The Netflix three-episode docuseries “The Man With 1000 Kids” focuses on Jonathan Meijer, a sperm donor who fathered hundreds of children around the world, and the fallout of his actions.
Couples and individuals who used Meijer’s sperm say, in the documentary, he lied about how many times he has donated. The documentary raises concerns about the implications of children having hundreds of siblings. Meijer has been banned from donating sperm.
Meijer, who declined to participate in the documentary series, has said on his YouTube channel that he fathered approximately 550 children, not the 1,000 the documentary claims.
Read on to learn more about Meijer’s alleged actions and why they are causing controversy, as well as what Meijer has said about the accusations against him.
Who is Jonathan Meijer, and what did he allegedly do?
Meijer is a Dutch musician and YouTube creator.
As a sperm donor, he fathered hundreds of children over the span of 16 years, the New York Times reported last year, violating Dutch guidelines in the process. Under Dutch guidelines, donors are allowed to produce no more than 25 children with a maximum of 12 mothers, the Associated Press reported in 2023.
The Dutch Society for Obstetrics and Gynecology banned him from donating sperm in the Netherlands in 2017, but he continued to donate to recipients in other countries.
In 2023, the Hague District Court in the Netherlands banned Meijer from donating any more sperm, according to the Associated Press. The halt was ordered following an injunction brought by the mother of a child conceived with the donor’s sperm and Dutch Donor Child Foundation, a foundation representing other parents.
“All these parents are now confronted with the fact that the children in their family are part of a huge kinship network, with hundreds of half-siblings, which they did not choose,” the court said, according to the Associated Press, adding that Meijer’s alleged actions “could possibly have negative psychosocial consequences for the children.”
The mother who brought the injunction, identified only as Eva, celebrated the decision in a statement.
“I hope that this ruling leads to a ban on mass donation and spreads like an oil slick to other countries. We must stand hand in hand around our children and protect them against this injustice,” Eva said, per the AP’s reporting at the time.
The court also imposed a fine of 100,000 Euro (about $108,000) per case if Meijer violated the ban.
What’s the controversy behind the documentary and Jonathan Meijer’s actions?
Multiple people who used Meijer’s sperm to conceive have opened up about feeling betrayed and violated by Meijer’s actions.
A couple identified as Suzanne and Natalie said, in the documentary, Meijer told them he was only donating to five families.
The documentary raises implications of what the children might face when they grow up. One mother interviewed in the documentary — who is identified as “Kate,” which is not her real name — opened up about the possible effects on children of realizing they have hundreds of half-siblings.
“What happens psychologically to these children that have 700, 800, 900 brothers and sisters?” she said, according to Netflix’s Tudum, the streamer’s companion site. “How are they psychologically going to be able to deal with this information?”
Rachel Goldberg, a licensed therapist who specializes in infertility and third-party reproduction, says having so many half-siblings can have long-term effects on children, especially as they grow up and seek romantic partners.
“If you are the donor-conceived person, you have to be on the lookout at all times,” Goldberg tells TODAY.com. “You have to constantly monitor who you’re interacting with, and could that possibly be a sibling or have some kind of relation to you.”
She also noted that these genetic concerns will affect not only Meijer’s children, but his grandchildren as well, and more generations down the line.
Goldberg also echoed a worry shared by a mother identified as Natalie in the documentary: That half-siblings who don’t know they are related might feel innately attracted to each other.
“There’s a familiarity which kind of brings on attraction,” Goldberg says. “And that can be very hard to grapple with.”
How has Jonathan Meijer responded to the documentary?
Meijer declined to be interviewed for the documentary, but he has addressed many of the documentary’s claims on his YouTube page, as well as in interviews.
In a July 9 email to TODAY.com, Meijer said he "technically didn’t lie," and said he "followed the guidelines of every large commercial international sperm bank that do not inform the recipients about the amount of offspring one donor will produce."
"I was doing a better thing, I gave the parents an estimated number, this was better and more info than they would ever get at any clinic," he also said in his email.
Meijer has said he is considering suing Netflix for slander, and has vigorously denied the documentary’s claims that he deceived families or acted unethically.
In a June 27 YouTube video, Meijer also refuted the documentary’s claim that he had fathered 1,000 children, saying the real number is about 550, a figure he also shared with TODAY.com.
In another YouTube video, Meijer shared his reactions to the first episode of the documentary. He claimed the docuseries portrayed him and his intentions inaccurately, and promoted what he views as an unfair “narrative” of “betrayal.”
Meijer addresses the “difficult” allegations he “lied to recipients” in the comments of the video.
“As a private donor I gave parents an approximate number so that they knew that I was not only donating once or exclusive,” he said.
He also opened up about his belief that he has helped families by donating.
“I feel very happy that I was a donor and I am happy that each child is born healthy and made the lives of the families complete,” he wrote. “The families choose me not for my looks but because I am a very good donor, always kind, caring and always available to help them when the ovulation was due.”
He added that he gave a “valuable chance” to the families he helped privately, helping them avoid the cost and red tape of going through a clinic.
“They had fresh and healthy sperm (frozen is of lower quality) and I delivered in their house, and my identity was known DIRECTLY (instead of waiting 16 years),” he wrote. “This made me a very wanted and very good donor that many people wanted to have, because I take being a donor very Serious.”
Meijer echoed these claims in his email to TODAY.com, saying that he helped couples by eliminating the need for a waiting list at a fertility clinic and by offering fresh rather than frozen sperm.
He also said in his email that couples did not pay any money for his services, and said he was "open to keep contact" with families, which he said he views as a "positive (thing)."
In his email, Meijer also explained why he does not think it is a good idea for sperm donors to share with families how often they donate.
"Parents demanding to tell the donor how often he donates are one step away from controlling who he can help," he wrote. "Next they demand him to not donate to certain groups of people (of other religon or skincolour) because that would be “painful” to their children."
Meijer has also taken issue with the suggestion that donating sperm became a kind of “addiction” for him, a characterization put forth by the documentary’s director, Josh Allott, in an interview with Netflix’s Tudum.
“To pretend that this was an addiction — I don’t really see the addictive part,” Meijer said in a recent video. “I get a reward, and it’s spiritual, but it wasn’t really addictive.”
Meijer also refuted claims made in the documentary that his donations are an ongoing issue. He has stated in multiple YouTube videos that he stopped donating to new recipients in 2019, and says he now only donates to families he previously donated to who want a full sibling for their existing child.
Where is Jonathan Meijer now?
In a few recent YouTube videos, Meijer shared that he was in Zanzibar, Tanzania.
The documentary’s director, Josh Allott, told Tudum that he met with Meijer to speak with him about being in the documentary.
“We approached him a number of times to be interviewed and gave him a right to reply at the end. He refused to comment on any of the allegations in the series,” Allott said.
