Is secret second family a popular thing in UK?

Posted by uniyk@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 41 comments

The other day I found the TV show Mrs. Wilson, a bigamist who managed to have 4 secret families with 4 wives and 7 children in total, and all wives and kids were totally oblivious towards other families until his death. The show is good, and I searched for reviews and got more references to such shows, like Bliss 2018 and Goodnight Sweetheart. The strange realization hit me that all 3 shows mentioned under secret bigamy reddit discussions are from UK, even more astonishing that in 2023 there are still such news stories about secret second families! https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11976893/The-day-Daddy-secret-family-City-brokers-double-life-exposed-30-years.html https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/jan/06/experience-after-my-dad-died-i-tracked-down-his-secret-family Now I'm really curious, why British preople so inclined to bigamy? Why is it such a thing in UK? I understand certain occupations have the advantage to form a new family in other cities because of frequent travels, like lorry drivers and sailors, but it's not the case in aforementioned shows or real life stories. They even often live not far away from each other in the same city! WHY?

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41 Comments

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abek42@reddit

Didn't COVID put an end to this?

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DiscountRug@reddit

This is me. I can only admit it anonymously on Reddit though. I’m married to a lovely woman. But I met a barmaid and we hit it off. It’s been going on for years and now we have a son that my wife doesn’t know about. It’s only slightly complicated by the fact that I have to visit my girlfriend and son through a time portal to 1945.

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idontlikemondays321@reddit

I would read this if it were a book

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sickiesusan@reddit

Wow! That story sounds like it could make a good TV series, that must be happening all over the UK?

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Elvis_Precisely@reddit

tl;dr the Americans are much worse than us, as usual. The real answer is because it’s different to people’s real lives so they find it interesting. Not sure you can really count the inclusion of Goodnight Sweetheart, a 30 year old time travelling show where’s his two wives are never actually alive at the same time… Now, the Americans, they love a bit of bigamy. [In Utah, the punishment for Bigamy is no worse than a parking ticket](https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/05/12/us/bigamy-decriminalized-utah-trnd/index.html), if even enforced. There are also REALITY tv shows about Bigamy, and lots of them it seems: [The Sister Wives](https://m.imdb.com/title/tt1721666/): Kody Brown, his four wives Meri, Janelle, Robyn and Christine, and their 17 children try to live as a "normal" family despite looks of disdain. [Big Love:](https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0421030/#) A Utah polygamist who owns home improvement stores in the Salt Lake City area juggles relationships with three wives while trying to keep his complex family life from becoming a public scandal. [Polygamy USA](https://m.imdb.com/title/tt2960314/): Come along and see how the Polygamists of Centinnial Park live. Join the Thompsons, Hammons, and Cawleys as they each have their ups and downs and share with you how life in a Polygamist situation really is. [Escaping Polygamy:](https://m.imdb.com/title/tt4331478/plotsummary/?ref_=tt_ov_pl) Three sisters who left a polygamous group based in Salt Lake City, UT, help women break free of polygamy or escape from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) and the Apostolic United Brethren (AUB Church). Etc etc. In the US, it’s largely due to Mormonism (latter day saints) and the different and even more extreme offshoots of Mormonism. They seem to live in communities that work outside of the general laws of the US, and not for any good reason. Mostly because the local police have been bought off, or that they’re Mormon themselves, or simply because they don’t want to interfere. There’s plenty of Netflix documentaries about how messed up the extreme Mormon ~~Cults~~ Religions are.

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Zodiackillerstadia@reddit

"Why is it such a UK thing?" It isnt

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Chilton_Squid@reddit

90% of AskUK posts. "I saw a guy throw a cigarette out of his car window. Why is this such a UK thing?"

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EvilTaffyapple@reddit

> “I saw a man kick a puppy to death - is this normal in the UK?!?” This sub, beyond dumb.

