Overheard something that sounds like "うれるど親戚 {しんせき} かくれる"(must be mistakes somewhere since there's no search result for the phrase). Kind of a sarcastic/joking idiom, saying that as a person gets famous, they will appear to have more distant relatives (because people want to be related to the famous person). What might be the correct form of this idiom/is such idioms widely used/accepted? Thanks!
1 Answer
Perhaps you heard 売れると親戚が増える? 売れる means "(for a celebrity/artist/etc) to be popular/successful" and 増える means "to increase". This is not a traditional idiom at all, but I've heard jokes along the lines of this several times. There are many variations since this is not a fixed idiom like "when in Rome", but you can search with 売れると親戚が増える or 有名になると親戚が増える and find many relevant results.
