While the truth about Darth Vader's identity is known to every fan of Star Wars, the citizens that live within the universe spent decades not knowing he was once Anakin Skywalker, heroic Jedi of the Republic. His future daughter, Princess Leia, made sure to keep that information a secret from everyone, including her son Ben Solo, as she made her way through the political ranks of the New Republic. But secrets have a knack for being told, and for Ben, it's a secret that changed his life forever.
Leia's decision to keep her family legacy quiet was out of a desire to separate herself from Darth Vader. She feels nothing but shame for what her father did to the galaxy and felt anger towards the torture he inflicted on her when held captive on the Death Star. Because of her animosity, she continues to claim Bail Organa as her father and doesn't tell her son about Anakin. During the events of Claudia Gray's Star Wars: Bloodline, Leia's political opponent, Ransolm Casterfo, outs her family lineage to the crowd of people in front of her. As she admits who her true father is, Ben Solo discovers the truth at the same time.
While the book's focus remains on Leia, Kristin Baver's Skywalker: A Family at War offers a more personal perspective of Ben as he discovers the news: "Ben Solo discovered his own relation to Darth Vader, not via his family, but by holonet news. The revelation felt like a betrayal. Ben, who took after Anakin Skywalker in his powerful Force abilities and hot-headed nature, was crushed by the realization that his parents and his uncle had known the truth for decades yet had not seen fit to share it with him." To make matters even worse for Ben, he learned the news at the same time as everyone else, evoking a feeling of emotional distance between him and his family.
The events of Leia's public outing take place in 28 ABY, the same year that Ben would later destroy the Jedi Temple. At this point in his life, he was already struggling with living in his family's shadow, and his frustrations were quickly becoming resentment towards his loved ones. The discovery of the truth behind his grandfather only pushed those negative feelings to the front of his mind. Baver delves into his feelings on the revelation stating, "...the fact that his family had kept such a dramatic piece of information hidden seemed to justify every dark impulse and feeling of paranoia he’d entertained in his young life."
Between Leia and Ben's perspectives during the public revelation, it shows how much more involved Leia is in her politics and her own feelings rather than the feelings of her son. Ben's descent to the Dark Side is born from a lack of attention from his family as he got older. With Leia becoming enthralled in her political career, Bloodline shows that she wasn't able to devote the time to give Ben the guidance he needed as he reached adulthood. Furthermore, keeping Ben's grandfather a secret from him was more about Leia's shame rather than protecting Ben, which only hurts him two-fold when the truth is revealed.
The damage that the secret inflicts on Ben is unquestionable. Catalyzing his turn to the Dark Side, Ben would begin to nurture the negativity he feels towards his family rather than push it away. When he fully embraces the Dark Side, he does so with little to no resistance. The tragedy of Leia's truth and Ben's fate is that there will always be a possibility that Ben's life could have gone differently had he learned of his lineage personally rather than from the outside.