Category: News

Ten months after a man’s wife passed away, he finally got the courage to read a letter she left him, which contained a devastating admission. The 4-year-old son they had together may not be his.

“My ‘darling’ wife passed away 10 months ago,” the man wrote on Reddit’s Off My Chest forum. “She wrote a letter for me before she died, but I couldn’t bring myself to read it until now. She told me how sorry she was that she didn’t have the guts to tell me this to my face when she was alive.”

In the letter, the wife revealed that there was a “good chance” that the son he thought was his wasn’t his biological child. A few weeks before their wedding day, the wife got drunk at her bachelorette party and had a one-night stand with another man. Soon after that night, she became pregnant but was unsure who the father was.

The man was torn whether or not to have the paternity test done. The child had only one parent in this world, and he would have to take care of him regardless. He also thought it was cowardly that his former wife would wait until she was no longer around to share the truth with him.

“So she thought she’d rather drop this bomb on my life when I could no longer confront her about it,” the man wrote. “Now that my son would only have one parent looking out for him, and she’d have no idea how I would even react. Maybe I should not have got the paternity test done. Maybe it might be better to live in ignorance. But I just had to know.”

The man took the paternity test and learned he wasn’t the child’s biological father.

“I’m devastated. This doesn’t change how I feel about my son,” he wrote. “He’s my whole world and he’s innocent. But boy, does it hurt. There’s so much going on in my head right now. I haven’t stopped crying. Thank god my son is at my parents’ place for the day. I’d hate for him to see me like this.”

Facing a pain nearly too much for him to bear, the only outlet he had at the moment was reaching out to Reddit to find some solace. “I just needed to let this all out. Don’t have it in me to tell anyone in my life about this right now,” he wrote.

The commenters send him hundreds of messages of support to get him through the shock of first learning the truth about his family.

The most popular message was straightforward and honest. “All your feelings are valid, a lot of people will react with some kind of toxic positivity to things like these. Your feelings are valid. Each and everyone,” femunndsmarka wrote.

Another commenter added that someday, his son will appreciate how he stepped up and did what was right in a very trying circumstance. “He is going to find out the truth one day. Imagine how much more he will love you knowing you didn’t leave him, even though he wasn’t yours,” ImNotGoodatThis6969.

Another commenter provided valuable insight from the son’s perspective.

“As an adopted child, I just want to thank you on behalf of your son. I deeply believe it changes nothing, family is not about blood, its about who you love, want to have by your side, and care for the most. Sending hugs, strength and gratitude,” Mariuuq wrote.

The father at the heart of this story is understandably devastated because his life was upended almost overnight. But the hope in the story is that his trials also taught him a powerful truth—his love for his son goes much deeper than blood.

This article originally appeared on 9.28.23

The fanfare surrounding Spotify’s annual Wrapped data reveal has dwindled. But the streaming giant always has something in the pipeline to keep users engaged. Earlier in the week, it was the unveiling of its latest feature, AI playlists. However, All Of Us Strangers star Paul Mescal prefers his mixtapes curated the old-fashioned way.

The actor curated a personalized playlist for the film exclusively on Spotify. He noted that the 47-song mix is described as “Songs that make Paul Mescal feel something.” Across the over three-hour run time are songs from the film and a blend of other indie favorites.

Even though the playlist is nearly twice the length of the film, it contains no filler. Hozier’s “Butchered Tongue,” Mitski’s “I Guess,” Julien Baker‘s “Claws In Your Back,” and Samia‘s “Kill Her Freak Out” are among the songs. The National, The Beths, Ye Vagabonds, Lankum, Adrianne Lenker, Sharon Van Etten, Pinegrove, and more also appear on the playlist.

Listen to the entire playlist below.

All of Us Strangers is showing in theaters now. Find more information here.

The fanfare surrounding Spotify’s annual Wrapped data reveal has dwindled. But the streaming giant always has something in the pipeline to keep users engaged. Earlier in the week, it was the unveiling of its latest feature, AI playlists. However, All Of Us Strangers star Paul Mescal prefers his mixtapes curated the old-fashioned way.

The actor curated a personalized playlist for the film exclusively on Spotify. He noted that the 47-song mix is described as “Songs that make Paul Mescal feel something.” Across the over three-hour run time are songs from the film and a blend of other indie favorites.

Even though the playlist is nearly twice the length of the film, it contains no filler. Hozier’s “Butchered Tongue,” Mitski’s “I Guess,” Julien Baker‘s “Claws In Your Back,” and Samia‘s “Kill Her Freak Out” are among the songs. The National, The Beths, Ye Vagabonds, Lankum, Adrianne Lenker, Sharon Van Etten, Pinegrove, and more also appear on the playlist.

