Netflix’s new The Man With 1000 Children tells the disturbing story of serial sperm donor, Jonathan Meijer and his shocking fertility fraud.
Below, we share the true story behind the documentary and where Jonathan Meijer is now.
The True Story of Netflix’s The Man With 1000 Kids
The Man With 1000 Kids is about Jonathan Meijer, a Dutch Youtuber and musician who has fathered hundreds, if not thousands, of children around the world by sperm donation.
In the Netherlands, a sperm donor is legally only allowed to donate to 12 different mothers—and for a total of 25 children.
Meijer on the other hand, is known as a serial sperm donor—someone who ignores the legal restrictions—is known to have fathered at least 500 children but probably more (the documentary suggests up to 3000).
The documentary reveals that the families using Meijer as a sperm donor didn’t know the extent of his donations.
Aside from the obvious psychological impact that comes with potentially having hundreds of siblings, serial sperm donation also poses the risk of accidental incest—when siblings who don’t know they’re related may feel attracted to each other.
This is a big concern in the Netherlands since Meijer has donated prolifically in a relatively small geographical area.
Already, three of his donor children have ended up in the same day-care centre.
Once the reality of Meijer’s donations came to light, a number of parents formed the Donorkind Foundation to launch a civil lawsuit against Meijer.
Who Is Jonathan Meijer?
Jonathan Meijer is a Dutch Youtuber, musician and serial sperm donor in his early 40s.
He first started donating his sperm in 2007 in the Netherlands and continued until 2017 when it was revealed that his sperm had been used for more than 100 children.
After being forbidden to donate any more sperm in the Netherlands, Meijer travelled abroad to donate overseas, with his sperm reaching families as far as Australia.
To keep donating, its alleged Meijer often used different names across a mix of clinical and private donation avenues.
A number of theories about what’s compelled Meijer to donate his sperm to so many people include him having an addiction to breeding and wanted to break a Guinness World Record for the person with the ‘most amount of children.’
Meijer has denied these claims on his YouTube channel.
Where Is Jonathan Meijer Now?
In April 2023, a Dutch court ruled that Meijer not allowed to donate any more sperm and that he needs to write to clinics around the world and explain why samples should be destroyed.
Meijer could be fined up to £88,000 for breaking the ruling.
Meijer has been open about his sperm donor journey, including the Netflix documentary on his YouTube account.
He described the documentary as “sensationalising and misleading” and said the number of ‘1,000’ is not one he thinks is true.
“I want to talk freely, I want to have [a say] in my own story,” he said about why he didn’t participate in the Netflix documentary.
“I’ve seen the trailer, somebody sent it to me because I don’t watch Netflix. I don’t have Netflix, I think it’s evil […] I live in nature, nature is important to me, not my story, something artificial. I help people, that’s it. But I’m more sad that they decided to change the lives of all my donor children […] It’s not right to sensationalise. They should have asked all the parents and children [before making the documentary].”
According to Meijer’s YouTube channel, he seems to be still travelling the world.
This article originally appeared on Marie Claire Australia and is republished here with permission.
