17 Newlyweds Reveal The One Secret They Kept From Their Spouse Until Marriage

1. “Money, I had 15k in school debt (less than a lot of people I knew) but it came due as soon as I graduated college. My wife had paid her own way through college without any debt at all and this really bothered her since neither of us were exactly raking in the cash at 22. It put a serious strain on what should have been really happy marital years. We got through it but it was a near thing a few times. I wish I hadn’t kept it from her.”

—Roger, 28

2. “That he bought an engagement ring after we’d only been dating for a month and a half. We dated a year before he popped the question and when I asked him why he waited he said he didn’t want to freak me out. It’s literally the most romantic thing to ever happen to me and I’m still blown away by how sure he was that we should be together.”

—Melanie, 25

3. “She’d posed naked for a bunch of photos when she was 18 and I didn’t find out about it until we’d been married for two years. It wasn’t anything pornographic but it still bothered me that she’d never mentioned it. It wasn’t even that she’d posed for the photos it’s just like what else did you keep from me cause you thought it might upset me?”

—Mark, 30

4. “That he’d slept with my best friend in college.”

—Kimberly, 24

5. “She actually didn’t like dogs at all. Like, she’d told me she liked dogs because she knew I did and that I wanted one and she says she wanted me to be happy but hoped I’d never actually get one. Of course once we’d been married a few months I brought home the cutest mutt from the pound. That’s when I learned the truth and now she’s learning to love dogs.”

—James, 27

6. “That my wife actually hated perfume as in all perfume. I’d been buying her perfume for years and wondering why she so rarely wore it and she finally said ‘we need to talk’. It was sort of hilarious how much she’d built the moment up in her head as this big reveal that would crush me. It didn’t.”

—Nathan, 27

7. “He had a spending problem and that really killed our marriage. We were two years into it when creditor phone calls starting rolling in to our home phone. Apparently they’d given up calling his cell and that’s the only reason I found out he’d maxed out three different cards and had creditors threatening to repossess his car.”

—Gina, 30

8. “She’d been married previously and didn’t tell me. This really freaked me out at the time but it made a sort of sense. We got married when we were both in our late 20s but she’d previously gotten married when she was 18 to a high school sweetheart. That marriage lasted less than a year (which I confirmed) and when this all came out she’d told me she’d just wanted to make a clean break from that mistake. I mean, I get it. It was a different her.”

—Derrick, 31

9. “That he was molested by his uncle when he was very young. He told me this after we’d started to have some problems and he wanted to seek therapy. He’s much happier now and we’re much happier. At the time I was hurt that he felt he had to keep this from me but I understood. Please make sure not to use my real name. This is a very private thing for him although I know he wouldn’t mind the gist of it being out there.”

—Catherine

10. “He told all our personal business to his friends a lot of which came from me trying to work through some things (intimacy issues, not sex). Marriage was a big adjustment for me but him telling his friends all these personal things felt like a violation of trust. They also gave him terrible advice.”

—Jane, 26

11. “I don’t drink so this never came up but my wife is an alcoholic. She’s been sober 8 years now but she never told me until after we were married. If she had told then I would have worried about it, definitely, and I think she knew that. But now we’ve been together so long that I see how serious she is about her sobriety. I’ve never had an addiction but seeing her is really inspiring.”

—Richard, 32

12. “That my wife loves One Direction. We are both 30 and this is unacceptable.”

—Jack, 30

13. “That my ex-husband was still sleeping with his ex both the entire time we were dating and after we got married. Even better, he’d convinced me they were just friends and all that was over so the bitch was at the wedding.”

—Margaret, 28

14. “That my ex-wife had a history of not being able to manage her money. You don’t get like a credit report when you propose to somebody and she’d racked up tons of debt on her own. When we got married she just kept spending and built up 3,000 bucks of debt on store credit cards within our first six months of marriage. I only noticed when she started dipping into our joint account and her excuses for it didn’t add up. I have to pay alimony as a term of our divorce so I’m basically paying her bills for her and I have a ton of trust issues now. Good times.”

—Martin, 29

15. “That he was gay. Always great to find that out after you’ve been married for three years and trying to figure out why things are getting worse.”

—Jackie, 27

16. “I found out she loved anime which is hilarious because I’d assumed she’d hate it and had avoided letting her know I liked it the entire time we were dating. Finding out that she’d kept this a secret was like seeing the clouds part. We have plans for every weekend now. It’s great.”

—Paul, 25

17. “That she’d been dating a millionaire when we first met and that she broke up with him because she loved me. Maybe this is a guy thing but it was beautiful to know that she cared more about being with me than a prospect of a comfortable life never having to work. She’s amazing and I love that she’s my wife.”

—Patrick, 28