Netflix is no stranger to introducing viewers to some of the most insane real-life stories such as Tiger King and Don't F**K with Cats, and now there's something new for fans to binge.
On May 11, the popular streaming service will drop a documentary called Our Father and it's sure to have everyone glued to their screens.
A two-minute trailer for Our Father was released via Twitter last week and left viewers sickened by the true story that it is based on.
The teaser clip begins with a female voiceover saying: "Growing up, I felt different. I was 35 and I take a DNA test."
It then switches to a different female and a male talking about how the story unravelled for them as they realised they had lots of relatives who they knew nothing about.
Here's everything you need to know about Our Father and the man it's based on, Doctor Donald Cline.
What's the true story behind Our Father?
Upcoming Netflix documentary Our Father centres around Donald Cline, a fertility doctor who secretly impregnated around 50 women using his own sperm.
The former medical professional is said to have used his own semen on females at his clinic when he 'ran out' of his usually supply.
However, the various mothers and their partners were completely unaware of what he was doing - until one of his biological children took a DNA test.
Jacoba Ballard, who features in Our Father, was one of the first people to piece everything together but it had taken her a long time.
Ballard had known she was donor-conceived since the age of 10, and in 2014, when she was 33, she began looking for half siblings who shared her donor.
"I was thinking one, or two at the most," she said in a previous interview.
In Sarah Zhang's 2019 article for The Atlantic, 'The Fertility Doctor's Secret,' she explained how she quickly connected with another woman whose mother had also been treated by Cline. As soon as she saw her Facebook photos, she knew they had to be related.
That woman knew another woman whose mother had also gone to Cline, and she had a sister. The four of them took 23andMe tests to confirm they were half-sisters, but the results revealed they also had four more half-siblings.
The group continued to search for their biological father by cross-matching their DNA with public databases to find relatives, and the name 'Cline' kept popping up. They eventually tracked down a distant relative who shared that she had a cousin named Donald Cline who was a fertility specialist in Indianapolis.
While searching for answers, four of the eight siblings filed complaints with Indiana’s attorney general and asked for their suspicions to be investigated.
In 2015, Ballard sent a Facebook message to Fox59 news anchor Angela Ganote and asked for her help which led to the local station airing a segment about a suspiciously high number of children from one donor at the time - but Cline wasn't named.
In the trailer for Our Father, Ganote is heard saying: "He's known in our community as a philanthropist. He's an elder of the church."
It was actually Cline's son who helped to organise a meeting between the doctor and six of the newly-discovered half-siblings, including Ballard.
During the reunion, Cline allegedly admitted to using his own sperm but said that their medical records had all been destroyed.
How many children does Dr. Donald Cline have?
According to Netflix, Cline inseminated at least 50 people with his own sperm without their consent, and he has at least 50 children.
Jason Hyatt, who is another one of Cline's biological children, features in the Our Father documentary and in the trailer he is heard saying: "When I opened up Ancestry, I had over 3,000 hits," while another person admits: "I dread every new match that comes, but they just keep coming."
For years, Ballard and her half-siblings have wondered what led Cline to lie to his patients and use his own semen to impregnate them.
"Most of us have blonde hair, blue eyes. It was almost like this perfect Aryan clan," Ballard says in the trailer, before adding: "It's disgusting."
Where is Dr. Donald Cline now?
Cline was 79-years-old when he pleaded guilty in December 2017 to two felony counts of obstructing justice, by lying to state investigators about using his own sperm at his fertility clinic.
He received a one-year jail sentence, suspended, so he served no time.
When Cline opened his clinic in 1979, there weren't as many rules around surrounding the fertility specialty and it was said to be common for doctors to pick the sperm donors they thought would be best for each patient.
In 2018, Cline surrendered his license to the Medical Licensing Board of Indiana, who also voted to prohibit him from ever applying to reinstate his license again.
Cline's current whereabouts, as far as we can tell, are unknown.
When is Our Father out?
Our Father will be available to stream on Netflix on Wednesday 11 May, 2022.
