been together for seven years.
2.) From heyyou-overthere:
He lied about his last name, age, degree, being in the military and being a sex offender. I only figured out the lie about the degree and broke it off. Then started stalking me and I figured put everything else. I don't know if he figured out that I know everything else. We live in a relatively small town and a girl was about to meet up with him I warned her. He is still lying about his age. You're not 29 Charlie, you're 42 and fuck you!
3.) From RJLestrange:
Ex-girl. She had a fairly large scar on her back and was incredibly self-conscious about it. She wouldn't even take her shirt off the first time we had sex. When I asked her about it, she said she had fallen from her horse when she was young.
Fast forward a little and I'm out finding her a birthday present and have enlisted the help of her friend. I pick out a sexy singlet and her friend just looks out me like I'm stupid. Apparently the scar on her back, which the singlet clearly revealed, wasn't from a fall, but an abusive ex-boyfriend who had pushed her onto his motorbikes exhaust pipe and burnt her.
We ended on good terms, and I never told her I knew. I hope she is doing well.
4.) From DrJeXX:
Her Caesar salad dressing. It's actually the best thing ever but even after two years she refuses to tell me what's in it. What she doesn't know is that I have secretly been watching her make it over the past few months. I have finally pieced it together and now I have the power!!
Edit: Everyone wants the secret recipe. But she has reddit, and I prefer life.
5.) From Saxophonebird:
He claims he doesn't love the new cat his parents adopted. Claims she always just sleeps in his room for some reason.
Motherfucker loves that cat so much.
6.) From xthorgoldx:
My ex, and the cheating. She thinks I found out when I looked at her phone, but I new about two months earlier when she sent me a pic of herself watching Netflix in bed. I don't think she realized that the dude's face was 100% visible reflected in the laptop. After that it was a matter of me being in denial and trying to fix things.
7.) From fin_winter:
When we were in the hospital for some weird pain that I had, uninsured, and the doctors thought it might be cancer, I lost it a bit. She was so brave for me.
But her mother called, she went into the bathroom to talk but she didn't know that the sound echoed pretty loudly into the room. I heard her break down, sobbing, telling her mom she didn't know how we were going to pay for treatment and that it looked really bad. I'll never tell her I heard her, but god it was heartbreaking.
When she came out you wouldn't even know she was even upset, she hid it so well. She sat right down and told me everything was going to be fine with such determination and such certainty. Literally took out her computer then and there and started making a fucking spreadsheet of our finances to fit in cancer. I knew how much she loved me in that moment and how important it was for her that she was brave for me. I don't know why but I got so calm after that, I haven't broken down like that since, even with worse news. I guess she makes me strong... god, I fucking love her.
8.) From becash123:
Everybody likes snacks, right? Some of us like chips, others like fruit, or yogurt. Well, my wife likes croutons. Frozen croutons to be exact and she tries to hide it like an alcoholic hides bottles of vodka. Where does she hide the croutons? In the freezer. At first I'd put them in the pantry when we get home from the grocery store, but they'd always end up in the freezer. I'd be like, "Uh, hon, what's up with the croutons in the freezer?" and she'd act like she had no idea what I was talking about. Now here's the thing, I've tried them and now I'm addicted to them too. So now I openly eat cold croutons out of the freezer as a snack, and she tells me what a weirdo I am while she eats half the bag with me. No idea why she's embarassed to admit what a genius she is for discovering such an awesome snack. BTW, the best kind is Chatham Village garlic and cheese flavor.
9.) From Jchriddy:
A girl I dated a few years back had just graduated with her bachelors so I took her out for a night on the town. Her and our friends got absolutely demolished and since this was before Uber, I volunteered to be DD. So around 2am she's tanked, we head out and she wants krystal burgers. Very adamant about that, so I stop by Krystals and order a steamer pack so I can have some too and then have leftovers. She eats somewhere around 8, I get her home, get her into her bed and she immediately passes out. I am sitting next to her watching some TV when I smell something. I notice that she has just shit herself. She is one of those people who would be so ashamed of herself if anyone found out so I just... left. I called her the next day and told her I dropped her off, got her some water and headed home. Never mentioned her shitting herself or anything so to this day she thinks she did it in her sleep after I left. I could have stayed and helped her clean it up and I probably should have, but she would have cried over that and avoided me sporadically for weeks.
10.) From AwkwardRawrz:
I knew for a year and a half about my engagement ring and never told him until after he proposed. He was not so good at hiding.
11.) From IClogToilets:
My wife dropped my iPhone in a Port-A-Potty toilet. Luckily it has been so used there was a large pile of shit which gently held the phone above the liquid. She cleaned it off and gave it back to me. A year later I upgraded and gave her my old phone.
She insisted on purchasing a new cover even though I had a high-end OtterBox. I never understood why until one of the kids told on her.
12.) From [deleted]:
My ex made up a person and spoke to me as them. We met when we were quite young and were both pretty weird... I put it down to insecurity and wanting to look like she had cool friends (I was a little older). I never let on that I knew because it would have been super embarrassing for her and this was literally the start of the relationship.
She made up quite a few stories about this guy and I got a few emails from "him". She didn't realise that changing the name of the account didn't actually change the address, which was fully visible.
