http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SecretOtherFamily

Mayor Quimby, The Simpsons "Do you mind?! I am just trying to have a quiet meal with my secret other family!"

The ultimate way to introduce Parental Issues short of a murder plot. Your dad is revealed to have been hiding a life with a whole other family. In fact, if he's sneaky enough, from that family's perspective, yours might be the Secret Other Family. The secret family might eventually be folded into the main one if the legal spouse dies and the other decides to get Remarried to the Mistress.

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An occupation that requires one to travel (travelling salesman, ship's officer, pilot, etc.) is a great help in pulling this off.

Examples:

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Anime and Manga

In Attack on Titan, both Historia Reiss and Reiner Braun learn that they were the product of affairs and their fathers were distant due to having legitimate families of their own. Various degrees of Bastard Angst result from these revelations. Historia Reiss/Krista Lenz was born from Rod Reiss a powerful noble and the secret ruler of the walls. He fathered Historia with a simple farm woman named Alma, and gave her a life of ease, but later had Alma killed and forced Historia to join the survey corps under the name Krista . Reiss seems like he wants to reconnect with her, but really wants her to take up the Foundation Titan in his place so he will not be possessed by his ancestor, given he has no legitimate children to take the mantle . Reiner Braun was born when his mother Karina had an affair with a Marlayen kitchen worker. Karina convinces Reiner that joining the Warrior unit will result in the two reuniting, but when Reiner tracks him down he rejects Reiner in disgust, given that if his affair with an Eldian note Who are seen by the Marlayan people as evil demons and forced into ghettos woman was exposed he and his legitimate family could be executed . Eren learns from his father's diary that during the latter's time in Marley, he was married to a woman named Dina Fritz and had a son named Zeke. Likewise, Zeke deduced from Reiner's reports that Eren is his half-brother and sought to claim him.

and learn that they were the product of affairs and their fathers were distant due to having legitimate families of their own. Various degrees of Bastard Angst result from these revelations. Satoshi Oginome in Mawaru-Penguindrum either falls under this or Parent with New Paramour as we find out in Episode 8. His child from his first marriage, Ringo does not take it well.

in Mawaru-Penguindrum either falls under this or Parent with New Paramour as we find out in Episode 8. His child from his first marriage, does not take it well. In Mushishi, Ginko helps a woman and her son; the woman's husband is missing, and neither of them know what became of him. In the end, they find him living with his other family and child. Bittersweetly , the woman will never remember it, because of her anterograde amnesia. But she won't have to deal with the pain of knowing her beloved husband left her, either.

Comic Books

Dynamo5: Captain Dynamo/William Warner was not only was cheating on his wife Maddie Warner with one of his enemies (Chrysalis), but he had a daughter with Chrysalis named Cynthia. He had a second life behind his wife's back as he helped to raise Cynthia with Chrysalis. He was there at Cynthia's birth while missing Maddie Warner's award. He and Chrysalis exposed Cynthia to the same radiation that he used to gain his superpowers and he trained Cynthia to use her powers.

One of The Intimates' signature info scrolls mentions that when Punchy is 40, erectile dysfunction will threaten both of his marriages.

Lois Lane discovers this about Superman . Don't worry, Lois—it's actually a robotic clone of Superman . Obviously.

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Film

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Literature

Near the end of After Her by Joyce Maynard the narrator Rachel discovers that her (now deceased) father had a daughter he never told them about when the now-adult woman approaches her at a book signing. In a variation everyone was aware of the relationship that produced her and their father had been divorced from Rachel's mother (who's implied to have known about the girl's existence and not cared) for years by the time the other girl was born, but he never told Rachel and her sister Patti about her because Rachel once swore in a fit of anger she'd never forgive him if he had another child. At first Rachel rejects her half-sister, but the two reconcile after she saves Rachel from the Serial Killer who her father had tried and failed to find all those years ago.

Pasquinel in the novel (and later miniseries) Centennial.

A legionnaire in Codex Alera quips that he had to transfer far away from both of his usual postings when the wife in post A learned about the wife in post B.

Shows up once or twice in Judge Dee, usually due to a jealous First Wife denying her husband any concubines.

In Lives of the Monster Dogs Augustus Rank, the creator of the titular Dogs, discovered that his father had one of these after his mother died and his father moved back in with his mistress, whom he formally married shortly after. Later on Augustus murdered his half brother from that relationship after he found out that they were competing for the same woman and that his brother planned to run away with her.

In the P. G. Wodehouse story The Luck Of The Bodkins, about a transatlantic steamer, the author writes that on landing in New York, those of the crew "who are bigamists have long since got over the pang of parting from their wives and children in Southampton and are looking forward with bright affection to meeting their wives and children in New York."

In the Montague Egg short story False Weight, the late Mr. Wagstaffe had, under various aliases, wooed and married a woman in his every port of call. When the truth came out, there was a blunt object with his name on it.

In The Mortal Instruments Jace was unaware of Sebastian's existence, which led him to believe that he was Valentine's real son and Clary's blood brother. However, Sebastian spent his whole childhood knowing about Jace, but neither he nor his father knew about his sister Clary, and vice versa.

