# Too much work to be Mrs Kiriakou > **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: "Too much work to be Mrs Kiriakou," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/too-much-work-to-be-mrs-kiriakou/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *The reason John Kiriakou says his wife gave for leaving in 2017, that it was simply too much work to be Mrs John Kiriakou, and his statement that he does not blame her.* - **When he places it:** Three months before August 2017 - **Reason he reports:** "It's just too much work to be Mrs. John Kiriakou" - **His response:** "To tell you the truth, I don't blame her" - **His framing:** Part of the price of having said something Ending a long account of his prosecution given to a New Zealand audience in August 2017, [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) added a cost that had been incurred only weeks earlier. ## The line Having said that he would do the whole thing over again, that somebody had to say something, that transparency is real and important, and that a democracy cannot function without it, he listed what it had cost. *"It's cost me my marriage,"* he said. *"My wife left three months ago. She said it's just too much work to be Mrs. John Kiriakou."*[1] His own comment on the reason was one sentence: *"To tell you the truth, I don't blame her."*[1] ## The frame he puts around it The remark closes the talk rather than derailing it. Kiriakou moves straight from the separation to the conclusion he had been building toward: *"But I had to do the right thing, and this was the price that we all have to pay. It was all worth it."*[1] The cost is framed around the household throughout the same talk. Explaining why he took the plea, he recalls the attorney he most respected telling him that the deal was about *"inflicting the least amount of pain on yourself and your family,"* and that he could be *"home early enough that your children won't even remember you were gone."*[2][3] ## Relation to his other accounts The attribution of the marriage's end to the whistleblowing is consistent across his later tellings. In 2025 he said the case *"cost me literally everything, my marriage, my career, my freedom, my children."*[4] Asked in 2026 why his divorce, rather than the CIA or federal prison, was the source of his post-traumatic stress, he explained that home had always been the place he could go back to, however hard the job got.[5][6] He has also credited his wife with the advice that shaped his public response after his arrest: that he had done nothing wrong, that he was a whistleblower and not a leaker, and that he had to keep talking about the case until his side of the story became the side of record.[7] ## See also - [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) - [Heather Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/heather-kiriakou) - [PTSD](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/ptsd) - [Get better enough to go back](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/get-better-enough-to-go-back) ## Sources 1. Internet Party (2017-08-26), at 21:43. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78XbkZtyR2U&t=1303s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2017-08-26-internet-party-internet-party/ 2. Internet Party (2017-08-26), at 20:40. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78XbkZtyR2U&t=1240s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2017-08-26-internet-party-internet-party/ 3. Internet Party (2017-08-26), at 21:11. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78XbkZtyR2U&t=1271s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2017-08-26-internet-party-internet-party/ 4. "Rudy Giuliani Tried To Shake Me Down For $2M" (2025-02-22), at 04:12. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2cJv7Ujeeg&t=252s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-02-22-katie-halper-rudy-giuliani-tried-to-shake-me-down-for-2m/ 5. "Never Trust the Government" (resolves a Batch-4 lead) (2026-07-06), at 13:58. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKficzm5-8g&t=838s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-06-the-pocket-chris-griffin-never-trust-the-government-resolves-a-batch-4/ 6. "Never Trust the Government" (resolves a Batch-4 lead) (2026-07-06), at 14:28. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKficzm5-8g&t=868s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-06-the-pocket-chris-griffin-never-trust-the-government-resolves-a-batch-4/ 7. John Kiriakou & Brian Ross — Doing Time Like a Spy (2017-05-17), at 05:12. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iSfm1yeJUA&t=312s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2017-05-17-strand-book-store/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/too-much-work-to-be-mrs-kiriakou/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt