A US mother kept a shocking secret from her family for nearly three decades: while her five children believed she worked as a diplomat for the US State Department, she was actually a CIA agent.
Ann Butler, who joined the Agency in 1986, traveled all over the world, supposedly on “diplomatic” assignments. Only her husband Joe, to whom she has been married for 37 years, knew the truth. He, she describes, never asked questions and helped her maintain her apparent cover. “I would be gone for days and he didn’t know where I was,” she says.
Her children had no suspicions. Her daughter, Alexis, told NBC's Today show that she would never have imagined "in a million years" that her mother was a spy - "she was just my mom," she said.
Secret missions, false identities and fear of arrest
At the CIA, Butler was tasked with “identifying and recruiting agents who would bring her closer to foreign governments and terrorist organizations.” The danger was daily, and she describes her constant fear that she would one day be captured.
On one of her most extreme missions, she traveled for hours under a false identity while almost nine months pregnant. Despite this, she continued her work, trying to balance family life with the absolute secrecy that the service demanded.
She admits that managing this double life was difficult: “All my time was dedicated to either work or family. I had to think ahead, organize, prepare.” She even remembers missing her son’s first birthday, as she was stuck in Sarajevo.
The revelation came on the eve of retirement.
The truth was officially revealed to her children the night before the retirement party so they could join her in the CIA building for the event. Only the eldest daughter had found out earlier, by accident, when a classmate – the daughter of Butler’s boss – revealed the secret to her.
The former agent has now spoken openly about her life with the release of her book Wife, Mother, Spy, which was approved by the CIA before publication.
Source: protothema.gr
