How many children are too many children? Well, for Dutch sperm donor Jonathan Jacob Meijer, the number is way beyond what you and I can imagine. While sperm donation is a noble deed and the world might largely benefit from it, when not controlled, it might end up with horrifying consequences. The new Netflix docuseries The Man With 1000 Kids is based on such outcomes created by Meijer. Who he is, where he is now and how many children he has — we decode the true story of Jonathan Meijer.
The three-part docuseries, directed by Josh Allott and produced by Kathryn Taylor, premiered on Netflix on 3 July 2024. It shares insights of families who conceived with Meijer’s sperm but were unaware of the extent of his donations — that he had sired over 500 children. Despite families filing lawsuits against him and the Dutch court banning the serial donor from donating sperm to banks, Meijer continued. In fact, he has donor children not just in the Netherlands but across the globe, raising concerns about progeny. So who is he and why did he do this?
Here’s the true story of Jonathan Meijer, the person behind The Man With 1000 Kids
Who is Jonathan Jacob Meijer?
According to a report by The Mirror published on 19 June 2023, Jonathan Jacob Meijer, 42 at that time, is a Dutch YouTube personality and musician. Previously, he worked as a civics teacher, a mailman and a cryptocurrency consultant. He has seven siblings. At the time of writing this article, Meijer’s YouTube channel has about 6.17k subscribers. Here, he shares about his travels, why he started donating sperm, his thoughts and his music.
According to his friend Patricia, who appears in The Man With 1000 Kids, the serial sperm donor struggled to find his own voice and identity amid such a large family. He also drifted from one job to the other and changed his looks frequently.
When and why did Jonathan Meijer start donating sperm?
Meijer entered the fertility industry when he began donating sperm in 2007. According to a February 2024 video, he said the idea occurred to him while he was studying to be a teacher. A classmate told him that he was infertile, which led him to donate his samples and help couples experience the joy of having a child. Lack of any family history of chronic or genetic diseases, diabetes and cancer further made Meijer’s donations helpful for many.
According to The Mirror, the sperm donor had registered with 11 sperm clinics across the world as well as at the Danish sperm bank Cryos. He also joined Facebook groups of prospective parents who weren’t able to conceive to contact mothers who would use his samples.
But things took a turn when it was known that Meijer had breached the country’s laws and fathered much more than the limit of 25 children. “Over the years, Meijer lied to everyone. He told each clinic he would exclusively donate there, and he told each prospective mother he ‘only’ had about 10 children,” according to the publication.
The true story of the rulings against Jonathan Meijer
Parents who had children via Meijer’s sample happened to meet each other by chance. One such parent was single mother Vanessa van Ewijk, who had her first child in 2015 with Meijer’s sperm. She connected with him through a website and acquired the semen via private donations. When she wanted to get pregnant again in 2017, she contacted Jonathan, but this time, she also connected with another single mother on Facebook and got to know about a 2017 ruling which banned Meijers from donating his sperm.
The New York Times reported in 2021 that according to an investigation by the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport in 2017, Jonathan Meijers had fathered at least 102 children in the Netherlands through several fertility clinics. This figure did not include his private donations through websites. When confronted with such a big lie by a furious van Ewijk, he told her, “I’m just helping women make their biggest wish come true,” as reported by the publication. She went to the Dutch Donor Child Foundation to flag this fraud where it was revealed that many other mothers have raised similar concerns. Their findings showed that Meijer has sired at least 80 more babies in the Netherlands than what the investigations said.
Despite this ban, Meijer allegedly made anonymous donations, often under the garb of other names. He had offspring in Australia, Italy, Serbia, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Switzerland, Romania, Denmark, Sweden, Mexico and the United States.
The Mirror reported that when German media asked why he donated sperm at such a mass scale, Meijer said, “I want to do something meaningful with my life.” Talking about deceit, he remarked, “Yes, I lied to the women. That was wrong. I wanted to help them.”
In 2023, another ban came when the Civil Court at The Hague ordered Meijer to stop donating sperm. It also ordered Dutch clinics and sperm banks to destroy any of his specimens. The verdict levied a fine of EUR 100,000 for every future violation as well, reports Reuters.
