Who Is Jonathan Meijer? All About ‘The Man With 1,000 Youngsters’

Jonathan Jacob Meijer is the topic of Netflix‘s new documentary The Man With 1,000 Youngsters.

Premiering July 3, the docuseries examines the Dutch YouTube character, who has donated sufficient sperm worldwide to father wherever between 500 and 1,000 youngsters for households, and the affect his prolific donations have had on his youngsters and their mother and father.

In a video Meijer launched in October 2023, he claimed to have spent as many as 50,000 hours in sperm donation clinics over the course of 15 years.

Meijer has maintained for years that his prolific sperm donation is merely a method of altruism for him.

“It appeared like one thing very small with a huge impact, monumental affect, and nonetheless the donor is within the background,” he stated. “He isn’t getting awards, or fame, or cash, and I discovered that very interesting. These males do one thing with out wanting one thing in return … That, to me, felt very noble.”

In April 2023, nonetheless, a Dutch courtroom banned Meijer from donating extra sperm after some households with youngsters conceived utilizing Meijer’s sperm filed a civil lawsuit towards the YouTube character.

So who’s “the person with 1,000 youngsters”? This is every part to learn about Jonathan Meijer and the place he’s now.

Who’s Jonathan Meijer?

Meijer is a Dutch YouTuber and musician who’s beforehand labored as a civics instructor, cryptocurrency marketing consultant and mail service, in keeping with The Mirror. In a February 2024 YouTube video, he stated that whereas learning to be a instructor, a classmate advised him he was infertile, which moved and impressed him to donate sperm to assist households who had issue conceiving youngsters naturally. He is most well-known for being referred to as the person who donated sperm to have upwards of 500 youngsters worldwide.

He stated in a July 2024 YouTube video that he comes from a big household with seven siblings, and in an October 2023 clip, stated that as a result of he would not have a household historical past of most cancers, diabetes or genetic ailments, he thought donating sperm can be a sort factor to do for others. He beforehand claimed that he would not perceive why anybody is “obsessed” along with his life.

“I’ve roughly 250 youngsters. Assumptions of 1,000 are ridiculous,” Meijer advised The New York Instances in 2021. “I’m dissatisfied by the obsession of the numbers [sic]. I turned a donor not for any numbers however out of affection to assist mother and father with realizing their dream. I can’t perceive how anybody can solely deal with numbers and see my donor youngsters as a quantity.”

What’s Jonathan Meijer accused of doing?

Meijer is accused of deceiving mother and father to make use of his sperm donations to have youngsters.

Meijer was first banned from donating sperm by the Dutch Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology within the Netherlands in 2017, ABC Information reported. At the moment, he’d already fathered 102 infants by his sperm donations to 11 clinics and one other sperm financial institution referred to as Cryos, which operates internationally — properly over the Dutch authorized restrict of 25 youngsters by as much as 12 totally different moms. He reportedly lied not simply to potential mother and father, but in addition to clinics, pledging to every that he’d donated solely to their banks.

“I wish to do one thing significant with my life,” Meijer advised German media (by way of The Mirror) of his motivations. “Sure, I lied to the ladies. That was mistaken. I needed to assist them.”

Regardless of Meijer’s 2017 ban from sperm donation, Meijer continued donating by different clinics overseas. In line with the Day by day Mail, Meijer allegedly used a distinct identify at occasions to attraction to households looking for sperm donations on-line and lied to oldsters about what number of youngsters he’d beforehand fathered by donations, saying he’d solely fathered between 10 and 15 youngsters. (Meijer advised The New York Instances in 2021 that he’d by no means used an alias.)

How did Jonathan Meijer get caught?

Some moms of kids conceived with Meijer’s donated sperm met by likelihood and observed that their youngsters seemed alike. Finally, greater than 150 mother and father of Meijer’s youngsters related on-line and even created a Fb group collectively and contacted the Donorkind Basis for assist.

The Donorkind Basis, a company that focuses on the rights of kids conceived by sperm donation and helps donor youngsters hint their roots to their organic relations, obtained greater than 30 calls in a single week from moms involved that their youngsters all had the identical donor. A consultant for the muse advised ABC Information that the calls got here from “all around the world” relating to Meijer and that his case was a part of why they combat for stricter laws for sperm donation — together with a ban on nameless donations.

What number of youngsters did Jonathan Meijer father along with his sperm donations?

