I thought being a spy was glamorous too until I started working for a security company and became friends with the owners. The husband was a retired NSA agent and his wife would tell me how many weeks and/or months that would go by and she would have no idea where he was, if he was alive, because he couldn't have any contact whatsoever with her or their children while he was away. She said it was a miserable life and actually drove him to drinking. His wife said that he could never talk about what he did or where he was but when he came home he would just stare off into space and drink a lot.