Listen to the entire playlist below.

All of Us Strangers is showing in theaters now. Find more information here.

There’s a new Banksy, but you had to be lucky to see it. Per The Guardian, on Friday a stop sign located in south London was festooned with some curious annotations. Attached to it were three model drones, an apparent commentary on Israel’s continued attacks on Gaza. It was later confirmed to be a Banksy by the artist themself. And then, less than an hour later, it was gone.

In videos shared on social media, two men are seen dismantling the piece, which was located at the intersection of Southampton Way and Commercial Way in Peckham. They then walk away with the adorned stop sign as onlookers gasp and comment on its theft.

It’s not believed that Banksy was involved with the piece’s removal.

London police are aware of the incident and are searching for those who absconded with Banksy’s piece. Jasmine Ali, deputy leader of the Southwark council, which lords over the area that briefly housed the piece, was appalled by its removal.

“We’d like it back so everyone in the community can enjoy Banksy’s brilliant work,” Ali said.

Though sometimes Banksy is involved in the mysterious disappearance (or shredding) of his work, sometimes it’s mere theft. That’s the case in 2015, when a tribute to the those lost in the Bataclan terrorist attack, which claimed the lives of 90 people, was straight-up stolen.

(Via The Guardian)

There’s a new Banksy, but you had to be lucky to see it. Per The Guardian, on Friday a stop sign located in south London was festooned with some curious annotations. Attached to it were three model drones, an apparent commentary on Israel’s continued attacks on Gaza. It was later confirmed to be a Banksy by the artist themself. And then, less than an hour later, it was gone.

In videos shared on social media, two men are seen dismantling the piece, which was located at the intersection of Southampton Way and Commercial Way in Peckham. They then walk away with the adorned stop sign as onlookers gasp and comment on its theft.

It’s not believed that Banksy was involved with the piece’s removal.

London police are aware of the incident and are searching for those who absconded with Banksy’s piece. Jasmine Ali, deputy leader of the Southwark council, which lords over the area that briefly housed the piece, was appalled by its removal.

“We’d like it back so everyone in the community can enjoy Banksy’s brilliant work,” Ali said.

Though sometimes Banksy is involved in the mysterious disappearance (or shredding) of his work, sometimes it’s mere theft. That’s the case in 2015, when a tribute to the those lost in the Bataclan terrorist attack, which claimed the lives of 90 people, was straight-up stolen.

(Via The Guardian)

Dolly Parton is indisputably the mother of country music. While Parton serves as a maternal figure to many musicians and even the Godmother to Miley Cyrus, in her personal life, she and her notoriously private husband, Carl Thomas Dean, have never had a baby of their own.

On Saturday, December 23, in conversation with Exceptional, Parton revealed that she doesn’t regret that decision even now, at the age of 77. “I haven’t missed it like I thought I might,” she said. “When you’re a young couple, you think you’re going to have kids, but it just wasn’t one of those burning things for me. I had my career and my music, and I was traveling.”

Parton added, “If I’d had kids, I’d have stayed home with them, I’m sure, and worried myself to death about them. With everything that’s going on, I’d hate to be bringing a child into this world right now. I always say God didn’t let me have children so that all kids could be mine.”

During her chat, Parton also emphasized that her outreach work through Imagination Library has allowed her to support children worldwide. The initiative helped to deliver 220 million books to children across the globe. Find more information here.

Donald Trump has always given off strong authoritarian vibes, but recently he’s up the ante. How? By straight-up paraphrasing Adolf Hitler. The former president added a new routine in which he rails against immigrants who he said are “poisoning the blood of our country.” As it happens that’s the exact phrasing Hitler used to use to describe Jewish people. Is Trump quoting him intentionally? He’s said no, offering an unusual defense: He doesn’t know jack about history.

Per The Daily Beast, Trump did a softball interview with Hugh Hewitt, who, like Sean Hannity, tried to get him to say, once and for all, that he’s going full dictator. It went…sort of well.

“I’m not a student of Hitler,” Trump told Hewitt. “I never read his works. They say that he said something about blood, he didn’t say it the way I said it either, by the way, it’s a very different kind of a statement.”

Then Trump went right back to paraphrasing Hitler.

“They’re coming from mental institutions and insane asylums,” Trump again said of immigrants. “They’re terrorists, absolutely, that’s poisoning our country, that’s poisoning the blood of our country.”

