A compulsive sperm donor believed to have fathered up to 1,000 children has suggested he is the real victim and was “very vulnerable”.
Jonathan Meijer from the Netherlands donated sperm on a massive scale, defrauding dozens of parents and eleven clinics around the world.
In an explosive Netflix documentary investigating this “murky world”, the women told how they felt “betrayed” and “angry” after discovering how many other children the musician, now 43, had fathered.
But in an interview, Meijer, who has also been labelled a “public health risk” and a “narcissist”, claimed today that he had “no protection” as a private donor, making him “very vulnerable”.
And he argued that there was “absolutely nothing wrong” with having hundreds of children.
Jonathan Jacob Meijer is a 43-year-old Dutch musician who is also believed to have fathered hundreds of children around the world.
Meijer children are spread all over the world. Some 375 live in the Netherlands, 80 in Germany, 35 in Belgium, four in Argentina and two in Australia.
The Man with 1000 Children premieres today on Netflix, investigating ‘the murky world of the fertility industry’, as well as how the YouTuber defrauded dozens of parents and eleven clinics around the world
She told BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour: ‘I offer something better than sperm banks.
‘I offer fresh sperm directly which is better than frozen sperm.
‘I give it away for free, you don’t have to pay me. You can have contact with me. You can ask me whatever you want.
In what sense is this misleading? In what sense is this false?
He added: ‘When I started as a private donor, I was open about the number of people I had helped.
“But I ran into so many problems with that that I decided to follow the clinic’s guidelines,” without telling people how many children he had helped as a parent.
“I still decided to give you an approximate number so you have an idea,” he said.
“If I said ‘oh, I’ve helped 50 times’, I’d at least be giving an approximate figure, so they could see that he’s a massive donor.
‘I gave them more than the clinic could offer.
In April 2023, a Dutch court ordered Meijer to stop donating sperm to clinics or face a fine of €100,000 (£88,000) per violation.
They argued that Mr. Meijer’s continued donations violated the privacy rights of his donor children, whose ability to form romantic relationships is hampered by fears of accidental incest and inbreeding.
In a perfect world, that would be the best. Everyone could be open, I could be open, and I wouldn’t be vulnerable.
‘As a private donor you are very vulnerable. I have experienced situations that you cannot imagine because I was very open about myself.
‘I gave my address but when I decided not to help someone, they stood in front of my door.
“Who protects me? I have no money in the bank, I have no lawyers.
“I was very vulnerable, there is no protection for private donors.”
Meijer was banned from donating sperm in the Netherlands in 2017 after it emerged he was the father of 102 children, born from donations made to 11 clinics across the country.
He continued to donate in other countries until 2023, when a woman and a foundation that supported her filed a civil lawsuit against Meijer, arguing that he was increasing the risk of incest for their children.
In his testimony, Meijer admitted to having fathered between 550 and 600 children.
However, the court said he may have fathered as many as 1,000 children on several continents.
The judge eventually banned Meijer from donating sperm to new parents in the Netherlands and said he would be fined €100,000 (£85,000) per donation if he did so.
He also occasionally impregnated women through “natural donation” (sex) if the woman was single.
Meijer told Woman’s Hour: ‘I already stopped donating to new recipients in 2019. I only donated to my siblings.
Over the years, Meijer lied to everyone after it was discovered that he had developed an addiction to sperm donation.
‘The court process was basically pointless because I had already stopped doing it, and the court process did not prohibit me from helping existing families.’
Asked if there were families still using Meijer as a sperm donor, he said, “Yes, absolutely.”
He added: “All these outdated visions like ‘fear of inbreeding’, ‘identity crisis’. We are now in 2024.
“We see lesbian couples everywhere. We see single mothers everywhere.
“We know that donors are helping families. We should stop projecting these outdated ideas onto these children.”
Later, when asked if he felt he had misled women, he also said: “If you want exclusivity, you go to the clinic. You pay 10,000 euros and then your donor is exclusive.”
‘If you don’t want to share as a mother, why did you choose this path?
“The mothers in this documentary behave like that, I don’t know why. Maybe they were hurt and did this to me.”
In the UK, current rules mean that a single sperm donor can only create ten families in this country, and each family can potentially include several siblings.
But there are no regulations limiting the number of families donors can create abroad.
Some foreign centers allow sperm donations from the same person to be used to create 1,000 or more separate families.
Experts warn the issue is becoming more urgent because more than half of donated sperm used in Britain is imported from abroad and demand for sperm donors is growing due to the rise in single women and same-sex female couples having children.
The number of same-sex female couples undergoing IVF rose by 33 per cent between 2019 and 2021, according to fertility regulator the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA).
Meanwhile, the number of single women undergoing artificial insemination increased by 26 percent.
Last year, Professor Jackson Kirkman-Brown, president of the Association of Clinical and Reproductive Scientists, warned that it could be “psychologically damaging” for children to discover they have hundreds or even thousands of half-siblings.
She said: “If you’ve always thought you were an incredibly special gift, to suddenly find out there are 300 people who share 50 per cent of your DNA is a very difficult concept to wrap your head around.”
Meijer appears to be traveling the world now, with one video showing him speaking on a beach in Tanzania and another from Italy.
Research also suggests that donor-conceived people often feel pressure to keep in touch with dozens of half-siblings, but this can be “almost impossible”, which can cause great stress.
When later asked on Woman’s Hour if she had an “addiction” to sperm donation, Meijer said: “An addiction always comes with a physical arousal.
‘Please can you explain to me why it’s exciting to be in a dirty bathroom? I don’t really see the addictive endorphins in that situation.’
Asked whether she wanted to have a family of her own, she added: “I want to have a big family. It’s hard to find someone who also wants to have a traditional family with traditional values.”
‘I always talk about natural tribes and I would love to live like that. Most women are not interested in that. They want to have a career or are focused on materialism.
‘I want to live very simply on a small farm, self-sufficient and self-sustaining.’
The Man with a Thousand Sons is now available on Netflix
