- “The Man with 1,000 Children” features prolific sperm donor Jonathan Jacob Meijer.
- This shows how families are gradually becoming aware of the sheer number of children he has fathered.
“The Man with 1,000 Children” tells the story of four couples and a single woman who gradually realize that their sperm donor has fathered hundreds of children.
The Netflix documentary series tells the story of how Jonathan Jacob Meijer told those who used him as a donor that he had only helped a handful of families. But when parents in the Netherlands realize that their children born through sperm donors look eerily similar, it becomes clear that this was not the case. It is later revealed that Jonathan Jacob Meijer has donated his sperm all over the world.
Families quickly become concerned about the potential dangers to future generations if half-siblings unknowingly have children together.
A man identified as John, one of a couple who used Meijer, said on the show: “We thought, ‘Oh, gee. What if these kids met and maybe had a connection or fell in love and didn’t know they were related?’ That’s when the real panic started. That’s when we saw the real danger of this situation.”
Jonathan Jacob Meijer banned from donating sperm in the Netherlands
In April 2023, the District Court of The Hague in his native Netherlands banned Meijer from donating sperm to fertility clinics after it was revealed he had fathered more than 500 children, The Independent reported.
If he makes a further donation, he will be fined €100,000 for each offence.
An anonymous sperm donor also claimed on the show that Meijer and another man, identified only as Leon, ran a website called “Longing for a Child” to try to father as many children as possible. The anonymous donor claimed that Meijer and Leon mixed their sperm samples to play “sperm roulette” to see what the child would look like.
In an email to Business Insider, Meijer denied running the site.
“I never had a website, there is no evidence of that. I had posted my ad on this same website during the first years of my donation, from 2008 to 2014,” he wrote. “What Leon did is not clear to me, I met him 4 or 5 times in my life, he died two years ago.”
Meijer added, referring to Netflix: “I’m going to sue for defamation, this is absolutely insane! I’m going to sue, not only because of the mix, but also for other accusations.”
Netflix did not respond to a request for comment from BI.
Meijer still posts videos of himself traveling on YouTube
The docuseries details how Meijer traveled extensively for his work, which explains why some of the mothers involved weren’t able to speak to him face-to-face when they found out how many children were conceived using his sperm samples.
He frequently posts videos on his YouTube channel about his thoughts on various topics, such as spirituality, traditional wives, raw meat diets, and his reaction to “The Man with 1,000 Children.”
On May 5, he uploaded a video from Tanzania, explaining that he had decided to leave the Netherlands because the country had become overpopulated and he wanted to be closer to nature.
In his latest video, posted on July 3, Meijer was on a beach in Zanzibar, off the east coast of Africa. He explained that he had spent “over 50,000 hours” as a sperm donor until 2019, when he said he stopped donating sperm to clinics.
