Britain’s most important double agent of the Second World War almost had his cover blown by his homesick wife after a row.
Agent Garbo, real name Juan Pujol, was a spy who fed incorrect information about the D-Day landings to the Nazis.
But after an explosive argument his wife, who was sick of being confined to their London home, threatened to out him to the Spanish embassy unless she was allowed to see her mother.
Agent Garbo was a Spanish national living in Harrow from where he sent a steady stream of false intelligence reports to his German spymasters.
His elaborate deceptions helped to convince the Nazis the D-Day landings would take place at Pas de Calais - diverting German forces away from Normandy, the scene of the actual invasion.
However MI5 files released to the National Archives show how his scheming was nearly wrecked because his wife, Araceli, struggled to cope with the pressures of his double life.
In June 1943 - a year before D-Day - after quarrelling violently with her husband, Mrs Pujol threatened tell all unless she was allowed to travel home to Spain see her mother.
She screamed at Agent Garbo's case officer: "I don't want to live five minutes longer with my husband. Even if they kill me I am going to the Spanish embassy."
As fears grew that Mrs Pujol would blow her husband's cover, a plan was hatched by the spy to ensure his wife kept quiet.
Mrs Pujol was informed her husband had been detained following her outburst and was taken blindfolded to an interrogation centre to meet him where, after an emotional reunion, she vowed she had never intended to carry out her threat and agreed to take his work seriously.
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