Estimates differ for what number of youngsters Meijer has fathered by way of his sperm donations, with some estimates at 500 and others, as in The Man With 1,000 Youngsters, within the upwards of 1,000. The New York Instances reported that along with greater than 100 youngsters in his native Netherlands, Meijer has offspring in Australia, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Mexico, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine and the US. Meijer beforehand claimed to have stopped donating sperm in 2019.

Meijer would not have shut relationships with many of the youngsters he is sired and has no relationship in any respect with others.

“I like to fulfill them,” he advised German media (by way of The Mirror). “However emotionally, they really feel extra like my nephews and nieces. In any other case, it might be an excessive amount of for me.” In a Could 2024 YouTube video, Meijer stated that his relationships along with his donor youngsters “modified in a single day” after the April 2023 courtroom choice banned him from donating sperm. He alleged that whereas he used to get pleasure from occasional days out with a few of the households of kids he’d fathered, he claimed that he blocked contact with mother and father who participated within the lawsuit and that “a really aggressive few” mother and father and households turned towards him after collaborating within the Netflix documentary.

One mom, Vanessa van Ewijk, who has two youngsters by Meijer’s donations, advised The Guardian, “He needed to be considerably concerned with the children, to understand how they had been doing … I actually needed my youngsters to have that. That is all gone now — and it will not ever, ever get higher.”

Why was Jonathan Meijer banned from donating sperm?

In April 2023, a Dutch courtroom banned Meijer from donating sperm to clinics, dealing with a advantageous of 100,000 euros (about $118,000) for every violation, Reuters reported. Along with being banned from donating extra sperm, Meijer was additionally ordered to jot down to clinics the place he’d donated sperm beforehand, instructing them to destroy his samples, excluding samples reserved for households who’d already had youngsters from his donations.

The choice got here after some households with youngsters conceived utilizing Meijer’s donated sperm teamed up with the Donorkind Basis to file a civil lawsuit towards him, alleging that he violated the kids’s rights to a non-public, private life, in keeping with Reuters. The go well with claimed that as a result of Meijer fathered so many youngsters by sperm donation the kids’s worry of unintentional incest and inbreeding will injury their romantic lives as adults.

The courtroom stated of their ruling (per the BBC), “All these mother and father are actually confronted with the truth that the kids of their household are a part of an enormous kinship community, with tons of of half-siblings, which they didn’t select.” The courtroom added that it was “sufficiently believable” that Meijer’s tons of of kids would have antagonistic social and psychological impacts of getting so many siblings.

“If I had identified he had already fathered greater than 100 youngsters I’d by no means have chosen him,” one mom named Eva advised The Instances of London. “If I take into consideration the results this might have for my baby I’m sick to my abdomen. Many moms have advised him he must cease, however nothing helps. So going to courtroom is the one possibility I’ve to guard my baby.”

The place is Jonathan Meijer now?

Meijer spends a lot of his time touring the world and posting YouTube movies from his journeys. He denounced The Man With 1,000 Youngsters regardless of admitting to by no means seeing it and refused to take part in its manufacturing.

“I do not know a lot about it as a result of I did not take part in it,” he stated in a June 2024 video. “It is what they give thought to me and what others say about me. I used to be proper in not collaborating for myself, personally, as a result of they first needed to name it The Fertility Fraudster. That is not a title I can work with.”

“I believe the title is sensationalizing and deceptive,” he stated. He added that he did not just like the title’s alleged implication that he might have had relationships with many ladies, explaining, “If they’d say The Sperm Donor With 1,000 Youngsters, it might be totally different.”

Meijer additionally insists that he has nowhere close to 1,000 youngsters.

“I do not know the place they get this quantity, I do not know the place they base it on. From my information, I helped out with 550 youngsters,” he stated. “So one way or the other they handle to magically add 450 youngsters to my information.”

In a July 1, 2024, video, he complained that it is “at all times the identical 4 or 5 households that present up for the media” and that they centered on superficial issues like his hair and look over something he deemed of substance, similar to his punctuality or politeness.

He additionally criticized the second trailer launched for the collection, claiming, “I believe it might make a superb authorized case to sue them for slander or one thing … I am a donor for 17 years. Each baby is exclusive, with their very own form, their very own colours. Distinctive souls born into distinctive households. They don’t seem to be [made from] mass manufacturing.”