A compulsive sperm donor, believed to have fathered up to 1,000 children, has suggested he is the real victim and was ‘very vulnerable’.
Jonathan Meijer, from the Netherlands, donated sperm on a mass scale, defrauding dozens of parents and eleven clinics across the globe.
In an explosive Netflix documentary investigating this ‘murky world’, women told how they felt ‘betrayed’ and ‘angry’ after discovering how many other children the now 43-year-old musician has fathered.
But in an interview Meijer, who has also been labelled a ‘public health risk’ and ‘narcissist’ today claimed he had ‘no protection’ as a private donor, making him ‘very vulnerable’.
And he argued there was ‘absolutely nothing wrong’ with fathering hundreds of children.
Jonathan Jacob Meijer is a 43-year-old musician from the Netherlands – he’s also thought to have fathered hundreds of children across the globe
Meijer’s children are dotted all over the world. About 375 live in the Netherlands, 80 in Germany, 35 in Belgium, four in Argentina, and two in Australia
The Man With 1000 Kids premieres on Netflix today investigating ‘the murky world of the fertility industry,’ as well as how the Youtuber defrauded dozens of parents and eleven clinics across the globe
He told the BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour: ‘I offer something better than sperm banks.
‘I offer directly fresh sperm which is better than frozen sperm.
‘I give it for free, they don’t have to pay me. They can have contact with me. They can ask me anything they want.
‘How is this misleading? How is this false?
He added: ‘When I started as a private donor I was open about the number I have helped.
‘But you run into so many problems with that, that I chose to follow the guidelines of the clinic’ — not informing people of number of children he has helped father.
‘Yet I decided to give them an approximate number so that they have an idea,’ he said.
‘If I said “oh I’ve helped 50 times”, at least I was giving an approximate number. So they could see he is a mass donor.
‘I gave them more than what the clinic would offer.
In April 2023, a Dutch court ordered Meijer to stop donating semen to clinics, or face being fined 100,000 euros (£88,000) per infraction
They argued that Mr Meijer’s continued donations violated the right to a private life of his donor children, whose ability to form romantic relationships are hampered by fears of accidental incest and inbreeding
‘In a perfect world, that would be the best thing. Everybody could be open, I could be open and I wouldn’t be vulnerable.
‘As a private donor you are very vulnerable. I have had situations you cannot imagine because I was open about myself.
‘I gave my address but when I decided not to help somebody, they stood in front of my door.
‘Who is there to protect me? I don’t have money in the bank, I don’t have lawyers.
‘I was very vulnerable, there is no protection for private donors.’
Meijer was banned from donating sperm in the Netherlands in 2017, external after it emerged he was the father of 102 children, born from donations made to 11 clinics around the country.
He continued donating in other countries until 2023, when one woman and a foundation supporting her filed a civil suit against Meijer, arguing he was increasing the risk of incest for his children.
In his testimony, Meijer admitted having between 550 and 600 children.
However, the court said he may have fathered up to 1,000 across several continents.
The judge ultimately banned Meijer from donating sperm to new parents in the Netherlands, and said he would be fined €100,000 (£85,000) per donation if he did so.
He also impregnated women occasionally through ‘natural donation’ — sex — if the woman was single.
Meijer told Woman’s Hour: ‘I already stopped donating for new recipients in 2019. I only donated for siblings.
Over the years, Meijer lied to everyone, after it was unearthed he had developed an addition to donating sperm
‘The court case was basically useless because I already stopped, and the court case did not prohibit me to help existing families.’
Asked if there were families continuing to use Meijer as a sperm donor, he said: ‘yes absolutely’.
He added: ‘All these outdated views like “the fear of inbreeding”, the “identity crisis”. We’re now in 2024.
‘We see lesbian couples everywhere. We see single mums everywhere.
‘We know the donors are helping families. These outdated views, we should stop projecting them on these children.’
Later, when questioned if he felt he had misled women, he also said: ‘If you want exclusivity you go to the clinic. You pay €10,000 and then your donor is exclusive.
‘If you don’t want to share as a mother, why did you even choose this path?
‘These mums in this documentary, they put on this act, I don’t know why. Maybe they were hurt and they put this on me.’
In the UK, current rules mean a single sperm donor can only create ten families in this country, with each family potentially including multiple siblings.
But there is no regulation limiting the number of families that donors can create overseas.
Some foreign centres allow sperm donations from the same person to be used to create a 1,000 or more separate families.
Experts warn the issue is becoming pressing because more than half of donated sperm used in Britain is imported from abroad – and demand for sperm donors is growing due to an increase in single women and same-sex female couples having children.
The number of same-sex female couples having IVF jumped by 33 per cent between 2019 and 2021, according to fertility regulator, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA).
Meanwhile, the number of single women having artificial insemination rose by 26 per cent.
Last year, Professor Jackson Kirkman-Brown, chair of the Association of Reproductive and Clinical Scientists, warned it could be ‘psychological harmful’ for children to discover they have hundreds or even thousands of half-siblings.
He said: ‘If you’ve always thought you’re an incredibly special gift, suddenly finding there are 300 people who share 50 per cent of your DNA is a very difficult concept to get your head around.’
It appears Meijer is now travelling the world, with one video showing him speaking on a beach in Tanzania and another from Italy
Research also suggests people who are donor-conceived often feel pressure to keep in touch with dozens of half-siblings but this can be ‘almost an impossibility’ which can cause great stress.
Asked later on Woman’s Hour if he had an ‘addiction’ to donating sperm, Meijer said: ‘An addiction always comes with a physical excitement.
‘Please can they explain to me why it is exciting to be in a dirty bathroom … I don’t really see the addictive endorphins in that situation.’
On whether he wanted to have a family of his own, he added: ‘I want to have a large family. It’s hard to find someone who also wants to have a traditional family with traditional values.
‘I always talk about natural tribes and I would love to live like that. Most women are not interested in that. They want to have a career or are focused on materialism.
‘I want to live very simply on a small farm, self-sustaining, self-sufficient.’
The Man With 1000 Kids is now streaming on Netflix
