"It turns out that I have two half-siblings (twins) through my father who are not much older than my brother and me. When I confronted my father, he admitted to having a brief affair with their mother before he and my mother were able to resolve their marital difficulties. He's had no contact with my half-siblings except seeing them once when they were a year old. Things are solid between my parents now, and he begged me not to reveal what I learned to her or my brother."
"You have to sit down and really think about what you know about your mom, whether she would choose to accept this reality, how it would affect her emotionally, and whether she would leave your dad and live out the rest of her cancer-free life with someone more honest. If you think she'd be surprised but not totally destabilized, or if she would pack up her bags and rent a cottage with her best friend and live out the retirement of her fantasies, tell her."
A person discovered two half-siblings through a DNA test and learned their father had a brief affair years ago. The father admitted the affair, has had almost no contact with the half-siblings, and begged the child not to tell the mother or sibling. The mother has just completed chemotherapy for breast cancer. The recommended approach is to evaluate how the mother would react emotionally: tell her if she could accept the truth without being destabilized, but withhold the information if disclosure would devastate her or make her life worse despite the truth.
Read at Slate Magazine
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