13.) A tearjerker, from punkwalrus:
Even though we had been married for 25 years, my wife and I always invented stupid private jokes between each other. I was lamenting the fact that we had fostered a Siamese cat from an adoption group, that eventually got adopted, and I really missed her. At one point, we were looking through the website of the local pound, and a Siamese came up named "Montague."
The photo that they took of Montague was epic. A classic Applehead Siamese, he was neutered, about five years old, and had horribly crossed eyes. Whoever took the photograph of him made him look both proud, distinguished, and adorably insane. Like some crazy dude that comes into the bar as a regular, claims he's the emperor of the United States of America, and everybody buys him a round because even though he is clearly crazy, he is also very charming. We started making up all the stories about Montague in a spoof of "The world's most interesting man." Week after week, we checked to see if he had been adopted, but nobody wanted a crazy looking cross eyed Siamese cat. Everyone at the pound said he was affectionate, and had been there for quite some time.
Sadly, this would be our last private joke together. My wife, who had a terminal illness, suddenly gotten much worse and passed away rather rapidly. We thought we had more time together, but she had sarcoidosis, and her lungs had already been weakened by repeated pneumonia, when she got the flu. Because she was on immunosuppressants for her condition, this is what did her in, she went into a coma, and died a week later.
My sister helped me with the funeral and taking care of a lot of things, including contacting everyone in her phone contacts on her cell phone. She asked me about why the Alexandria pound would be trying to contact my late wife via voicemail. Apparently, my wife had applied to adopt Montague as a surprise gift. She paid the adoption fee and had scheduled a visit to adopt him. But she died before the appointment date.
Sadly, my wife put it in her name only, and the people at the pound were pretty rude about it. Like to adopt Montague I'd have to pay ANOTHER adoption fee, and they were made that she didn't show up, and at the time it was chaos I couldn't deal with. My sister gave them an earful and they told her to go to hell.
That ended that.
I hope Montague eventually found a loving family.
14.) From [deleted]:
I'm his first girlfriend. He's 42.
ETA: this isn't "the worst" bc it's something to be ashamed of, it's just something he doesn't know I know. I wish he'd been up front about it in the beginning, but it doesn't change how much I adore him in the least.
Edited AGAIN, because I had to tell him why I was on Reddit so much tonight. Now he knows I know, thanks a lot y'all!
15.) From Ineeda_lie_in:
His affair. I knew for 3 weeks before he left (to look after his allegedly sick dad) and for 2 weeks after before I told him I knew. He said last week he's ended it and sees what he has missed but I know he's still sleeping and living with her whilst messaging me. Basically what he just did to me - I'm his wife, we were together 12 years. He just can't stop lying. He may be genuinely remorseful right now but I can't get past his deceit.
Update. - sorry if my comment was confusing and thank you for all the replies. I found out in December, he was cruel and miserable throughout and nearly ruined Xmas for the kids. I suggested he go visit his 'sick dad' at NY and slammed that door right behind him. Took time off work (I was main earner then) and rearranged my life to take care of the kids and get a job with flexible hours. I'm happier. Kids are doing well. He's the one struggling now.
16.) From spicehamster:
My ex peed the bed. He didn't know that I knew.
Edit: he had told me about it at one point after I had suspected it for a while, but subsequently he forgot ever telling me. Blamed it all on the cat.
Also, this was back in high school, so I don't know much about the condition
17.) From [deleted]:
She waits until I sleep to steal my pillows
18.) From wetowetobetobe:
He hides chocolate bars in his work bag. Bastard.
19.) From Yarash2110:
She is breaking up with me tomorow, said she wants to talk, and it's not something we can talk about in texts. We are on the verge of a breakup for like two months now, feels bad.
20.) From arentyouangel:
My (soon to be) ex-wife met another guy about a year and a half ago. She was so bad at hiding it that I thought she WANTED to get caught. Posting romantic stuff on her Instagram when we hadn't been romantic in a long time. Confronted her, lied even with solid evidence. A few months later stuff starts disappearing from the house, pretty obvious that she's moving out. Then we started to have no money every month(and I have a pretty okay job), realized she was stealing money basically by paying her bills twice a month with 3-4x the minimum payment and not paying mine. Let it go on for a bit and finally confronted her, she doesn't admit to it. I finally just pull my check from our joint account and she says she's leaving but is going to be homeless. The next day she had changed her facebook back to her maiden name and had a picture of her and the other guy at their new place. I don't know if this counts.
21.) From koru999:
Was a prostitute & was in some adult films, & worked as an exotic dancer when young & hungry (Retired. Bought a food truck. I loved the coffee & grilled cheese sandwiches. Fell in love). Doesn't think I know. Doesn't know I don't care. I'll never tell.
Update: P.S. How did I find out? Years ago a now-deceased friend of my SO, someone who'd been in The Life too, told me, showed me proof.
The person I fell in love with was/is the sum total of their life preceededing.
Middle class morality is not a luxury everyone can afford. It's not a value system everyone embraces regardless.
It's okay by me if people (in part or entirely) choose to reinvent themselves as they see fit.
22.) From birdsinparadise12:
This is in the past, but still a good one.
Ended up finding out that my (now ex) girlfriend was cheating on me after hearing one of my parrots pick up, "Oh, God, yes, Jim!" In a rather scratchy sensual voice.
Turns out they've been having sex where I keep him while I went to work. Dumped her ass the next time I saw her and told her.