Bill Johnson, a former top state official who made a failed bid for governor in 2010, has been living a secret life in New Zealand as a sperm donor for lesbian couples, a New Zealand newspaper reported today.

Johnson, a Republican from Prattville, has spent much of the past year in Christchurch, New Zealand, as a contractor working on the recovery effort from a deadly earthquake that struck the city in February.

The New Zealand Herald reported in its Sunday edition that Johnson, who is married, has been using an alias to meet women who want help getting pregnant. The newspaper said it confirmed at least nine women had received sperm donations from Johnson, and at least three were pregnant.

The newspaper cited fertility medicine specialists in New Zealand who said that donors should not make sperm available to more than four families, to prevent accidental incest and lessen the stress donors and children face if they meet.

Johnson, 52, was approached by a Herald reporter on Thursday at a restaurant in Christchurch, where he had just finished dining with one of the women he impregnated. He said he was unable to have children with his wife, Kathy, who remains in Prattville, and that the urge to become a biological father was “a need that I have.”

Johnson said his wife knew that he wanted to be a sperm donor but that he was not planning to tell her about the pregnancies until after the children were born. The couple was married in 2004.

“I am married to the most beautiful woman in the world,” Johnson told reporter David 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 did not respond to an email and did not answer a call to his cell phone tonight. His wife, Kathy, declined to comment Sunday.

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

Johnson, a graduate of Mobile's Spring Hill College, was a former congressional staffer for Bob Riley who served as a Birmingham city councilman from 1997-2001. He went on to help lead Riley's 2002 and 2006 campaigns for governor, and was appointed by Riley as director of the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs, a position he held from 2003 to 2009.

Johnson finished fifth among a field of seven candidates for governor in the 2010 GOP primary, capturing less than 2 percent of the vote. He ran as a conservative Christian who opposed gay marriage - but also advocated for the legalization of gambling.

Kathy Johnson was featured prominently in the campaign, traveling with the candidate to speaking engagements and appearing with him in advertisements.

She is a former Mrs. Alabama, a former director of the Alabama Broadband Initiative, a former director of Children First Foundation and director of the Alabama Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy.

Following the campaign, Bill Johnson has been working as the New Zealand recovery manager for disaster recovery company Ceres NZ. The Herald newspaper said Johnson used the persona ''chchbill'' on online donor registries to meet women wishing to get pregnant.

The newspaper said it began its investigation after receiving an anonymous tip from a person who had been in contact with Johnson about helping to father a child. The newspaper said Johnson confirmed the accuracy of its reporting during its initial interview Thursday. A day later, the newspaper said, he asked to retract his comments and accused the paper of using illegal methods - including computer hacking - to obtain its information.

The Herald denied those allegations in a statement Sunday, saying it "did not and would not use information obtained from illegally intercepted communications."

Johnson said publication of the story would make it difficult for him to stay in New Zealand.

"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.