When Hewitt again stressed that Hitler once used that exactly language to describe Jews, Trump tried a different defense, claiming he didn’t mean anything racist when he described large groups of people as “poisoning the blood” of the nation, adding that he’s “doing incredibly” in polls with Black and Hispanic voters.

Last week an old Vanity Fair piece from 1990, in which this then-wife Ivana Trump revealed that Trump kept a book of Hitler speeches in a “cabinet by his bed,” which he sometimes read. It was not Mein Kampf; rather, it was a collection called My New Order. Trump even admitted he had a Hitler book, which he said was given to him by a Jewish person (who later revealed he wasn’t Jewish).

It’s long been ambiguous whether Trump can actually read, or if he simply doesn’t have the attention span to read anything more than a teleprompter, which he rarely uses. But before his brain turned to mush, perhaps he did read some Hitler speeches. Maybe he simply read the Führer’s “poisoning the blood” words, thought that was a cool turn of phrase, forgot where he read it, then a few decades later was out there quoting Adolf Hitler. If so, whoops!

(Via The Daily Beast)

Rudy Giuliani has made many enemies over his long career, but even the mobsters he once helped imprison must feel kind of bad for him now. Last week, the incredibly broke former “America’s mayor” had two, possibly three new humiliations to add to the pile. For one he was ordered to pay $148 million to the election workers he, well, continues to defame, which isn’t helping. Then he declared bankruptcy.

Now, per TMZ, the once mighty New Yorker — who steered the city through the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, who helped make the city safer (and, perhaps inevitably, more boring), who even had a TV movie made about him starring James Woods (!!) — was seen hitting up an ATM like a schnook. Perhaps he wants some walking around money before his account is locked for good.

The sighting came Thursday, shortly after Giuliani filed for Chapter 11 in court, claiming that he owes too much money to too many people, and not just the women he (again) continues to defame with wild tales of election fraud. He’s also racked up sky high legal bills. All the while the man for whom Giuliani wrecked his life, one Donald Trump, has barely lifted a finger to help him.

Since declaring bankruptcy because he decided to get in on Trump’s wackadoodle attempts to overturn democracy, Giuliani has already found dodgy ways to make some quick bucks: He’s been hawking non-FDA-approved supplements. The TV movie sequel about his life, also starring James Woods, ought to be riveting.

(Via TMZ)

NBA players can get pretty fired up while celebrating a dunk. This is especially true when they’re on the bench and one of their teammates throw down, as guys will take the fact that they’re not in the game to have some fun since they don’t have to worry about getting back on defense or anything.

During Friday night’s game between the Phoenix Suns and the Sacramento Kings, Kevin Durant got a little too excited on the heels of a dunk by Udoka Azubuike. Durant was on the bench, and was happy to see the former Kansas standout reel in an offensive rebound, get Domantas Sabonis in the air, and throw down. As such, he jumped off the bench and started to scream some encouragement at his teammate … only he went a little too far onto the court while the Kings were bringing the ball up, so he got hit with a technical foul.

You can see that Durant and a few of his teammates laughed at the whole thing, but one guy who wasn’t especially happy was Devin Booker, who gave it to the refs over the decision and picked up a technical of his own. It appeared that his gripe was over Durant getting hit with a technical foul for something the Kings were doing as well, but perhaps KD can take some solace in knowing this is the rare technical foul given out to someone for being a good teammate.

Blueface is now being sued for defamation, according to Rolling Stone, after he claimed he was the father of Soulja Boy‘s son. Jackilyn Martinez, the mother of the son she shares with Soulja Boy, was the one to file it in Los Angeles today.

The publication notes that she claimed her lawyers sent Blueface a cease-and-desist, following social media posts that he made about him being the father. “Might be my kid he ain’t even get the DNA test,” the rapper reportedly wrote in a post. In another, he claimed that he had sex with Soulja Boy’s “baby mama the day before your baby shower.”

“There is zero chance that the defendant is plaintiff’s child’s biological father,” Martinez’s filing read, per the outlet.

Martinez filed the lawsuit after Blueface had reportedly mocked the cease-and-desist on social media, which resulted in her getting death threats.

“Plaintiff is gravely concerned for herself and her child’s safety and well being, and plaintiff is extremely nervous and afraid to go outside and/or be in public,” she added in the filing. Martinez notes that she also believes Blueface is making the comments to get attention by “engaging in a feud” with Soulja Boy.

As part of the lawsuit, she is seeking “real and punitive damages, attorney’s fees, and a permanent injunction barring Porter from defaming her.”