Family secrets often remain hidden through the generations out of shame or fear of judgment.

Family secrets are common, and often revolve around sensitive issues like infidelity, crime, mental health struggles, or abuse. One study found that family secrets often serve as a portal to unveil deeper patterns of family relationships and communication patterns, including unresolved conflicts and tensions (Camilleri & Scerri, 2025).

When secrets are concealed, intergenerational shame can be passed down from one generation to the next, contributing to behavioral patterns, attitudes, and beliefs that are unknowingly shaped by the family’s secret. There is still much to learn through empirical research about the systemic mechanisms that drive the intergenerational transmission of dysfunction (Čepukienė & Neophytou, 2024), and how hidden truths are lived out in future generations.

Here is what Williams has learned about the power of uncovering family secrets to heal the past, and present.

Q:** Share a bit about your background and what inspired you to write The Seven Daughters of Dupree.**

***Nikesha Elise Williams (NW): *My background is as a journalist. I spent 11 years as a television news producer, followed by three years as a full-time freelancer writing for numerous publications. As for the inspiration behind The Seven Daughters of Dupree, it started with me wanting to write a story about a young girl who didn’t know her father as a way to explore my complex and tenuous relationship with my own father. However, the story grew exponentially from that simple premise.

***Q: ***In your novel, readers are taken on a journey through one family’s history, a lineage of strong women who hold their secrets close. How do the impacts of these family secrets trickle down through the generations?

***NW: ***The secrets trickle down through the generations by how what’s not said and what’s not revealed to the daughters by their mothers becomes manifested in the daughters’ lives in other ways. Nadia’s shame is Tati’s curiosity and romanticization of her father. Jubi’s failed attempt at what she thought would be a better life left Ruby listless, lonely and vulnerable for anyone who would show her attention. Evangeline withholding the truth about Emma’s mother made her long for what she never had. All the daughters are longing for connection and a rootedness that they’re not finding wholly within their family because of the secrets that have been built up over the generations. However, when one starts to pull at the frayed edges of a secret’s thread, everything begins to unravel.

***Q: ***What purpose do family secrets serve? How might they ultimately do more harm than good?

***NW: ***Most families think that when they’re keeping secrets it’s to protect another family member or to prevent a negative perspective from being had of the family as a whole. However, these secrets also prevent younger generations from truly knowing their parents, grandparents or great grandparents and can lead to them repeating the same patterns and making the same mistakes their forbearers did that could have been avoided had the older generations been honest and allowed their children and grandchildren to learn from their journey instead of covering it up.

***Q: ***Have you uncovered any family secrets in your own family’s history? What did you learn about yourself in the process?

***NW: ***About 10 years ago, I found out I had an older sister. It’s only been recently that I’ve realized that my parents keeping a secret about my father’s first child and my mother’s decision to continue to be in a relationship and marriage with him anyway has repeated in a way in my own life with the man I was married to.

***Q: ***What do you hope readers take away from spending time with The Seven Daughters of Dupree?

***NW: ***I really want them to take away a good story well told and to get what they need from the daughters. I can’t say enough how held I was by these women when I was writing their story. It was at a very low point in my life, and they kept me and carried me through. For anyone else who comes to this text, I hope they feel kept, carried, and held by these women as I was, even as they may get frustrated with their decisions and choices or outright dislike them at points in the novel.

References

Camilleri, R., & Scerri, C. S. (2025). Beyond the Surface: An Exploration of Family Secrets as Entry Points into Complex Family Dynamics. Contemporary Family Therapy. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10591-025-09768-6

Čepukienė, V., & Neophytou, K. (2024). Intergenerational transmission of familial relational dysfunction: A test of a complex mediation model based on Bowen family systems theory. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 41(11). https://doi.org/10.1177/02654075241265472

Oliver, L., & Fenge, L.-A. (2025). “Don’t tell anyone anything”: How do family secrets influence child-to-parent violence and abuse?. Qualitative Social Work. https://doi.org/10.1177/14733250251326607