A former top state official in Alabama has been discovered to be leading a secret life in New Zealand as a sperm donor for lesbian couples.

David Fisher of the New Zealand Herald unearthed the story of Bill Johnson, 52, who as recently as 2010, ran in the Republican gubernatorial primary and is the former state director of economic and community affairs.

Johnson has spent most of 2011 in Christchurch, New Zealand, working with the recovery effort following a earthquake that struck the region in February. The paper reported that Johnson has been using an alias to meet with women who were seeking help getting pregnant.

Even though Johnson has been helping lesbian couples become pregnant, one of his main gubernatorial platforms in 2010 was running against gay marriage.

Johnson's wife was not aware of his efforts, which have included at least nine recipients, three of whom were or are currently pregnant. Fisher first approached Johnson on Thursday where he was spotted at a restaurant where he had recently finished dining with one of the women he had impregnated.

Johnson told Fisher that he is unable to have children with his wife Kathy and that the becoming a biological father was, "a need that I have."

"I am married to the most beautiful woman in the world," Johnson said to Fisher. "When I married her I knew we couldn't have any more children. She had a hysterectomy 10 years ago. There is nothing my wife would want to give me more in the world than a child of my own."

Johnson said he planned to tell his wife, a former Mrs. Alabama, about his secret life after the children were born. "I've been trying to get my wife over here, my family over here ... so I can be around for these children," Johnson said, according to the Herald.

"This is a really, really difficult time for our family," Kathy Johnson said in an email to the Alabama Press-Register. "I'm still in disbelief and very hurt, and our family has a lot of healing to do."

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