Rabat – A Dutch sperm donor who admits fathering hundreds of children through trickery is set to sue Netflix over “The Man with 1,000 Kids” documentary for supposedly exaggerating the numbers in the thousands.
Jonathan Meijer, 43, announced on a popular late-night show that he would take legal action against the documentary film to protect his offspring.
The documentary claims that Meijer fathered up to 3,000 children since 2007 after donating sperm to at least 13 clinics, including 11 in the Netherlands, as well as approaching prospective parents on social media platforms.
“Five hundred and fifty, that’s the number for sure. Anything above is just speculation,” he told the presenter on the Dutch NPO 1 channel.
Meijer is a musician. He said he stopped donating sperm in 2019, except to families that wanted to add a second or a third child with his help. He wants the documentary to be taken down for the sake of the children “who might be recognized in the street.”
Meijer rose to notoriety when a court ordered him to stop donating his sperm last year.
Under Dutch guidelines, sperm donors should not be allowed to father more than 25 or impregnate more than 12 mothers, to prevent inbreeding, unintended incest, or psychological problems for offspring who discover they might have hundreds of siblings.
To get around the rules, Meijer used pseudonyms and advertised his sperm on the internet. He told prospective parents that he was from a large family and that having led a successful life he wanted to offer people the gift of having children.
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