ASIO spy kid recounts life with secret agent parents and holidays with Cold War defectors

The first rule of being in a spy family: don’t share what you see, not even with each other.

From the outside, Dudley and Joan Doherty — plus their three children — appeared like any normal family of the 50s and 60s.

But behind closed doors, the pair worked for ASIO. They had been early recruits in the Australian spy agency; an integral part of organisation’s first bugging operation, Operation Smile.

They decided their kids would be part of their ruse. A perfect cover.

The Doherty’s would not lie to their kids, but the children would not be told what they were involved in.

Now, decades on, their daughter, Sue-Ellen, is finally telling her story.

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