Jonathan Meijer Was a Prolific Sperm Donor Who Traveled the World to Keep It Going — Where Is He Now?

Once again, Netflix is coming in hot with a documentary that could leave you with a lot of questions. One of them might very well be, "Am I dating my sibling?" The documentary itself is not about people who want to date their relatives (though we might tune into that because the human condition is endlessly fascinating). Surprisingly enough, it's also not about a man taking too many lives, but rather creating too many.

In The Man With 1,000 Kids, we learn about one man's quest to populate the Earth, though he frames it as helping families realizing their dreams. Jonathan Meijer did this by being a sperm donor, even when he was no longer legally allowed to do so in his own country. Sadly this meant he did a fair bit of lying to the women involved. Where is Jonathan Meijer now? He doesn't appear to regret his decisions.

Meijer spoke with Newsweek ahead of the documentary's July 3, 2024 premiere regarding how he felt about it. He told the outlet he never lied to any of the families he helped. And while Meijer was asked to participate in the documentary, he ultimately declined because the families involved were "bullies." He claimed that small group were outliers, as most of the people he helped were very grateful.

He also was careful to correct the language being used. Meijer doesn't think he fathered children; he was merely a sperm donor. Despite that, he told Newsweek that he is "seeing 75 percent of the children and families regularly and doing everything for my donor children that they feel loved, wanted in my life and that they are unique human beings and souls." The Dutch musician also insisted that he never charged money and didn't intend to have sex, which is an odd thing to volunteer.

According to The Telegraph, Meijer is being sued by a Dutch mother of one of his children who is going by Eva in the lawsuit. "If I had known he had already fathered more than 100 children I would never have chosen him," she said. "If I think about the consequences this could have for my child I am sick to my stomach."

The consequences are, of course, possible incest when it comes to donor children potentially getting into relationships with each other. More kids equals more risk.

The Netherlands’ Donorkind Foundation is also taking legal action to prevent Meijer from donating sperm as they believe he lied about the number of children he sired. Per their guidelines, a donor cannot father more than 25 or donate to more than 12 women, in order to avoid inbreeding, incest, or psychological issues for donor babies. They are hoping this will force Meijer to reveal how many clinics he has donated to.

Donorkind foundation chairman Ties van der Meer said, "We are taking action against this man because the government is doing nothing." He then added, "He has a global reach via the internet and he does business with large, international sperm banks."

Meijer is contacted via his own website, which is how he has continued to donate outside of the Netherlands. As of the time of this writing, he is on a Dutch donation blacklist and resides in Kenya.

For more on this story watch The Man With 1,000 Kids , which is available to stream on Netflix starting July 3.