Friends can become as close as a family over time. However, sometimes they keep secrets that we are unaware of. Here are 14 stories of people who were shocked when they discovered the truth about those they thought they knew inside and out.

We became best friends around the age of 15. We shared makeup and clothes, and talked about guys. When I started a serious relationship at 19, she began interfering in our relationship. I started to suspect that she liked my BF. But it turned out she was in love with me. When she confessed, I was distraught. We tried to keep things friendly but it was too awkward and soon we stopped communicating.
I discovered that my friend had an affair with my boyfriend while I was on a trip. Fast-forward two years to my wedding to that same boyfriend, and she told me right before I walked down the aisle.
© jenny82nc / Reddit
A friend of mine, whom I hadn’t known for long at the time, told me to Google his name. When I did, a news article popped up detailing how he had stolen thousands of dollars worth of wiring from train tracks, caused nearly half a million dollars worth of damage, and disrupted the city’s entire public transport system. Very interesting dude. I found out a lot of surprising things about him. © discoier / Reddit
I had a friend who always talked about their best friend—the conversations they had, the things they did together. It turned out my friend’s “best friend” was actually a split personality. My friend was schizophrenic and wasn’t diagnosed until many years later. © PM_ME_THEM_CURVES / Reddit

I found out that my friend kept his boogers in a jar and ate them as a secret addiction. It freaked me out, so I stopped hanging around him. © skinnnns / Reddit
When my “best friend” died, I discovered that I had never really known her at all. She was a pathological liar. She had told me she was born in New Zealand and moved to the U.S. when she was two, but she was actually born and raised in New Jersey. She also claimed her middle name was different from the one listed in her obituary.
The craziest lie was that she had a younger sister who was hit by a car and died as a toddler. She had a tattoo of roses that she insisted was for her sister, and would fall apart crying every November on what she said was her sister’s date of death. It turned out that sister never existed. © mrsmoffbricks / Reddit
My best friend of 17 years became extremely jealous of my healthy romantic relationship and revealed herself to be narcissistic. She used my grandpa’s death as an excuse to reach out and accuse me of being a horrible person. She’s no longer in my life. © BackgroundChard1 / Reddit

A former friend admitted to me that she had faked a pregnancy to stay with a wealthy guy she was seeing. Her plan was for her family to squeeze out some, if not a lot, of money from him before dumping him. © Advanced_Hat_3548 / Reddit
I had a friend whom I had known quite closely for years. She claimed to have a wide range of ailments, from Celiac disease to autism. I went out of my way to accommodate her needs, ensuring there was no gluten in her food, taking her to places that wouldn’t overwhelm her senses, and being understanding if she wanted to go home early or needed space. I was also a shoulder to cry on when she struggled with infertility due to her PCOS (or so she claimed), and I was patient with her ADHD.
It turns out she was faking it all. To this day, I’m not sure why she would do this, but I suspect it was a form of attention-seeking and possibly a sign of narcissism. © CopperHead49 / Reddit
I recently found out from a friend that another friend has been spying on their ex for several years. They knew all the ex’s passwords and the system for choosing passwords, and had been reading all emails and checking bank transactions. They have several children together, but this person has been systematically malicious. The person doing it has been told to stop, and the other was told to change their passwords. © Wheres_that_to / Reddit

My “best friend” of 20 years had a secret obsession with my ex throughout our marriage. I recently found out that they even had an affair. © eat_sleep_*** / Reddit
I had two people who I thought were really good friends. One day, I was hanging out with one of them, and we were about to go out, so she was fixing her makeup. Being too busy to text our other friend about our plans, she asked me to do it.
While texting, I accidentally scrolled up into their previous messages and saw them talking absolute trash about me. They were making fun of things I had said, sharing my pictures and mocking them, and just all sorts of mean-spirited stuff. I never brought it up.
Thankfully, we later had a falling out, and I don’t associate with them anymore. © margaret0619 / Reddit
After an eight-year friendship, I discovered that this person was only friends with me because she had few friends and wanted access to my work connections. © cawfytawk / Reddit
My childhood best friend’s mom was Miss Perfect. Always had the best snacks made for play dates, house was perfectly neat, hair perfectly combed, she was everyone’s softball coach, Girl Scout leader, class mom, everything! My mom said when she used to see her when picking us kids up from school, her mom’s breath ALWAYS smelt perfectly minty fresh. Like she was so perfect. I am in college now and recently attended her funeral. She was suffering from bad habits that drove her to her grave. © dm_me_your_dog / Reddit
This doesn’t just happen among friends; sometimes even family members keep dark secrets from their loved ones.