Buzz
A Reddit user named Proud_Cut_3221 recently posted a question in the r/AskReddit subreddit: "What's the craziest rumor you've ever heard about yourself?" The thread quickly filled with all sorts of outlandish and untrue gossip that had been spread about the users — from bizarre rumors to damaging allegations. Here are some of the most outlandish ones:
1. "A rumor spread that I was writing a tell-all book about our small town because I spent so much time typing at the local café on my laptop. In reality, I was just working on my grad school assignments, but suddenly everyone started acting strange around me, as if I were gathering dirt on them."
—StunningyCupcake
2. "There was a rumor that I had a personal chef who prepared all my meals for me."
—gooseblueeyed740
3. "In my early 20s, I took on a massive project at work and, hoping for a raise, committed to finishing a year’s worth of tasks in just six months to ensure a product shipped on time. Naturally, this meant I spent way too much time at the office, which made my wife understandably frustrated. During this period, another coworker was also working overtime to finish a different project, and, of course, someone began a rumor that the two of us were having an affair — despite the fact that we didn't even get along. As if that wasn’t enough, someone at work decided to 'inform' my wife about the supposed affair."
"She was devastated, naturally, and to make a long story short, she ended up having an affair with my best friend as an act of revenge. This led to divorce, losing a lifelong friend, losing my job, years of self-doubt and depression, and a complete reevaluation of who I was and what I wanted in life. It was only then that I learned the whole mess had started because someone assumed that if two people were working late at the same company, they must be romantically involved. I’ve worked from home for the last 20 years now. No more of that nonsense."
—Darnitol1
4. "A rumor spread that I was the one who drained the community swimming pool as some kind of prank. The problem was, I was 50 miles away at college, making it impossible for me to take credit or blame for it."
—MrKnockoff
5. "There was a rumor that I had died. I crashed my motorcycle, and no one could reach me for a while. When I finally got out of the hospital, I found a bunch of memorial posts on my Facebook."
—playfulFoxG0ddess
6. "The most bizarre rumor I ever heard about myself was that I secretly had a twin, and we would switch places to mess with people."
—Madelyn_Amount879
7. "I'm in an open relationship and have been happily married for years. Once, I slept with a coworker. She only told one other coworker, but somehow the whole office knew within a few days. A week later, another coworker asked me how my divorce was going. I explained I wasn’t divorcing my wife and asked why she thought that. It turned out that one of my coworkers had spread the rumor that the coworker I had slept with was ordered by my wife to seduce me so the divorce would go in her favor. The thing is, my wife doesn’t even know this coworker exists, and she certainly didn’t tell her to sleep with me. She did it because she wanted to, not because my wife forced her to."
—usatf1994-1
8. "People at my gym somehow started believing that I was training for the Olympics, just because I would practice handstands against the wall during my rest periods. I'm just a former gymnast who misses being flexible. Olympic athlete material? Definitely not!"
—Horny-0Cupcake
9. "Back in the '70s, I began working at 16, flipping cars as a side hustle. By 18, I was a steelworker in a union shop working the 4:00 p.m. to midnight shift and earning enough to buy a brand new Saab Sonett, a rare two-seater that looked like a Datsun 240Z. But to the police, I was just a long-haired hippie kid who hung around with other hippies, always drove a different car, had cash to spend at local restaurants, was out during the day, had no visible job, and was now driving a car so exotic that no one on the force had even seen one before."
"The state police then decided I must be a major drug dealer, and began pressuring my friends (or, as they called them, my 'known associates') to try and get someone to turn me in. It was pretty funny to my friends and me."
—NickDanger3di
10. "I do photography on the side, and a rumor spread at work that I was quitting to pursue it full-time. My coworkers thought I had become successful, but the truth is, I never intended to leave my regular job. Even my boss caught wind of the rumors."
—sakuradazeqt
11. "There was a rumor that I had been sent as an undercover agent to spy on my own group of friends. In reality, I’m just good at keeping secrets."
—SkyBreaker_2024
12. "At one point, a rumor spread that I was secretly a professional mermaid, complete with a shimmering tail. It all started when someone saw me swimming in a pool while wearing a flowing dress, and they let their imagination run wild. I wish it were true; it would’ve been a magical addition to my resume!"
