Most families have a few skeletons in the closet, but one man accidentally ruined his parents’ 33-year-long marriage after going digging through the past.
In fact, he unearthed a long-buried secret after doing a DNA test alongside his father – because of a cut-price deal online.
Whilst some members of the family had been planning to take this secret to the grave, the unnamed man decided to share it on social media in a shocking post.
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The candid admission was made on Reddit by user @throwmeaway29305, with a lengthy thread explaining how he got to the root of his knotty family tree.
Eager to learn more about his ‘ancestry composition’, he recalled how the website had advertised the DNA kits as nearly half off – leading to buy two kits: one for himself and one for his father.
Thinking it would be some harmless fun, the forum user immediately mailed off the test and hoped for some interesting results.
Whilst he got what he wished for, it turns out the apple did fall far from the tree, as the men’s ancestry was a ‘little off’.
“The first thing my dad and I did was compare our ancestry composition and I noticed it was a bit... off to say the least,” revealed the Reddit user.
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"He is highly British and Irish (most strongly connected to the UK) with a small bit of French and German. I am mostly Scandinavian (most strongly connected to Sweden) with over a quarter French and German and some Italian."
It then dawned on the father and son that they were not biologically related, leading to the breakdown of the parents' decades-long marriage.
He even had to address this with his mum, who’d be unaware of the seeds of descent within the family.
"My mum came home and he confronted her about it,” he wrote online: “She lost it and admitted she knew I was some other man’s child all along and would’ve tried to stop us had she known we got the tests.”
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The unwitting internet sleuth also added that his parents were divorcing after another branch of the family tree was discovered.
In fact, the test showed that the Reddit user’s real father was on the database, as well as a possible half-sibling who shared 26.3 per cent of their DNA.
Such stories have become increasingly common with the rise of online DNA kits, with a similar story of a man finding out four out of his five children were not his.
The irony has been lost on companies like Ancestry, who even advertise the kits with special Father’s Day discounts - yes, really.
Maybe skip the sales, if you don’t want to risk digging up the past though.
Topics: Weird, Reddit, Parenting, Technology, Science
Katherine Sidnell