Hi Jake,
Let me start by saying that I’ve never written a letter like this to a website, but I knew about this column and something so utterly “cray” happened in my weird, gay life that I felt like I had no choice but to reach out.
So, I’ve been seeing a guy for two months now. We met initially on Grindr for a casual hookup earlier this summer, and quickly that evolved into a relationship. However, last weekend, he introduced me to his parents. To my horror, I noticed upon laying eyes on his father that I had hooked up with him once three years ago, before even knowing his son. My sense was the father in question didn’t recognize me until the end of the meeting, but said nothing.
I am now very conflicted about what to do. Do I… A.) Pretend I do not know the father, B.) Tell my boyfriend that his daddy was my “daddy” in a past hookup, or C.) Just wash my hands of all parties in this unbelievably strange situation?
I need some serious “fatherly” advice! 😂
Daddy’s Little Secret
Dear Daddy’s Little Secret,
Wow! This story is giving major Euphoria vibes, and just like Hunter Schafer, it seems like you’ve unknowingly gotten yourself into quite a predicament (glitter eye-shadow optional).
I often hear of people in the gay world sleeping with various people inside their friendship groups, or even in the workplace. It’s a small gay world, after all. But rarely does it cross a… generation gap.
First of all, just whoa. This is a lot. Give yourself some time to process the shock (and trauma, honestly) of what’s happening here. I would imagine you are pretty freaked out, and maybe even a little scared.
Is your own real life Eric Dane going to tell his son first, and upset your relationship with your boyfriend? Does this have the potential to come out and expose your “daddy” as being secretly gay, if he’s indeed still with a woman (perhaps even your boyfriend’s mom)!? Could there be coercion or threats involved to keep you quiet?
You might need some serious support and self-care during this time.
Again, I don’t know if your boyfriend’s father is out of the closet or not, but if he’s not, it’s evident that there’s clearly a lot of daddy’s (literally) out there on the D.L. Perhaps you live in a small town, where the Grindr options are limited, or the stars simply aligned to put you in the most random of predicaments.
Regardless, what’s apparent here is there is a previous relationship that not everyone in the situation is privy to.
Your boyfriend clearly has no idea what’s up, and if he did know, it’s not like this is just another friend of his, which would be weird, but maybe eventually palatable. This is his father, and he might be really creeped/freaked out, so you’re going to have to tread lightly.
I don’t think it’s a good idea to pretend you don’t know the father, and not mention anything to your boyfriend. Holding something so deeply personal and important from your partner is only going to create a wedge between you. It’s never good to have secrets, because unconsciously those affect intimacy and closeness with one another.
At the same time, if you come right out with it to your boyfriend, you might be unwittingly outing his father, and coming out as gay or bisexual is a very personal experience between any two family members. Perhaps his father was planning to come out to his son on his own terms, or in his own way. You don’t want to be the atomic bomb that comes in and devastates the entire family.
Since walking away doesn’t seem like the right thing either, I’m going to propose a fourth option here. What if you were to contact “daddy” directly, and talk about how you can both handle this in the best way possible? That way, you can find out from him where he is in terms of coming out, and if he’d rather tell his son directly.
This might sound scary, but what you’re doing is passing the responsibility onto him first. After all, he’s probably the one holding the even bigger secret. You might even agree to both sit your boyfriend down and tell him the situation together.
If he ends up threatening you, or trying to silence you, don’t forget you have the power here, because at any moment you could reveal his secret. Mention to him that unless he tells your boyfriend first, you’re going to have to do it eventually yourself. After all, it’s unhealthy to keep a secret this big. I might even think about telling a close friend about the situation as well, just so there’s someone else in the know, in case things should ever feel unsafe (god forbid).
Eventually, whether it be before, after, or alongside his father, you’ll need to calmly and respectfully explain the situation to your partner. Remind him that this is not something you had any control over. After all, who would have ever thought you would eventually be dating his son? Make room for lots of feelings and reactions, and maybe even some anger directed towards you. Those are valid feelings, and they just need a voice.
If your boyfriend loves you, you can get past this. It’s going to be a tough time for him to adjust to the news, both in how it affects his relationship with you, and also his father. Give him space and patience when he requires it. At the end of the day, it’s not your fault that two people who are related both had the same attraction towards you. Clearly, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
Ask Jake is our advice column by Queerty columnist and Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist Jake Myers. If you have a question for Jake, please email [email protected] for consideration.
arizonia
I would disagree with the advice and go with the option to break things off with this guy. You have been seeing each other for two months, not two years. I do not see a path ahead in which you can go further/get more serious in this relationship short of this guy going no contact with his family. Are you going to keep this a secret for 5 years, 10 years, until the dad dies? How will your partner react when he learns you have been keeping this secret?
Mary Jane
Well, what if you talk to your newfound friend and inquire about his dad and see if the son, your new friend, knows that his dad is gay or closeted? You can mention that some friend of yours had a one-night stand with an older man, and later met the son, and started dating the son.