—FillOk8293
13. "The entire neighborhood believes that I’m an ex-soldier working undercover as a cop. I have no idea how this rumor got started, especially since I actually work in IT. Still, it comes in handy sometimes."
—EggSaladMachine
14. "Back in high school, someone spread a rumor that I was pregnant because I threw up during gym class. By lunchtime, the whole school was buzzing about it, and even one of the teachers pulled me aside to ask if I was okay. The truth? I had just eaten some terrible chicken nuggets from the cafeteria."
—Due-Promotion-7097
15. "I heard rumors about me dating a famous person. Sadly, it's not true!"
—MysticBreezx
16. "I used to live in Paris and speak flawless French, or so the story goes."
—primarydamaged3869
17. "I donated stem cells. Not sure who got confused, but now my family believes I gave a fetus to science."
—Factory-Setting-693
18. "Someone thought I was secretly writing for a well-known TV show."
—tricepsyoung8101
19. "There were rumors I was having an affair at work. I worked in a college dining hall. There were two managers: 'John,' who ran the daily operations, and 'Ken,' an upper-level manager responsible for operations, food orders, menu planning, and systems. His office just happened to be located in our dining hall. They were implementing a new payroll and scheduling system, and our dining hall was among the first to get it. As the student payroll manager, I needed to be trained. Since Ken was still getting up to speed, we spent a lot of time together learning the system. It was noisy during meal times, so we'd retreat to Ken's office and close the door to focus."
"My coworkers saw us together and somehow decided we were having an affair. First of all, I was 19, and Ken was nearly 50. Second, would we really have an affair in a dining hall during working hours? Also, Ken's wife was the DEAN of one of the graduate schools at the college. Why on earth would he risk having an affair with a student at the workplace where both he and his wife worked?"
At first, I just couldn't take it seriously and laughed it off. But soon enough, the word reached Ken, and, given the circumstances, he had to step up and address it. We had to keep the door open while working and practically yelled at each other because of the noise. There was no other place for us to work together. Thankfully, we were already pretty much done with learning the system and setting it up at our location, so we didn’t have to meet often after that. It was all so absurd, but once the gossip train starts rolling, it's hard to stop.
—Vivienne1973
20. "I had supposedly gone on a three-day trip to Ireland. In reality, I was in Iowa. A classmate misunderstood me when she asked where I was headed and spread the word that I was in Ireland."
—crowpierrot
21. "That my boyfriend and I engaged in intimate relations right in front of a Wells Fargo bank."
—Careful_Stress6755
22. "My ex told his family that I set fire to a girl's Ugg boots because I'm an animal rights activist."
—Caserooo
23. "People thought I had an affair with the English teacher because I was close to him. Everyone was shocked when they learned he was actually my uncle."
—GothAlyx
24. "Four years after college, I learned that a rumor had been going around that I stalked a certain guy. We had briefly met when he was in my friend's class, and I simply said hi before leaving with my friend. I never thought about it again, but apparently, he told everyone that I stalked him all through college. He claimed I followed him everywhere and bombarded him with messages. I had no idea who he even was when I heard the rumors. I still don't know why he chose me to lie about, and even more troubling, I have no idea why none of my friends told me about the rumor so I could clear things up and prove it wasn’t true."
—yorkshiresushiroll
25. "I was hanging out with a friend when someone came up to him, shocked that he was still alive. Apparently, his ex had been telling people that he was shot and died in her arms. But the strangest rumor I’ve ever heard about myself was that I supposedly broke up my (former) friend's relationship by having a threesome with them. The weird part? I had never even met her partner. They started dating long after our friendship ended. And the most bizarre thing was that my former friend had started the rumor herself."
—sorelhobbes
26. "That I (M23) slept with my best friend's (M24) girlfriend. I came out to him shortly after that. A few weeks later, he dumped her after finding out she had spread the rumor. He was my best man at my wedding 12 years later and shared the story during his toast. It had everyone in stitches."
—Personal-Worth5126
