Family Secrets is a production of I Heart Radio. This January, Danny's taking Family Secrets on the road. To get your tickets, visit Danny Shapiro dot com. I'm Danny Shapiro and this is Family Secrets, the secrets that are kept from us, the secrets we keep from others, and the secrets we keep from ourselves. I've heard from so many about your own family secrets and realize that what we are creating for each other on this podcast is a community, a community for those who are looking for a safe and supportive space to unburden themselves. To that end, we've created a number for listeners to call in to record stories to share here in this space. This week, I'd like to share a few of those stories from our community. Thanks for listening. Hi, Danny, Um, I am calling from Ohio. UM. I am sixty years old, just turned sixty. All of my life I felt as though I did not look like um. My birth certificate fathers like him or his family. And I'm eight years apart from my brother and six years apart from my sister in age. So I had questioned that all my life. I in Christmas of eighteen, I took it ancestry DNA tests and discovered that my truth, my feelings were actually truth. UM, that my who I knew as my father all my life was not my father. I actually found through then getting a DNA detective to help me research it, that I have a half sister and a half niece in California, UM, and I was given contact information. I contacted her. She knew all about me. UM. It was very emotional for me hearing someone say, you're my sister. I've known about you since I was sixteen, so I am two years older than her I would have been eighteen. UM. So I'm still trying to wrap my head around how all these people knew about me and no one told me, No one slipped ever, and everyone is deceased now, my parents, UM, my real father, everyone. So I have one elderly cousin to my birth father that has been extremely helpful showing me photos and telling me stories of my father, my birth father. So it's it's been a struggle, a long journey and of an emotional roller coaster. And my story goes a lot deeper than that. I have love letters my mother wrote. My half sister provided me with stacks of love letters she wrote during her pregnancy with me, which gave me some of the answers to what went on, but still left me with more questions. I just wanted to share that, and UM, I thank you for listening. Ye him. My secret is that I was dating someone on Tinder and I got pregnant and I had his day. Um. But the real secret is I actually don't know who the father is. UM. And this was really really difficult for me to expressed to my family. I am from a Muslim family, in a practicing Muslim family, and so for me to even be pregnant, uh, with anybody's child is like a shock anybody's child out of marriage. UM. For me to be pregnant with someone's child who I was seeing on Tinder is something they probably couldn't have handled. So I basically told them a lie about me needing someone I had to like. I kind of got married to them, we eloped pregnant. I don't think they believe it to this day, but UM, that's kind of the story that I was I was feeling comfortable telling them. UM. If they ever found out that I actually don't know who the father is, I think that they would just be mind boggle. Mind. Boggle is the word that comes to my mind. Um. But it happened, and it happens. It happens, um, not just in my face, it happens everybody, like all around the world. Where you make certain decisions in your life, UM, and you then decide what you're going to do with those decisions. UM. And so I chose to have the baby, UM. And I am so glad, so glad that I had my child. I just adore him, I love him to it. I don't know yet how I'm going to break it to him that I don't know who the father is. But I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. Hey, Danny, I found out one of our family's secrets about twenty years ago. UM. I was married at the time and having a hard time conceiving a child myself. And around the same time, my sister was going through a hard time and I haven't to speak to her childhood friend whom I have not had not talked to and cry a long while. And she, in the course of conversation, mentioned something about having when she was there for my sister's um last child when her last child was born, and I mentioned my nephew's name, and she kind of realized that I didn't know, but she went ahead and told me that no, she meant her third child and must only have two. And I learned that she had found out she was pregnant while she was in between marriages, and it was too far along to make any other decision than to have the child and give it up for adoption. Of course, I was hurt that she hadn't thought of me, knowing that that I so desperately wanted a child, But the friend explained to me that she had thought of that. I thought it would be too difficult to have this child be so ever present in her life, so instead she chose to um because it maybe up to her friend's cousin. To this day, I have never talked about it to anyone in my family. I don't know if my sister knows that I know. I don't know if my mom or my dad had known, or I have no idea. UM. Maybe one day I'll get up courage to actually ask her. With all this DNA testing, I can't help but wonder, one of these days is there going to be this kid? This man um piving me a message thing? I think I'm part of your family. Well, thanks, Danny, I appreciate you're listening to my story, and I look forward to hearing other people's stories of If you'd like to share your story, call one eight Secret zero and record your story. We won't be able to run all the stories, but we do want to shine a light on as many as we count. The number again is one eight eight Secret and then the numeral zero. For more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