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Chilton_Squid@reddit

"I just saw a child drinking a carton of Um-Bongo. Why are 100% of people in the UK absolutely obsessed with drinking Um-Bongo and why can't they just drink other things as well? Why do British people decide to live like this?"

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EvilTaffyapple@reddit

My wife’s father has a second family. He has a son with another woman.

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Valuable-Wallaby-167@reddit

>Now I'm really curious, why British preople so inclined to bigamy? Why is it such a thing in UK? Goodnight Sweetheart is about time travel. It might just be that it's not a realistic representation of day to day life in the UK.

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Lost-in-Limbo@reddit

Let's face it, who wouldn't do the nasty in the pasty!

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reddituserid01@reddit

Verily

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Ben750@reddit

I hope you don't work in Greggs.

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Lost-in-Limbo@reddit

Not since it got shut down for food hygiene!

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Zyeine@reddit

I did my GCSE in Temporal Shenanigans in 1997, I failed the first time so had to do it again and then passed first time! Unfortunately I altered the universe and erased Dodgy Jammers so now we have the other ones. Sorry about that.

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26326312@reddit

Yeah mate, we're all up to it. Personally, I've got 5 families on the go.

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ab00@reddit

I done know anyone who's done this. I've seen it come up many times on /r/askreddit when "family secret" or similar threads get posted, some are obviously usa based as they make that clear but many could be anywhere in the world if they dont state.

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uniyk@reddit (OP)

I looked into those posts too, but it's the thing that no US shows on such topic were suggested (or happen to elude me) that bothers me.

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Valuable-Wallaby-167@reddit

You somehow missed Sister Wives? I don't think you were looking very hard.

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uniyk@reddit (OP)

>Sister Wives Unbelievable! And the 'People also search for' is even more wild, I feel like suddenly thrown into an alien world. Not gonna watch those, the wiki page is crazy enough.

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ConfusedByTheDate@reddit

In this economy?!

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SnoopyMcDogged@reddit

I can’t afford a mistress let alone another family!

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Elster-@reddit

It’s extremely rare. Which is why the articles make it to the newspapers. It is also very illegal, so you can end up in jail.

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kriscardiac@reddit

That's their plan B. Jail is safer than being left to the two women.

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CTLNBRN@reddit

The family I grew up living next door to were a second family. I remember their son making a comment that his parents weren’t married and his dad was often away. It was only when the parents split up for good when I was a teenager my parents told me that the father was married to another woman and had another family. I don’t think it’s super common though. Especially not to that extent these days, they were together for well over 20 years with him living a double life. I’d be surprised if that’s even possible with the internet and social media.

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uniyk@reddit (OP)

You are the 7th reply in this thread and already a real person with knowledge of real life secret second family. The odds.

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utukore@reddit

The odds that someone browsing reddit might comment on a post relating to a personal experience they've had? Pretty high

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buzyapple@reddit

One of my husbands sister found out her partner and the father of her youngest child already had a family. They were the second family, I don’t think his sister married the man, but they were living together. He was a post man so I can’t work out how he excused himself all the time.

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Kennedy_Fisher@reddit

I know of two men who had secret families in my grandfather's generation, I think it was more of a thing back in the day. Especially as women would often wait for marriage / marry to get out of the house.

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CTLNBRN@reddit

Maybe it’s because we all have anecdotal experience and were drawn to the thread. 7 out of 70 million isn’t statistically significant.

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BisonMost1028@reddit

Could be that this show was so well received that showrunners took the formula and ran with it several more times. The country I lived in came out with a show about sports that was a surprise hit so now there are a ton of local shows all revolving around sports even though the country isn’t even especially known for sports.

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mtg101@reddit

It's particularly hard at this time of year... https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vYkIDdpHRew

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imminentmailing463@reddit

I doubt it. But it's good material for a TV show and makes for news stories people will click on. But you should never conclude something is prevalent on those bases.

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uniyk@reddit (OP)

I know it's a show, but somehow it happens to be all UK made? I didn't ask exclusively British people to recommend relevant shows.

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