John Kiriakou spent 15 years working in the shadows as a CIA officer. Today, at 62, he’s walking the runway at New York Fashion Week, racking up millions of views across social media and becoming an unlikely Gen Z internet sensation.
His videos regularly attract millions of views, and his audience of hundreds of thousands of followers has transformed the former intelligence officer into an unexpected voice for a generation that was too young to remember the events that once defined his life.
“I never thought that I would be this figurehead for thousands and thousands of young men between 15 and 35,” Kiriakou told Fox News Digital.
That newfound popularity has opened doors he never imagined, including one into the fashion world. Kiriakou is the first to admit he has never considered himself fashionable. During the interview, he joked that the black T-shirt he was wearing cost about $12 and said he only occasionally flipped through GQ to see what men were wearing. Yet in September, he found himself walking the runway for designer Elena Velez at New York Fashion Week — an unexpected appearance for a man better known for the CIA, national security and exposing the agency’s interrogation program.
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“I’m 62 years old. When in life am I ever going to get the chance to be on the catwalk at New York Fashion Week?” he said.
Velez, whose runway shows are known for avant-garde fashion and...
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