Latest update:25 December 2025 at 6:46 PM IST

The woman was always told that her biological father was a “special person” who paid child support but never formed a relationship with her

This discovery uncovers a long-hidden family secret, leaving her traumatized and estranged from her siblings as she searches for answers. (canvas)

A routine DNA test, carried out out of curiosity, has upended a woman’s understanding of her identity, after revealing that the man she believed for years to be her father was not biologically related to her.

The woman, whose account was widely discussed on Reddit, said she decided to take the test after her husband received his results from a similar service. What she expected to be a light exploration of her ancestry instead revealed a closely guarded family secret involving her parents and siblings.

According to her post, she and her two older brothers were adopted by their grandparents when they were children. Their mother, who became a mother at a young age, struggled with addiction, imprisonment, and instability, leaving the children in the care of their grandparents. The woman said she always knew her siblings had a different biological father, and that she was considered their half-sister, a fact she was often reminded of while growing up.

She was told that her father was a “special person” who paid child support but never formed a relationship with her. As a child, she watched her siblings spend time with their father and longed for a similar bond. As she grew older and began asking questions, she said she frequently received ambiguous or variable answers. On occasion, her mother tried to introduce other men as her father, which the woman rejected as insincere.

Eventually, she stopped trying to contact the man she was told was her biological father, believing he was deliberately keeping her distance.

This belief collapsed when the DNA test results arrived. To her shock, the platform showed a strong paternal match with the same man who fathered her two older brothers, and the match was confirmed because he also took a DNA test and uploaded his profile.

The woman said she is currently estranged from her brothers and has not shared this discovery with them yet. Seeking clarification, she turned first to her grandmother, who admitted that she had long suspected the truth. Her grandmother also claimed that the man originally called her father had avoided DNA testing in the past, and suggested the woman’s mother may have hidden the truth.

However, her mother rejected the new results, insisting that a previous DNA test conducted by the state had confirmed that the other man was the father, a claim the woman now doubts, especially since her grandmother had legal custody at the time. Her mother also said DNA tests were “not reliable.”

Read more