Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard

Podbit · Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard

Armchair Anonymous: Family Secret

Explore episode Jul 3, 2026
Society & Culture
Jessica's Mom Kept Two Secret Adoptions — and a Secret Relationship

Armchair Anonymous: Family Secret · Jul 3, 2026 Society & Culture

Shortly after her mother died in 2021, Jessica received a Facebook message from a stranger saying 'Hi, this is your sister.' It turned out her mother had secretly given up two children for adoption in the 1960s — a boy in 1964 and a girl in 1966 — before marrying. Her mother had even maintained a secret three-year relationship with the half-sister before dying, asking her to reach out after her death with the message: 'I hope they forgive me.'

6m 30s

Where this was said

Jessica's Story: Two Secret Half-Siblings and a Mother's Hidden Past

At 34:20 · chapter starts 33:30

Jessica sets the scene with care: her mother grew up Catholic in tiny Winooski, Vermont, was forcibly moved to Michigan before her senior year of high school by an authoritarian, alcoholic Detroit police officer father, and spent her life never disclosing what happened next. In 1966, she gave up a biracial baby girl through Catholic Social Services — and the family's only witnesses, two brothers, happened to be away at the Air Force that entire year. When the half-sister did a 23andMe test and matched with cousins, she pieced together her birth mother's identity, called Jessica's mom, and was told: 'Yeah, I did have a couple of kids before my kids'. The paperwork the half-sister held also revealed a boy born in 1964, also surrendered — a second secret. Most eerily: the adoptive family had given the 1966 daughter the exact same first and middle name as Jessica's mother later chose for her own known daughter, entirely by coincidence. Jessica's mother maintained a secret phone and text relationship with her half-daughter for three years before dying, asking her to reach out to her known daughters afterward with the message: 'I hope they forgive me.' The eventual meeting in Michigan — including a Bob's Big Boy lunch with the half-brother — produced photos so genetically obvious that Jessica's uncle declared: 'If we saw him on the street, we'd think he was one of our uncles.'

Society & Culture
The Eerie Name Coincidence That Gives Everyone Chills

Armchair Anonymous: Family Secret · Jul 3, 2026 Society & Culture

Ten years after giving up her daughter for adoption, Jessica's mother named her own known daughter the exact same first and middle name — same spelling — as the adoptive parents had given the child she surrendered. She had no idea. When the half-sister revealed this, Jessica's mom was shaken. 'Did you know that was my name?' 'I had no idea.'

56s
Society & Culture
The Half-Brother Who Looks Like a Lost Uncle

Armchair Anonymous: Family Secret · Jul 3, 2026 Society & Culture

Years after finding her half-sister, Jessica's family tracked down the half-brother her mother gave up in 1964. When Jessica's uncle saw a photo, he said: 'If we saw him on the street, we'd think he was one of our uncles.' Jessica met him in person at a Bob's Big Boy in Michigan — and says the family resemblance is undeniable.

1m 15s

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