Skeleton in the cupboard (closet)

To have a skeleton in the cupboard is have a potentially ruinous, secret source of shame or scandal. The expression dates back to the early 19th century with the obvious allusion to having murdered someone and hidden the body. In America, the expression is a skeleton in the closet and from this, the 1960s American expression ‘come out of the closet’ is derived, which means to reveal that one is gay. To reveal openly that one was gay back in the 1960s was still considered as having ‘a skeleton in the closet’. In relation to gays, Britain seems to have adopted the American version come out of the closet because to date no British gay has yet emerged from a cupboard.