Women interviewed for a Netflix documentary say a sperm donor lied about the number of children he helped father.
Jonathan Jacob Meijer is a 43-year-old man who rose to fame in 2017 after a court in the Netherlands ordered him to stop donating sperm to fertility clinics. He had already fathered more than 100 children in that country alone, where the law limits one to 25 children.
The case resurfaced in 2023 when it was discovered that he was not complying with the court’s order.
Meijer continued to sell his sperm and Dutch authorities estimated that he had up to a thousand children scattered around the world.
The indictment against the man revealed that he had deliberately lied to hundreds of families about the number of children he had fathered in the past.
Now, several women who used Meijer sperm are appearing in a new documentary series, which premiered on Netflix yesterday, and they tell how they were duped.
One said she felt “betrayed, sad and angry” when she found out how many children Meijer has.
He, who refused to take part in the series, denied the allegations in an interview with the BBC and defended his actions by saying that many of the people who received his sperm “are happy”.
Meijer’s Donations
Meijer has been a donor for about 17 years. In many cases, he has done so privately, dealing directly with families rather than through a fertility clinic.
In the Netherlands he is now the father of 102 children, born from donations made in 11 clinics.
After he was banned from donating in the country in 2017, he began sending his sperm to other countries, which he did until 2023.
It was that year that a woman and a foundation that supported her filed a civil lawsuit against him, finding that Meijer’s actions increased the risk of incest for their children.
In court testimony, Meijer admitted to having between 550 and 600 children.
The court said, however, that he could in fact be the father of up to 1,000 children spread across several continents.
Ultimately, a judge banned him from donating sperm to the new parents and ruled that if he did, he would be fined $100,000 per donation.
“The Man of a Thousand Sons”
The documentary series “The Man of a Thousand Children” features interviews with several families and women who discovered that Meijer had hundreds of children, something he did not disclose during his sperm donation.
“I’m angry because at that moment he told me he was going to donate to five families,” says one of the mothers, whose name is Natalie, and who was also interviewed by the BBC.
Natalie added that she found out what her donor was doing through the press.
“The biggest concern is that these children meet and fall in love because they recognize something in each other and don’t know that they are children of the same donor parent,” she said.
For Meijer, the series focuses on the families who are “not satisfied” with the donations, rather than the many families he says are grateful.
“They deliberately called (the documentary) ‘The Man of 1,000 Children’ when it should have been ‘the sperm donor who helped families conceive 550 children’,” he told the BBC.
“So from the very beginning they deceive, and they deceive deliberately,” he adds.
The man also told the BBC he sees “absolutely nothing wrong” with having hundreds of children. And he rejected the possibility of two half-siblings forming a relationship because he is not an anonymous donor.
“I can assure you that there are low-cost DNA tests now and they are in the DNA database for you to look at,” he said.
Meijer has indicated it will take legal action against Netflix. The streaming platform declined to comment.
Natalie Hill, the series’ executive producer, said she spent four years investigating the events depicted in the series and spoke to about 50 families involved.
“Fifty families have made shocking statements in court about his lies and have begged the judge to stop donating. We remain open to the possibility of Meijer speaking out,” Nathalie said.
Source: Terra
Ben Stock is a lifestyle journalist and author at Gossipify. He writes about topics such as health, wellness, travel, food and home decor. He provides practical advice and inspiration to improve well-being, keeps readers up to date with latest lifestyle news and trends, known for his engaging writing style, in-depth analysis and unique perspectives.
