Queen Elizabeth II was kept in the dark for a long time about a major scandal during her reign. Newly released MI5 files reveal that, for nearly 10 years, the late monarch didn’t know that royal household member Anthony Blunt was actually a Soviet double agent.

Documents newly declassified by MI5, Britain's internal intelligence agency, show the late Queen Elizabeth II was not informed for almost 10 years that a member of her staff had spied for the then-Soviet Union.

Newly declassified British documents show that Queen Elizabeth II wasn’t told details of her long-time art adviser's double life as a Soviet spy because palace officials didn’t want to add to her worries.

Sir Anthony Blunt, the royal family's picture surveyor and renowned art historian, finally admitted that he had been a Soviet agent since the 1930s