A woman has been shocked after discovering that her husband had another wife on Facebook. The woman made the discovery after she received a 'friend' suggestion on the social media network. That 'friend' was none other than her husband's second wife.

The first wife had never divorced her husband and had no idea of the existence of another woman, let alone a second wife.

Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist told AP: "Wife No. 1 went to Wife No. 2's page and saw a picture of her and her husband with a wedding cake."

According to the court records," An hour later the defendant arrived at [Wife No. 1's] apartment and she asked him several times if they were divorced. The defendant said, 'No, we are still married.'"

The bigamist has been named as Alan L. O'Neill. He had married his first wife in 2001 but moved out after eight years. Having never divorced her, he went on to change his name and remarry.

When Wife No. 1 found out about the second wife, her husband told her not to tell anyone and that he would fix the problem. But Wife No. 1 went to the police instead.

Alan L. O'Neill was formerly known as Alan Fulk. He has been charged with bigamy and faces up to a year in prison if convicted.

He has been put on leave as a corrections officer in Pierce County and is set to appear in court later this month.

"Facebook is now a place where people discover things about each other they end up reporting to law enforcement," Lindquist said. "Every few years we see one of these bigamy cases..about the only danger he [O'Neill] would pose is marrying a third woman."