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Louise Thomas
Editor
Netflix’s new docuseries The Man with 1000 Kids has left viewers shocked and outraged.
The three-part documentary, released on Wednesday (July 3), centers on the controversial case of Dutch musician and sperm donor Jonathan Jacob Meijer, who was banned from making any further donations after he admitted to having fathered more than 500 children.
It also mentions another donor, Leon, who has sired around 415 children. He’s alleged to have secretly competed with Meijer to see who could have the highest number of offspring. Meijer denied this to The Independent.
Numerous viewers have reacted angrily to the stories shared in the series by the mothers affected by Meijer and Leon’s actions.
“Holy smokes!! The Man with 1000 Kids is just enraging,” one person tweeted. “Jonathan and Leon deserve some kind of punishment. That’s disgusting on so many levels.”
“It’s shocking to say the least and it’s incredibly f***ed up,” a second agreed. “The lies and deception people make. Some will just use other people’s vulnerability and weakness for their own agenda.”
A third was left speechless. “I honestly don’t know what to say. I thought Our Father was bad,” they said, referring to the 2022 documentary about fertility specialist Donald Cline who was convicted after it was discovered that he had covertly inseminated dozens of patients with his sperm. “But this... idek [I don’t even know]. I have no words. Every episode had a new twist that made everything even worse and I was just like...”
“Yet more proof that we should raze human civilisation to the ground,” one wrote.
“This man is going to cause so many problems for these kids in the future,” another argued, while one added: “They are guaranteed to run into a sibling and not know.”
Despite it being “actually F***ING CRAZY,” someone else noted that they “100% recommend” watching the series.
Speaking to The Independent, one mother, Suzanne, expressed her worry about how Meijer’s misdeeds would impact the lives of the children.
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“They can never just date somebody or have intercourse with somebody, they will always need to take care and even then they might not be aware that they’re a donor child,” she said. “It’s a very dangerous and unhealthy situation for these children, and for their children and grandchildren.”
“It’s a public health hazard waiting to happen,” her partner Natalie added. “It’s not about the number, it’s about the dangers that lie beneath the number. The bigger the number, the more dangerous it is.”
Meijer has denied many of the accusations made against him in the documentary.
Addressing the most shocking one of all, that he and Leon mixed their sperm together before giving it to a recipient in order to see whose would “win,” he called it “total slander.”
“It’s insane,” Meijer told The Independent. “Why should I do that? Why should anyone do that? If it’s in the documentary, be prepared, I will definitely sue the hell out of the whole Netflix crew.”
The Man with 1000 Kids is streaming now on Netflix.
