He had secret German children

Charles Lindbergh started having long-term affairs with three women starting in 1957 while still being married to Anne Morrow. With hatmaker Brigitte Hesshaimer (1926–2001), who had once resided in the small Bavarian village of Geretsried, he had three children. He had two kids with Mariette, a painter who lived in Grimisuat, and her sister. Along with Valeska, an East Prussian aristocrat who served as his personal secretary in Europe and resided in Baden-Baden, Lindbergh also had a son and a daughter (born in 1959 and 1961, respectively). Each of the seven kids was born between 1958 and 1967.

Charles Lindbergh wrote to each of his European lovers ten days before he passed away, pleading for them to keep his affairs with them a complete secret even after his passing. None of the three women—none of whom ever got married—managed to hide their relationships from their children, who—during his lifetime and for almost ten years after his passing—had only known their father by the alias Careu Kent and had only ever seen him when he paid them a quick visit once or twice a year.

Brigitte's daughter Astrid, however, came to the correct conclusion after reading a magazine article about Lindbergh in the middle of the 1980s; she subsequently uncovered photographs and more than 150 love letters that Lindbergh had written to her mother. She published her discoveries after Brigitte and Anne Lindbergh passed away, and DNA tests in 2003 proved that Lindbergh was the father of Astrid and her two siblings.