Jonathan Meijer, a Dutchman who claims to have fathered 550 children through sperm donations, announced that he is suing Netflix over its documentary The Man With 1,000 Kids.
Meijer, 43, described the documentary as “sensationalist” and misleading, particularly regarding the number of children he allegedly fathered.
On a late-night talk show, Meijer clarified that while he knows for certain he fathered 550 children, the claim made in the documentary that he could have fathered up to 3,000 was false. He stated that he was taking legal action to fight these inaccuracies and protect his reputation.
Meijer first gained public attention last year when a Dutch court ordered him to stop donating sperm. By that time, he had helped father between 550 and 600 children since he began donating in 2007.
The court’s decision was based on Dutch clinical guidelines, which state that a sperm donor should not father more than 25 children across 12 families to prevent large kinship networks. Meijer was found to have misled families about his donation history, leading to concerns that the children he fathered were part of an excessively large network of half-siblings.
The court expressed concerns about the potential psychosocial effects this could have on the children, including issues related to identity and fears of accidental incest due to the sheer number of half-siblings.
The ruling underscored the potential harm to the children, highlighting that Meijer’s actions created an enormous kinship network that the children did not choose to be part of. Despite these concerns, Meijer has insisted that he stopped donating sperm in 2019, with the exception of families seeking additional children from the same donor.
Meijer’s primary concern with the documentary is the impact it could have on the children he fathered. He expressed worry that the documentary’s exaggerated claims were causing unnecessary public attention and putting the children in uncomfortable situations where they were being recognized in public.
Meijer said that, for the sake of the children, he wants the documentary removed to avoid further harm and protect their privacy.