The Dutch Donor Kind Foundation supported it, arguing that Meijer had misinformed the recipients about the number of children he had fathered. Its CEO, Ties van der Meer, told The Mirror, “What Meijer is doing is irresponsible! According to the verdict, he has 550 children. I fear that he wants to set a record and already has 1,000 children today.”
How many children does sperm donor Jonathan Jacob Meijer have?
Well, that’s a million-dollar question with no exact answer.
While the 2023 verdict said it to be around 550, others like van der Meer or The Man With 1000 Kids state that it could be above 1,000.
In an email to The New York Times in 2021, the serial sperm donor dismissed them all, stating, “I have approximately 250 children.” He added, “Assumptions of 1,000 are ridiculous. I am disappointed by the obsession of the numbers. I became a donor not for any numbers but out of love to help parents with realising their dream. I cannot understand how anyone can only focus on numbers and see my donor children as a number.”
In another email, he wrote: “I know people are quickly judging me or thinking that I donate for narcissistic reasons. But I am quite down to earth about myself and I don’t think too highly about myself. (I prefer to be honest to myself and see my shortcomings and my good sides.) But what motivates me as a donor is just to do something really big with just a little bit of help, the appreciation of the recipients and the warm feelings and memories I share with the children and the recipients.”
Why was Jonathan Meijer banned from donating sperm?
Because Meijer’s sperm donations have led to several children across the globe and a large population in the Netherlands, it has led to each child having hundreds of half-siblings. In such a small country, this can lead to accidental incest and inbreeding.
One of the mothers featured in the docuseries, Natalie, said, “Children who haven’t been brought up together are more likely to get attracted to each other because they see some familiarities in the face of the sibling. That feeling of attraction can result in romantic love, a phenomenon known as the ‘Luke and Leia complex,’ named after the characters in Star Wars.”
Donor children conceived from his sperm are, therefore, part of a huge kinship network which would affect their social and psychological status once they find out. Different countries have different rules about how many times a person can donate sperm and the number of donor-child he can have. However, the lack of global laws and strict rules make this aspect of the fertility industry quite a loose end.
Where is Jonathan Meijer now?
Meijer doesn’t have a fixed address. His YouTube channel suggests he travels across the world from where he posts videos about his life, his reaction to the Netflix documentary and even his thoughts about the entire sperm donation journey. However, his latest videos indicate Meijer is based in Zanzibar.
About The Man With 1000 Kids and Jonathan Meijer’s response
In three episodes, each about 40 minutes long, the new Netflix documentary sheds light on the unsettling deeds of a man who feels no regret about his actions. How couples and single mothers came to know about the web of lies, its implications on family life, its effect on parents and what would become of the children are explored in the series.
Meijer, on the other hand, has denounced the series and shared his version of the story. In the video posted on June 2024, he said, “It’s what they think about me and what others say about me. I was right in not participating for myself, personally, because they first wanted to call it The Fertility Fraudster. That’s not a title I can work with.”
He added, “I don’t know where they get this number, I don’t know where they base it on. From my knowledge, I helped out with 550 children,” he said. “So somehow they manage to magically add 450 children to my records.”
In another video, posted on 1 July 2024, he commented on the title saying, “The title is misleading. Absolutely one big lie. I’ve helped with 550 children, hundreds in the Dutch clinics, 450 privately, and there could be some more, I estimate 50 from the Danish sperm bank Cryos… So from the start, already deceptive, already lying.”
Stream The Man With 1000 Kids on Netflix here.
(Hero and Feature image: Courtesy Netflix)
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
While it is difficult to estimate an exact number, Jonathan Jacob Meijer from the Netherlands is a serial sperm donor who is believed to have fathered an enormous number of children, spread across the globe. Although court verdicts state it can be upward of 550, the Netflix documentary series based on him is titled 'The Man With 1000 Kids'. Historically, Mongol leader Genghis Khan is believed to have fathered up to 2,000 children.
The Netflix documentary 'The Man with 1000 Kids' is based on the Dutch sperm donor Jonathan Meijer.
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Trinetra is an ardent foodie and bibliophile who writes about films, travel, food and lifestyle. As a writer and literature student, slam poetry and storytelling are her go to jam. When not working, Trinetra is busy looking for her next place to visit or binge-watching Instagram videos for travel inspiration.
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