# Seven cell phones > **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou. > > Cite as: "Seven cell phones," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/seven-cell-phones/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *John Kiriakou's account of why his first marriage ended — that his wife, a ballet teacher, knew only that he worked for the CIA, and that a career in which one of seven cell phones rang at midnight and he left speaking Arabic for a day at a time could not survive the questions it produced.* - **Wife's profession:** Ballet teacher - **What she knew:** That he worked for the CIA, and nothing else - **Phones:** Seven - **Duration:** Fourteen years - **CIA divorce rate, per Kiriakou:** 80 per cent [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) describes the failure of his first marriage as a structural feature of the job rather than a personal one, and calls the pattern "uniquely CIA." ## What she knew His first wife was a ballet teacher. "She knew I worked for the CIA and that was it. She didn't know anything else."[1] He renders the daily conversation as a closed loop: they are overseas, he comes home from work, she asks how work was — great — what did you do — nothing — who did you talk to — nobody.[2] ## The phones Then the second half of it: "one of my seven cell phones would ring at night, at midnight, and I would speak in Arabic and then leave and not come back for a day."[2] The question that produced, in his telling, was: "what's her name?"[3] "And so fourteen years of marriage down the drain, because I couldn't tell her what I did for a living."[3] ## The institutional answer The remedy the agency effectively encourages is to marry inside it, which Kiriakou did. "So I married a CIA officer. Which happens. Which is encouraged, because you're both cleared. And so you can talk about work."[3] He describes the internal social apparatus that follows from the same logic — a softball league, a quilting club, a choir, "any club that you could possibly want they have" — and gives the reason: everybody is cleared, so people can talk about work without fearing they will accidentally reveal a secret.[4] It does not solve the underlying problem. Kiriakou puts the [CIA](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia)'s divorce rate at eighty per cent, "the highest of anywhere in the U.S. government."[4] His own second marriage also ended, after prison. Asked in 2019 whether he had married again, he said no: "I think it's just not for me."[5] ## See also - [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) - [The CIA divorce rate](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia-divorce-rate) - [The CIA's internal social culture](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia-internal-social-culture) - [CIA adultery culture](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia-adultery-culture) - [The job in the medical practice](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-job-in-the-medical-practice) ## Sources 1. John Kiriakou, Whistleblower at the CIA (2019-02-21), at 44:06. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aud2a56232bb&t=2646s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2019-02-21-foresight-with-ken-weaver-john-kiriakou-whistleblower-at-the-cia/ 2. John Kiriakou, Whistleblower at the CIA (2019-02-21), at 44:36. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aud2a56232bb&t=2676s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2019-02-21-foresight-with-ken-weaver-john-kiriakou-whistleblower-at-the-cia/ 3. John Kiriakou, Whistleblower at the CIA (2019-02-21), at 45:06. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aud2a56232bb&t=2706s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2019-02-21-foresight-with-ken-weaver-john-kiriakou-whistleblower-at-the-cia/ 4. John Kiriakou, Whistleblower at the CIA (2019-02-21), at 45:36. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aud2a56232bb&t=2736s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2019-02-21-foresight-with-ken-weaver-john-kiriakou-whistleblower-at-the-cia/ 5. John Kiriakou, Whistleblower at the CIA (2019-02-21), at 46:07. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aud2a56232bb&t=2767s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2019-02-21-foresight-with-ken-weaver-john-kiriakou-whistleblower-at-the-cia/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/seven-cell-phones/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt