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BREAKING NEWS: The sperm donor at the center of ‘The Man with 1000 Kids’ says he plans to sue Netflix. Here’s where Jonathan Jacob Meijer is now
The Netflix docuseries details how Jonathan Jacob Meijer told those who used him as a donor that he had only helped a handful of families. But as parents in The Netherlands realize their children born using sperm donors look oddly similar, it becomes clear that wasn’t the case. It later emerges he has been donating sperm around the world.
The families quickly become fearful of the potential dangers to future generations if half-siblings unknowingly have children together. A man identified as John, one half of a couple who used Meijer, said on the show: “We thought, ‘Oh fuck. What if these children meet each other and maybe have a connection or fall in love and they don’t know they are related?’ That’s when the real panic started. That’s when we saw the real danger of this.”
In April 2023, Meijer was banned from donating sperm to fertility clinics by the Hague District Court in his native Netherlands, after it emerged he had fathered over 500 children, The Independent reported. He will be fined 100,000 for every violation if he donates again.
An anonymous sperm donor also alleged in the series that Meijer and another man, identified only as Leon, ran a website called “Longing for a Child” to try to father as many children as possible. The anonymous donor claimed that Meijer and Leon mixed their sperm samples together to play “sperm roulette,” to see who the child would look like.