The book No Time For Goodbye by Linwood Barclay used this trope. The protagonist and narrator was married to a woman called Cynthia, and her father was secretly married to another woman. He used his job as an excuse to keep an eye on both families. His first wife was an abusive, domineering psycho who turned their son against him. While working, he met Cynthia's future mother, they hit it off, had Cynthia and an elder brother, and he managed to keep the act going for years. Then the first wife, suspicious, discovered the second family, killed the mother and son while they were shopping, and was about to kill Cynthia until the father promised to never have contact with her again.

The financial difficulties arising from supporting a Secret Other Family (Especially since wife #2 had a taste for extremely expensive dresses) was the criminal's motive in the Sherlock Holmes story Silver Blaze.

A Song of Ice and Fire: In the mythologized history of Westeros, the legendary figure of Florys the Fox is said to have kept three husbands, each ignorant of the other two. Fire & Blood: Sir Lucamore Strong of the Kingsguard ("The Lusty") had three wives, and sixteen children. Kingsguard aren't supposed to have any.

Troubled Blood: A bit of comic relief early in the novel has detective Robin Ellacott tailing a man her firm has nicknamed "Tufty" because of his Dodgy Toupee. Tufty's wife in Windsor suspected he was cheating on her. It turns out that while Tufty does have a mistress, he also is a bigamist with another wife. And Robin discovers that their client and her children are actually the secret other family, as the other wife is the legal wife that Tufty has been married to for twenty years.

According to one of the Armsmen in the Vorkosigan Saga, one of the other Armsmen has one family in the city and one in the country.

Warrior Cats: Downplayed when Mapleshade finds out that her mate Appledusk is two-timing her with another she-cat and has also gotten her pregnant.

Live Action TV

New Media

"It is revealed that the reason Billy takes over as cartoonist for a week every now and then is that Daddy's visiting his secret other family out in the country." — Ways to make Family Circus funny

Professional Wrestling

This was the concept behind The Dudley Boyz, a group of half-siblings from different mothers who were all the children of "Big Daddy" Dudley, a travelling salesman who had fathered children across the country on his travels. The original group consisted of Dudley Dudley (the only legitimate son by Big Daddy's wife), Big Dick Dudley and Snot Dudley, but were eventually joined by the half-indian Dances-With-Dudley, Chubby Dudley, Sign Guy Dudley, and finally the far-most successfull members, Buh-Buh Ray, D-Von and Spike Dudley.

Radio

Taken to deliberately absurd lengths in series 4 of Bleak Expectations, when Harry Biscuit, paranoid about losing his new wife to the villain who stole his last one, marries 92 other women as spares and must then prevent any of them from meeting. For added ludicrousness, this takes place confined to a ship in the middle of the ocean. Upon arriving in America, Harry solves his problem by becoming a Mormon - Whereupon, of course, all 93 wives immediately desert him for the villain.

In the Sherlock Holmes radio drama "The Peculiar Persecution of Mr John Harden", the title character is a millionaire who turns out to have yearned for a simpler life, an urge he indulges by having a secret life and family in a small village in Wales. Neither his Welsh family nor his wife in his own identity are aware of the deception, and his son is extraordinarily pissed off when he finds out.

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Theater

In the play Fool for Love by Sam Shepard, the main couple are half-siblings who committed BrotherSister Incest before either of them knew their father had a Secret Other Family.

Web Animation

Homestar Runner's Strong Bad claims to have one. "Claims" being the operative word. Ol' SB has a rather... overactive imagination. In any case, his "first family" is just his two brothers.

Weekend Pussy Hunt: Dirty Dog calls his visibly pregnant wife and three kids to tell them that he's going to be late coming home because he's chasing a cat that made fun of him. After having a fierce argument with his wife about him chasing Cigarettes the Cat, on how much trouble he can get in and refusing to come home, Dirty calls his second wife, who is more supporting of him chasing Cigarettes.

Web Comics

In Nightshift , Roxy knows full well her father had a secret other family... she just doesn't know said family is still perfectly alive and healthy.

, Roxy knows full well her father had a secret other family... she just doesn't know said family is still perfectly alive and healthy. One A Softer World strip is about this.

Western Animation

As shown above, Mayor Quimby from The Simpsons. Snowball V/II was secretly visiting another family that considered her their cat. A commercial of pills to help people sleep had a list of things that make people too worried to sleep. "Secret Other Family" was in the list.

Family Guy did a joke about Peter having one where Peter was the mother. He dressed as a stereotypical housewife and spoke in falsetto.

American Dad! had an episode where Roger, their live-in alien friend, was secretly a part of/spending time with dozens of other families as well. This was treated as if he was having an affair.

In Dragons: Race to the Edge, Tuffnut acts as though this is what is going on when he discovers that his pet chicken has been sneaking out to visit a rooster and has a number of chicks.

Wakfu: Thanks to Amnesiac Dissonance, Sadlygrove ends up worried that he's abandoned lovers and children that he doesn't even know about.

Real Life