Something I don’t talk about a lot is that my grandma cheated on my grandpa with Don Knotts

So about a year ago when my ex and I were about to break up I was talking to my dad. He was giving me some advice and talking about his own experiences and it was a really nice father/daughter chat.

Then he says, “My dad never talked to me like this. Well, except once.”

He tells me that after my grandma died, my grandpa told him that he’d been a terrible husband. He’d cheated on my grandma. He’d not been there for her. They’d fought. He’d pushed her into the arms of another man.

Then my dad stops. “Did you ever watch Three’s Company?”

“Yes, of course,” I say. “That was the main show we used to watch on Nick at Nite. I’ve probably seen every episode.”

My dad asks if I remember the actor who played the landlord.

I’m very confused where this is going but I’m like yeah dad I know Don Knotts.

And then my dad VERY CASUALLY is like well that’s who grandma had an affair with.

EXCUSE ME????

My dad wants to get back to talking about his parents and marriage and relationships but I’m like wait no wait what how what excuse me???

I ask how they met. My dad doesn’t know.

I ask how long it went on. My dad doesn’t know.

I ask for some details. Anything. My dad doesn’t know.

My grandpa was being vulnerable with him for the first time ever and I guess that meant more than this remarkable detail.

It was such a bizarre thing to find out a week before breaking up with my partner of 3.5 years? I‘m sure it was MUCH stranger for my dad to find out the week after his mom died!

That was in 1994. My grandpa died in 2008. And Don died in 2006. So I guess we’ll never know more.

But yeah that’s how I found out my grandma fucked the Incredible Mr. Limpet.