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Can 打ち明ける take particles を and と at the same time? I'm assuming so.
I'm wondering which would be more natural between
1> 彼は猫が嫌いと、ひどい秘密を打ち明けた。
2> 彼は猫が嫌いというひどい秘密を打ち明けた。
He confided his terrible secret that he hates cats.
For option 1) I wasn't sure whether to put the object phrase or the quote phrase first. I decided this way seemed better and added the comma because it looked weird without it.
If neither is natural (it rarely is when I make sentences) what would be the correct way to say this?
In terms of acceptability, the answer to
Can 打ち明ける take particles を and と at the same time? I'm assuming so.
is YES, and the 1 and 2 in question are acceptable, but 2 is better, i.e., using と and を at the same time is less natural.
As a standalone sentence, 1 and 2 are just fine and 4 is more natural than 3. The subtle difference is that the emphasis is on the content of what he confessed in 3 and on the fact of confessing on 4. So, in 3 the を-noun-phrase looks a bit redundant (1 should be enough).
If I were to make corrections to the sentence in question, I would change it to 彼は猫が嫌いだというとんでもない秘密を打ち明けた。
