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A new Netflix series will follow the story of a Dutch man believed to have fathered hundreds of children in a shocking sperm donor scandal.
Jonathan Jacob Meijer, a 42-year-old Dutch musician, is estimated to have donated sperm on a massive, unregulated scale and ultimately fathered between 550 and 600 children.
Today at 8am, The Man With 1000 Kids premieres on Netflix, which will investigate “the murky world of the fertility industry,” as well as how the YouTuber defrauded dozens of parents and eleven clinics around the world.
The three-part documentary series features interviews with several parents still dealing with the repercussions of Meijer’s actions, as well as the attorney, fertility activist and medical professional working to try to stop him.
Meijer’s case is particularly significant because, under the law, a donor can donate sperm only 25 times to avoid incest or psychological problems in children who may learn in later years that they have multiple siblings.
But who is Jonathan Jacob Meijer, how did he become a serial sperm donor, and where is he now? Read on to find out.
Jonathan Jacob Meijer, a 42-year-old Dutch musician, is estimated to have donated sperm on a massive, unregulated scale and ultimately fathered between 550 and 600 children.
Today at 8am, The Man with 1000 Children premieres on Netflix, which will investigate “the murky world of the fertility industry,” as well as how the YouTuber defrauded dozens of parents and eleven clinics around the world.
Who is Jonathan Jacob Meijer?
Jonathan Jacob Meijer is a 42-year-old Dutch musician who is also believed to be the father of hundreds of children around the world.
Meijer himself is one of eight siblings. He worked as a civics teacher, mailman and cryptocurrency consultant.
His fatherhood odyssey began in 2007, when Meijer registered as a sperm donor at 11 clinics and the Cryos sperm bank.
She also joined Facebook groups for women and couples who want but can’t have children.
In her online profile, Meijer is believed to have claimed she resembled Hollywood actors Brad Pitt and Chris Hemsworth, and Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant.
Jonathan Jacob Meijer is a 42-year-old Dutch musician who is also believed to have fathered hundreds of children around the world.
How did Jonathan Jacob Meijer father 550 children?
Meijer is believed to have fathered more than 500 children after donating sperm en masse through approximately eleven clinics around the world.
Meijer children are spread all over the world: around 375 live in the Netherlands, 80 in Germany, 35 in Belgium, four in Argentina and two in Australia.
Over the years, Meijer lied to everyone and then it was discovered that he had developed an addiction to sperm donation.
He told each clinic that he would donate exclusively there, and each expectant mother that he “only” had about 10 children.
Meijer’s massive donations first came to light in 2017 and he was banned from donating to Dutch fertility clinics, where he had already fathered more than 100 children.
However, he continued to donate abroad, including to the internationally operating Danish sperm bank Cryos, and offered his services through websites and social media, according to Dutch news website Algemeen Dagblad.
The sperm bank Cryos sold its donations for around £1,100 each, but Meijer claims he donates his sperm for free. Speaking to German media, he said: “I don’t ask for anything, but sometimes I get £64, a plane ticket or a camera as a gift.”
Meijer also continued to offer himself as a donor on sites that match potential parents with sperm donors, sometimes using a different name.
Some of his “victims” have since created a Facebook page under the sinister name Donor 102 – the number of babies he was found to have fathered in 2017.
It was then that Dutch health authorities first discovered that he was secretly supplying sperm to almost all fertility clinics in the country.
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.
This far exceeds the legal limit in the Netherlands, which allows donors to father 25 children with up to 12 different women.
In some parts of the Netherlands, he has produced so many identical children, with curly blond hair and piercing blue eyes, that their mothers are beginning to meet each other by chance because they use the same nursery, work in the same office or live in the same neighbourhood.
Only when they see their children playing together, or compare photographs of them and then discuss how they came to be, do they realise, to their horror, that they share the same father.
In April 2023, a Dutch court ordered Meijer to stop donating sperm to clinics or face a fine of €100,000 (£88,000) per infringement.
The judges also ordered clinics abroad to write to them asking them to destroy all the semen they have in stock, except for the doses reserved for parents who have already fathered children with the man.
The decision came after a foundation representing the interests of donor children and Dutch parents who had used Mr Meijer as a donor launched a civil suit.
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.
Despite this, Meijer defiantly continued to expand its vast “family” by signing up with sperm banks such as Denmark-based Cryos International, the world’s largest supplier, supplying more than 100 countries including Britain, and another major international fertility clinic in Ukraine.
He was also found to be making private arrangements over the internet, where sperm donation is completely unregulated.
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.
Over the years, Meijer lied to everyone after it was discovered that he had developed an addiction to sperm donation.
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.
Where is Jonathan Jacob Meijer now?
Incredibly, Meijer continues to donate sperm, but, he says, only to women who already have one of his children and want another, something the recent court ruling allows.
In June last year, he “helped” a Dutch woman, before boarding flights to Serbia and Italy to visit the mothers of some of his children.
Meijer told German media that she wants to have her own children one day. “I want to start a family and dream of having five children,” she said.
These days, there is a YouTube account attributed to Meijer where videos are posted showing him talking about his experience as a sperm donor, how to get rid of demons, and his thoughts on traditional handcuffs.
He now appears to be travelling the world, with one video showing him speaking on a beach in Tanzania and another from Italy.
Referring directly to the Netflix documentary, Meijer said she declined to be on the show and was initially told the show’s working title was “The Fertility Scammer,” something she described as a title “I couldn’t work with.”
He said Week of news Wednesday: ‘The title is already very misleading. Misleading. It’s no surprise to anyone, Netflix is like any other corporation, company, focused on making money.’
The Man with 1000 Sons premieres today on Netflix at 8am.
Meijer appears to be traveling the world now, with one video showing him speaking on a beach in Tanzania and another from Italy.