Say your friend never told the son/your bf, in case he was the One. The son will figure it out. Let him make the decision to stay or go. By the way, this is not uncommon to hook up with a daddy/father of a friend, uncle, brother, a priest, etc.
mdrguy1
Terrible advice, if you ask me. How can there be a future when you slept with his dad?! His (likely) closeted gay dad, no less. You cheated on his mom with his dad. Unknowingly, yes, but you were a party to that; and once you tell him, I can almost promise you that every time he sees you, he will see that. I would definitely talk to the dad 1:1 and get a sense of where he is; and I would encourage him to come out. But I’d also suggest that the past hook-up remain in the past and between you two ONLY. Even under the best of circumstances, this strikes me as a dead-end relationship. Personally, I’d think up reasons to end it, to spare myself the drama downstream. Not worth it imho
ladron
Whether the father comes out or not is his own decision and responsibility. The boyfriend hooked up with the father in the past – there is no obligation to reveal, relive, or rectify that e3xperience.
dwick
Just ignore it. Boyfriend/Son doesn’t need to know Dad and OP hooked up. Dad probably doesn’t want him to know. Keep it a secret.
ladron
Bad advice all the way around. Force the father to out himself to the son? Why? Go back to the basic responsibility – who owes who an explanation? The father owes his wife (the mother) the truth, and that’s where it ends. Neither the son nor the son’s boyfriend are owed an explanation nor should they pressure the father to reveal his past actions. It is not the boyfriend’s place or responsibility to tell anyone anything. And once the truth is out, there’s no going back. Best course of action – bow out and seek love elsewhere. Knowingly walking into a family of drama makes no sense.
OzMarco
Agree completely. For a trained mental health professional, Jake’s advice is pretty dodgy if you ask me!
It would be extremely poor form for the poster to ‘out’ the Daddy under any circumstances. The hookup was between consenting adults and both should be able to expect discretion from eachother… this is not conditional.
By all means speak with the Daddy one to one should the opportunity present itself, but I don’t see there’s anything to be gained by sharing the information with anyone else, nor is there any moral obligation to do so.
I must admit I’m surprised nobody has touched on the potential for some kinky three-way fun… but that thought was from my evil slutty-twin!?
trell
This is horrible advice.
There are at least 4 people to consider here, the poster, his boyfriend, the daddy, and the wife, not to mention other family members.
The hookup was just a hookup. It happened, it was fun, and that’s all it should be.
The issue is that now, the poster has been put into a really awkward family situation, and privy to info and some potentially damaging secrets. Does he dish or not? If so, to who?
But none of this takes into account the considerations of the others. If the daddy is a closet case and not ready to come out, it would be highly irresponsible to force the situation. It’s not just the threat of violence that is potentially there, but the long term harm. What if it completely destroys the family, or daddy ends up taking his life rather than face the shame?
Personally, I would advise treading carefully. There would need to be some sort of conversation between poster and daddy, and it shouldn’t be anything more than “Don’t worry. What happened in the past stays in the past. I am your son’s boyfriend. I am not going to do anything to jeapordise that, but I also want you to know I won’t do or say anything to make things awkward. I love your son, I respect you as his father.”, then just treat the daddy respectfully as the father of the boyfriend, develop a good stable friendship, and above all else, DO NOT be tempted to reignite the hookup from 3 years ago.
My2CentsWorth
Your advice was the best. I hope that the advice seeker (and this should be for all in such a situation – even if this is a made-up incident) will get to read your answer.
It would be good for the advice seeker to reach out to the father and assure him that the incident would be a secret of the two and that the advice seeker knows that the father is stressing out over this. I will never get into such a situation but if I did I might, in the conversation with the father, tell him that the relationship with the son will end.
Assure the father that you don’t want to harm him and that you realize that it would be bad cause him harm and that the advice seeker has no desire to do so.
Unless the son is such a desirable person it would be best to not be in a relationship with him.
Should end the relationship in a decent way. Not by just ignoring the son but by telling him that it will end and not revealing why. Maybe “I like you but I don’t want to continue with the relationship and this has nothing to do with you”. Never, never reveal the reason.
Louis
Plenty of couples do not go through the “tell me about all of your conquests” conversation.
So, if OP and the boyfriend aren’t doing that, there’s no need to mention anything. If they are doing it, then to intentionally omit is problematic.
I’m sure if they were walking down the straight and passed/saw one of their previous liaisons they wouldn’t point out “Hey, I know you didn’t ask, but him over there…we hooked up!”. So why point to the father (behind his back) and say “We hooked up!”?
No need.
Kangol2
The plural of “daddy” is “daddies,” not “daddy’s.” I don’t understand why this is so difficult but English is one of the easiest languages in which to make plurals. You do not need an apostrophe.
“Daddy’s” means something belongs to Daddy or a daddy possesses it. “That is Tom’s daddy’s car.” “This house is Daddy’s legacy.”
Plural “daddies” possessing things would be “daddies’.” So: “those daddies’ dreams have come true.” “Daddies’ votes count as much as anyone else’s.”
Carry on.
OzMarco
????well said!
Fahd
Glad I´m not the only one who thought the advice given was not on target. There´s no salvaging things. It has to be a “it’s not you, it’s me” breakup. As for the father, it would be kind to reassure him privately that you won’t spill the beans, but I wouldn’t say it’s a requirement. Extracating yourself from this unfortunate powderkeg of a sitiuation is a requirement though, and you will feel better about yourself in the long run, even if you feel he’s the one who got away in the short term.
Seth
If you love him, tell him. The truth has a habit of always coming out and you don’t want to be in the “you kept the truth from me” camp. I know it’s cliche, but honesty is the best policy.
bachy
Deny, deny, deny. Pretend you don’t remember hooking up with the Dad (i.e., you were drunk, you were high, it was dark, all Dads look the same to you, whatever). The Dad won’t bring it up and neither should you.
There is no photographic evidence. It never happened.
Troyfight
Yep….totally agree.
Paulie P
why is the response ;like reading a book? always! WTF.
simple answer:
go on with the relationship, if the dad pulls you aside one day and say hey, then address it but until then enjoy yourself.
next.