Netflix is dropping some seriously compelling documentaries this month, and first up is The Man With 1000 Kids.
Released yesterday, it explores the issue of fertility fraud and what can happen when sperm donors ignore the national and international regulations in place when it comes to how many families they can supply. This can result in hundreds of half-siblings around the world and a serious health risk if these siblings procreate without knowledge of their connection.
A synopsis from Netflix's TUDUM reads: “The Man with 1000 Kids takes on the monumental task of trying to piece together the havoc wreaked by Meijer across several countries and continents — in addition to 11 sperm banks in the Netherlands and private donations, Meijer had been donating sperm all over the globe.”
The documentary is a wild ride, revealing the truly dark depths of the fertility industry and the need for change and reform to protect families looking for sperm donors and their children.
So we've done a deep dive into Jonathan Meijer, the man at the centre of this controversy. Here's what we know.
Who is Jonathan Meijer?
Jonathan is the subject of the documentary, which follows the story of many parents who sought out sperm donations through a private donor through sperm clinics – and ended up using his sperm to father their child.
He first started donating sperm in the Netherlands in 2007, and carried on doing so beyond the national limit of children a person can supply sperm for, which is 25. In April 2023, it was reported that he had fathered over 600 children, but according to the documentary, the numbers could be much higher, as he has allegedly travelled worldwide to do so and operated under various aliases.
Multiple women report on the documentary that he slept with them in order to “donate” his sperm, while others say he provided his specimen to them in a cup. The documentary also covers a theory that he had been combining his semen with other “mass donors” as some kind of roulette or race to see whose sperm would father a child when it was given to a mother. Meijer denies this.
He declined to participate in the Netflix documentary.
Where is Jonathan Meijer now?
Last year, a Dutch court banned Jonathan from donating any more sperm, and advised him to write to all clinics to instruct them to destroy any reserves of his specimen that they might have on file. The only parents who will have access to his sperm are those who already have children through his specimen and want them to have siblings. If Jonathan breaks this ruling, he will be fined up to £88,000.
Has Jonathan Meijer commented on the documentary?
Jonathan spoke to Emma Barnett on BBC's Woman's Hour about the documentary on the day of its release, claiming it was “deceiving and misleading.”
"They deliberately called it The Man With 1,000 Kids, when it should be 'the sperm donor who helped families conceive with 550 children'," he said, claiming that there was nothing wrong with fathering hundreds of children.
He added, "I think Netflix did a great job at selecting five families [who are unhappy] out of the 225 families that I've helped, and they [the other families] will definitely tell you something else."
Natalie Hill, the documentary's executive producer, also spoke on the programme.
“I've spent the last four years speaking to families who have been impacted by Jonathan's lies,” she clarified. “I've personally spoken to 45 or 50 families.”
She added, "Fifty families made impact statements to the court about his lies, and pleaded with the judge that he stop. So this continued platform for Jonathan to talk about it being a handful of women is completely untrue."
Says one showrunner, “Viewers understand on a certain level that these things are fictionalized, but…if you wander too far off the garden path, you are potentially ruining someone’s life.”
Jonathan has also used his YouTube channel – which shows him travelling the world – to comment on the show. He said that he “couldn't work with” the original title, which was The Fertility Fraudster, and called the official documentary title (The Man With 1000 Kids) “sensationalising and misleading”.
He also said that he didn't believe the figure of 1000 children to be correct. "I want to talk freely, I want to have [a say] in my own story," he said.
Jonathan also criticised the documentary's impact on the children, questioning whether Netflix reached out to all concerned families before making it. “I'm sadder that they decided to change the lives of all my donor children [...] It's not right to sensationalise. They should have asked all the parents and children [before making the documentary].”
The Man With 1000 Kids is available to watch on Netflix from 3 July.