The best-kept celebrity secrets of all time

Hollywood is notorious for its secrets that seem to come out one way or another.

But sometimes, even the world's most famous people are able to keep their private matters close to their chest.

Read on for some of the best-kept celebrity secrets of all time.

Though she is known for her role as the glamorous Blair Waldorf in Gossip Girl, her real life was anything but.

The star threw a curveball when she belatedly revealed her early life was steeped in crime, long after she broke through with her TV role.

Meester was born in prison as her mother carried out a federal prison sentence for being part of a major drug ring in Texas.

Her mother, grandfather, father and her aunt were all sentenced to jai in 1983 for smuggling a 544kg shipment of marijuana out of Jamaica.

Her aunt made history as the first woman in the to join the US Marshals' 15 Most Wanted List after escaping from prison.

Meester has since distanced herself from her family, marrying actor Adam Brody in 2014 and having two children with him.

One of the most mysterious feuds in TV history is between The Good Wife's Archie Panjabi and Julianna Margulies.

While the characters themselves went through a friendship fall-out on screen, it seems so did the actors, with the pair refusing to even be on screen together by the end of the show.

This was cemented by an odd final scene together, which was later revealed to have been shot separately, with the actresses put next to each other with the use of green screen.

If you look closely, neither actor looks the other in the eyes, and they never cross over an imaginary line down the centre of the shot.

It has never been revealed why the stars had such a falling out that they couldn't even be in the same room together, even almost a decade on from the finale.

One of the greatest mysteries in Hollywood is that of the parentage of actress January Jones's son, Xander.

After his birth in 2011, the actress has stayed mum on who the father is, rebuking any attempt to pry into her son's personal life.

Once after being asked about it, she snapped, "That's my son's business. It's not the public's business."

With Xander now turning 14 years old, Jones is enjoying her time raising him while keeping him private.

In a conversation with Red magazine in 2017, the Mad Men actress stated that her privacy, and by extension that of Xander's, was her priority.

She also revealed a bit about how he is being brought up, with whoever his father is seemingly not in the picture.

"It's good to have strong women around a man to teach him to respect women," she said.

"He doesn't have a male person in his life saying, 'Don't cry' or, 'You throw like a girl'. All those [expletive] things dads accidentally do.

"It's like in a Spielberg movie. The adults have more drinks and the kids are dirtier… but it's safe. Photographers don't follow us up there [in their gated California community], so Xander has a pretty normal life now."

Another celebrity who has kept her children's paternity a secret is Mindy Kaling.

Since first revealing her surprise pregnancy with her daughter in 2017, Kaling has kept us on our toes when it came to her children's births.

Fans have long speculated over the parentage of her children, with many of the rumours pointing to one of her closest friends and her The Office co-star, BJ Novak.

The actor, who has long been involved in relationship rumours with Kaling, is named the godfather of her children.

The actress touched on the speculation in August 2022, telling Marie Claire, "He's the godparent to both my kids – and they have such a great relationship – and so far [the rumors haven't] affected my happiness at all, it hasn't affected my kids or B.J."

For someone as prevalent in the media as Kylie Jenner, fans found it odd when she slipped off the radar in 2017.

Rumours continued to swirl of a pregnancy, but the then-20-year-old kept her mouth shut and herself out of the public eye for a full year.

To avoid giving the secret away, Jenner would wear big T-shirts out in public and would use a blanket to cover herself when modeling lingerie.

In February 2018, she finally revealed her first baby after a year shrouded in secrecy in a video titled "To Our Daughter" which documented her pregnancy, which only her family and close friends knew about.

If there's one person who knows how to keep a secret, it's Janet Jackson.

The notoriously private singer shocked fans in 2000 when songwriter/director Rene Elizondo filed for divorce after nine years – considering she never once shared that she was married.

According to the documents, they had been married on March 31, 1991, and were separated by January 1999.

Following the revelation, Jackson had released a statement saying she kept the marriage a secret "to have a normal family life . . . Since I was a child, my personal life has been lived in the public eye," she said.

"At times, this has been very difficult. I hope my fans will understand."

It wasn't the last time she kept her love life a secret, with the star revealing the news of her marriage to Qatari billionaire Wissam Al Mana long after their wedding in 2012.

The singer shared the news in a statement in February 2013 to dispel rumours that they had an extravagant wedding.

Instead they had a "quiet, private, and beautiful ceremony," with the Jackson family, adding that in lieu of wedding gifts, they gave "contributions to our respective favorite children's charities."

They asked that their "privacy is respected and that we are allowed this time for celebration and joy," signing their statement, "With love, Wissam and Janet."

The couple divorced in 2017, three months after the birth of their son Eissa.

Meryl Streep and Don Gummer fought through the odds to tie the knot.

When they first met in early 1978, Streep had been at the bedside of actor John Cazale, her boyfriend of two years, as he took his final breaths.

As Streep wallowed through grief, Gummer – her brother's friend – was there to offer shelter at his New York loft while he was away travelling for six months and comfort when he returned.

Six months later, on September 30, 1978, the pair tied the knot in the garden of Streep's parents' home on Mason's Island, Connecticut.

However, after four decades – and four children – their love story came to an end in a fact revealed to fans belatedly.

In a 2024 statement to People, Streep's representative revealed the couple quietly split several years ago.

"Don Gummer and Meryl Streep have been separated for more than six years, and while they will always care for each other, they have chosen lives apart," the statement said.