Summary

The Man with 1000 Kids
donor denies wanting 100 or 1000 children, claiming he only wanted to help a few families.
Jonathan Jacob Meijer was banned from Dutch clinics for fathering over 25 children but continued donating overseas and through private websites.
Meijer plans to sue Netflix for slander, saying he was not involved in the docuseries and that some accusations are false.

The subject of the recent hit Netflix documentary The Man with 1000 Kids, Jonathan Jacob Meijer, has defended himself against the image of him portrayed in the three-part docuseries, saying that he “never had the idea to have 100 children or 500 children.” In a new interview with The Independent, the 42-year-old former high school teacher, Crypto trader, and prolific sperm donor who is reportedly the father of up to 600 children and who allegedly duped hundreds of families now wants to give his “side of the story.”

“It happened step by step. Many donors want to be in the news, but for me if nobody knew about me that would be absolutely fine. Now they do know about me, so I want to explain my side of the story.”

Revealing that his sperm donating first began during his college years after speaking with a friend who was unable to have children, Meijer began posting photos of himself on Dutch sperm donor sites. Evidently, he proved to be quite popular, but now states that this was never “his plan.”

“From the moment I put up the advertisement, an hour later there were four or five emails already. That would go on the whole day. People think I had this plan from the start, but I thought I’d maybe help one or two people.” Instead, he says he found himself filtering through masses of responses. “I know people think I’m crazy and that I help too much, but in my opinion I was super selective,” he says. “People really don’t understand the shortage of donors.”

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As revealed in the series, Meijer was eventually banned from donating to Dutch clinics by the Dutch Society of Obstetrics and Gynaecology after violating the limit of 25 donor children (he fathered 102), but continued to do so overseas and through private websites. His deceptive nature is given the spotlight in The Man with 1000 Kids, with his actions causing potential danger to the children that he has fathered, including the risk of unintentional incest between half-siblings.

Jonathan Jacob Meijer Was Not Involved in the Docuseries & Now Plans to Sue Netflix

When pressed in the interview about misleading women, Meijer “unconvincingly” explained that he got “carried away” and compared his decision to withhold information to the methods used by some of the clinics.

“Sometimes I think I got too carried away. I should have told myself that [a smaller number of children] is fine. It would be best if I had been open, but I chose to follow the international guidelines.
At the big sperm banks like Cryos, their guideline is not to inform the recipient about the amount of times one donor has been used. I decided for myself that if the clinics are not informing the parents then I wouldn’t either, but I understand why people feel like it wasn’t the best approach.”

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Meijer was not involved in the Netflix docuseries, which follows a group of families who learn the charismatic man they had trusted is the sperm donor to hundreds, or possibly even thousands, of other children all over the world, and says this was because he felt it would be unfair as the series is “capitalising” on those involved. Some of the more shocking accusations leveled at Meijer include competing with other sperm donors and even mixing samples together to see who would “win.” This is something that he denies, and even says he will sue the streaming platform for slander.

“Is that in the documentary? No, that’s total slander. It’s insane. Why would I do that? Why should anyone do that? If it’s in the documentary, be prepared, I will definitely sue the hell out of the whole Netflix crew.”

The Man with 1000 Kids
is now available to stream on Netflix.