Family Secrets is a production of I Heart Radio. This January, Danny's taking Family Secrets on the road. To get your tickets, visit Danny Shapiro dot com. I'm Danny Shapiro and this is Family Secrets, the secrets that are kept from us, the secrets we keep from others, and the secrets we keep from ourselves. I've heard from so many about your own family secrets and realize that what we are creating for each other on this podcast is a community, a community for those who are looking for a safe and supportive space to unburden themselves. To that end, we've created a number for listeners to call in to record stories to share here in this space. This week, I'd like to share a few of those stories from our community. Thanks for listening. Hi, Danny, Um, I am calling from Ohio. UM. I am sixty years old, just turned sixty. All of my life I felt as though I did not look like um. My birth certificate fathers like him or his family. And I'm eight years apart from my brother and six years apart from my sister in age. So I had questioned that all my life. I in Christmas of eighteen, I took it ancestry DNA tests and discovered that my truth, my feelings were actually truth. UM, that my who I knew as my father all my life was not my father. I actually found through then getting a DNA detective to help me research it, that I have a half sister and a half niece in California, UM, and I was given contact information. I contacted her. She knew all about me. UM. It was very emotional for me hearing someone say, you're my sister. I've known about you since I was sixteen, so I am two years older than her I would have been eighteen. UM. So I'm still trying to wrap my head around how all these people knew about me and no one told me, No one slipped ever, and everyone is deceased now, my parents, UM, my real father, everyone. So I have one elderly cousin to my birth father that has been extremely helpful showing me photos and telling me stories of my father, my birth father. So it's it's been a struggle, a long journey and of an emotional roller coaster. And my story goes a lot deeper than that. I have love letters my mother wrote. My half sister provided me with stacks of love letters she wrote during her pregnancy with me, which gave me some of the answers to what went on, but still left me with more questions. I just wanted to share that, and UM, I thank you for listening. Ye him. My secret is that I was dating someone on Tinder and I got pregnant and I had his day. Um. But the real secret is I actually don't know who the father is. UM. And this was really really difficult for me to expressed to my family. I am from a Muslim family, in a practicing Muslim family, and so for me to even be pregnant, uh, with anybody's child is like a shock anybody's child out of marriage. UM. For me to be pregnant with someone's child who I was seeing on Tinder is something they probably couldn't have handled. So I basically told them a lie about me needing someone I had to like. I kind of got married to them, we eloped pregnant. I don't think they believe it to this day, but UM, that's kind of the story that I was I was feeling comfortable telling them. UM. If they ever found out that I actually don't know who the father is, I think that they would just be mind boggle. Mind. Boggle is the word that comes to my mind. Um. But it happened, and it happens. It happens, um, not just in my face, it happens everybody, like all around the world. Where you make certain decisions in your life, UM, and you then decide what you're going to do with those decisions. UM. And so I chose to have the baby, UM. And I am so glad, so glad that I had my child. I just adore him, I love him to it. I don't know yet how I'm going to break it to him that I don't know who the father is. But I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. Hey, Danny, I found out one of our family's secrets about twenty years ago. UM. I was married at the time and having a hard time conceiving a child myself. And around the same time, my sister was going through a hard time and I haven't to speak to her childhood friend whom I have not had not talked to and cry a long while. And she, in the course of conversation, mentioned something about having when she was there for my sister's um last child when her last child was born, and I mentioned my nephew's name, and she kind of realized that I didn't know, but she went ahead and told me that no, she meant her third child and must only have two. And I learned that she had found out she was pregnant while she was in between marriages, and it was too far along to make any other decision than to have the child and give it up for adoption. Of course, I was hurt that she hadn't thought of me, knowing that that I so desperately wanted a child, But the friend explained to me that she had thought of that. I thought it would be too difficult to have this child be so ever present in her life, so instead she chose to um because it maybe up to her friend's cousin. To this day, I have never talked about it to anyone in my family. I don't know if my sister knows that I know. I don't know if my mom or my dad had known, or I have no idea. UM. Maybe one day I'll get up courage to actually ask her. With all this DNA testing, I can't help but wonder, one of these days is there going to be this kid? This man um piving me a message thing? I think I'm part of your family. Well, thanks, Danny, I appreciate you're listening to my story, and I look forward to hearing other people's stories of If you'd like to share your story, call one eight Secret zero and record your story. We won't be able to run all the stories, but we do want to shine a light on as many as we count. The number again is one eight eight Secret and then the numeral zero. For more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.