17 Secrets that Reddit Users Prefer to Hide From Their Partners

Someone turned to Reddit to ask, “What’s one thing your partner doesn’t know?” and the replies quickly took a wholesome turn. Instead of exposing ugly truths, various users opened up about the kind acts they do or have done for their significant other without them knowing. Each story radiates love in its purest form, and it’s tough not to get teary-eyed.

• My girlfriend struggles with insomnia, but for some reason when I talk to her late at night, she passes out almost immediately. So whenever I read a book, I read out loud softly under the guise that it helps me focus. It works every time. © xxzaif / Reddit
• She suffers from depression, and when she hits a slump, she feels like laying in bed and doing nothing, even though 99.9% of the time just getting out of bed and doing something, ANYTHING, will make a dramatic difference in her day. So usually when she hits a slump, I’ll manufacture some fake emergency that only she can help me solve, like, “Hey babe, I think one of the cats has a scratch on his face but he won’t hold still for me to look.” Of course, the cat is fine, but I just tricked her into getting out of bed and doing something, and that’s always the hardest part. © shutterpunts / Reddit
• Whenever we get fast food to go, she enjoys eating the extra fries that have fallen out of their box and into the bag. I’m not really sure why she enjoys them so much, but whenever there aren’t any, I drop a few down when grabbing my fries secretly and then give her the bag. It’s been 8 years. I always grab my fries last and she’s never noticed. © NecromanticGarden / Reddit

• He doesn’t know that he’s been my teenage crush since I was 12 and I wrote so many beautiful poems about him. We have been married for 6 years and have a child together. I don’t know if I will ever have the courage to tell him that I have always loved him. © Mai128 / Reddit
• When we were dating, she tickled my feet and I acted as if I wasn’t ticklish. 13 years later, she will tickle them and be amazed I am not ticklish, but every time it tickles. I have to hide this forever. © dontworryimstupid / Reddit
• Very early in the relationship, after the second date, his monitor broke right on a Sunday. I knew he was an avid gamer, so I quickly bought a 27″ monitor on eBay and told him I had that laying around. While he was on the way to me, I power walked through half the town to get it and quickly changed clothes because it was drizzling. He had low income and no money and I didn’t want him to feel like he was in my debt. We’re over 2 years together now. © Nemdolas / Reddit

• I put “no salt” salt into the salt shaker he keeps on his table near his video games. He is notorious for over-salting his food and has high blood pressure. I’ve been doing this for almost 4 years now. He can’t tell the difference. © deckpumps_n_deldos / Reddit
• I try to give her the “better half of life.” If there are 2 pieces of pizza left and one piece is burnt, I’ll take the burnt one. She gets the good piece. If I’m going to shower and there’s one normal towel left, I will use a hand rag or something to dry off — she gets the towel. If there’s that unwanted end of the bread loaf, I’ll make myself a sandwich using that sad end piece. I’ll then make her sandwich with the good pieces. I do this all the time for the smallest things. She never knows. I try to make her life better in those small ways. © phillythompson / Reddit
• I pretend to be asleep when he wakes up because I love how sweetly he wakes me up. © throwawaythewayside / Reddit

• That I knew he was planning to propose to me but I still acted surprised. We’ve been married for 14 years now and still haven’t told him. He is so proud of the idea that he managed to surprise me. © Syntania / Reddit
• My husband borrows my concealer sometimes to cover up acne. Problem is, he has this beautiful olive skin and I have very fair skin, so it didn’t match, but he was too embarrassed to buy his own concealer, so he insisted on just using whatever I was using. So I bought him his own and put it in the spot where he knows to look for mine. It took me a few tries but I eventually got the right color match. © megpal426 / Reddit
• When we worked together, someone kept stealing food from my husband’s lunchbox. He started deliberately packing more food. He assumed the person was stealing food because they were hungry and couldn’t afford it. I found out who did it. She hated him and was doing it to try to piss him off. I told her if she did it again I would make a big stink of it but never told him because I didn’t want to shatter his illusion that he was doing a nice thing for someone who really needed it. © Heysandyitspete / Reddit

• Me and my partner of more than eight years separated three years ago, but she is one of the most important people in my life. My lady knows this, and that’s absolutely not an issue at all. She has great respect for that relationship and its importance as a part of my story. But what my current partner has no idea of, is that I continue to support her in her PhD endeavors, and I still pay half of all her bills until she graduates. I also cover 100% of expenses for our dog, which she kept, even though we now live on opposite sides of the planet. All I want is for her to be happy and healthy and comfortable. Even though I think we are better apart, and I’m actually the one that initiated our separation, I still get incredibly sad that we didn’t work out. © Gambition / Reddit
• That I don’t need to read aloud. My girlfriend struggles with insomnia but for some reason when I talk to her late at night she passes out almost immediately. So whenever I read a book I read out loud softly under the guise that it helps me focus. It works every time. © xxzaif / Reddit
• I didn’t say I love you first. I had said “I love it” referring to her laugh and she misheard me, and responded with “I love you too”. We had been dating for almost a year at that point and I realized there was no point correcting her since I did actually love her. Eight years and a wedding later and she still doesn’t know, and I’ll probably take it to my grave. © Fakjbf / Reddit

• I used to sneak money into his wallet when he was in uni and he didn’t have any money to go have lunch with his friends. Every few weeks he’d tell me how happy he was that he had found £10 or £20 in his wallet that he had forgotten about and that he could have lunch with his friends/ © natm4 / Reddit
• I’m the primary parent of my kids due to a less crazy work schedule. My wife was really sad because oldest, then only, kid was really attached to me when she was little, so I spent a lot of time teaching her to say ’mama’ before she learned to say ’daddy’, then when it worked I pretended to be a bit grumpy about it. © Incognit0ErgoSum / Reddit

When was the last time you did a secret act of kindness? Help us spread some positivity by sharing your own story in the comments!