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meIn 2010, a Dutch woman named Natalie decided she wanted to have a baby. “It’s not easy when you’re a lesbian,” she recalls with a laugh. “You can’t just go out and have fun and get pregnant. It takes a bit of planning.”
After ruling out her boyfriend, Natalie went online to weigh her options. She initially considered a donor clinic, but was reluctant to do so because of Dutch law that states that a child born from a donor cannot be identified until the child turns 16. “I was afraid of an identity crisis down the road,” she explains. “That’s not something you want for any child.”
Instead, she turned to a website called “Miss the Child,” where she found dating-site-style profiles of several potential donors. After a failed encounter with a man named Leon, she found what she was looking for in a handsome, curly-haired young man named Jonathan Jacob Meyer.
“He was perfect in every way,” Natalie recalls. “His looks, his intelligence, his way of speaking—everything that was important to me.” When the two met, they talked about why Meyer had decided to become a sperm donor, and he said he was inspired by a college friend who had been infertile. “He said he wanted to help five families, and I said I was going to be the third,” Natalie says. “That was his story at the time.”
With Meijer’s help, Natalie had a son. “The first eight years were perfect,” she says. “There was nothing to worry about.” Then one day, Natalie’s partner, Suzanne, was reading the newspaper over her morning coffee when she came across an article about a Dutch sperm donor who had fathered hundreds of children—far more than the country’s legal limit of 25. The man matched Meijer’s description. “That’s how we learned that he had donated far more children than we ever imagined,” Suzanne says.
![Jonathan Jacob Meyer, a compulsive sperm donor known to have fathered hundreds of children](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/06/28/23/newFile-2.jpg)
Natalie and Suzanne are just two of the many moms featured in Netflix's shocking three-part documentary series. The man with 1000 children. The women involved are divided across continents, spread across Europe, Africa and Australia, but are united by a sense that they have been misled and betrayed. It was revealed that Meijer had donated sperm to several fertility clinics in the Netherlands — at least 11 by 2023, according to court records — and he told each clinic that he had not donated to any other clinic. He also traveled the world and donated privately. IndependentMeyer admitted that he did not “openly” treat women, but denied some of the other accusations made against him in the documentary.
For Natalie and Susan, the betrayal was compounded by the fact that less than a year later, they had talked to Meyer about having another child. Susan wanted the couple’s children to be siblings using the same donor, so they met with Meyer again. “We asked him how many children he had, and he said, ‘25,’” Susan recalls. “We thought that sounded like a lot. He said some families had their second or third children with him, and he had been doing it for years. He said it was normal, and we believed him.”
They tried a second round of insemination, but it didn’t work. By then, the couple were somewhat relieved by Meijer’s behavior. He had previously donated sperm at home, but this time he wanted to meet in public. “The biggest twist in our story is that at one point he wanted to meet at the mall,” Suzanne says. “He went into a public restroom. Natalie called and said, ‘What’s going on?’ I said, ‘This isn’t right.’” Natalie squirmed beside her. “It was really uncomfortable,” she says. “It was like a drug deal. This is not where you go to have a baby.”
At that moment, it felt like I had an IKEA bookshelf. 'Oh, there's Billy! That's a great bookshelf. We have one too!'
Susan
After learning the truth about Meijer, Natalie and Suzanne joined a Facebook group filled with other moms who had used his donations. What they saw was astounding. “We’d show them pictures and someone would say, ‘Oh, that looks just like kids A, B, C, and D,’” Suzanne recalls. “In that moment, it was like having an Ikea bookcase. ‘Oh, you’ve got Billy! That’s a great bookcase. We’ve got one too!’ That can happen when you have a donor child, but it’s unheard of on this scale. It’s not about worrying about your child being unique, it’s about the meaning of it. If the kids meet later in life and they feel a romantic attraction to each other, what happens then?”
The mothers’ biggest concern is not the fact that Meijer lied to them or the size of his biological offspring. It’s the potential risk of incest that awaits their children and future generations.
The total number of children Meijer has fathered is unknown. In 2023, he admitted in court that he had fathered at least 550 children before a Dutch judge made an unprecedented decision banning him from donating his sperm to a sperm bank. He could face a fine of €100,000 (£84,700) for each breach of the court order. In a recent video posted to his YouTube channel, Meijer said the title The Man with 1000 Children It may be misleading, but he may not actually know the exact number, since the international sperm banks he used (such as Cryos in Denmark) are not required to report the children conceived as a result of his donation.
For argument’s sake, if Meyer had 500 children, within 100 years he could expect to have 150,000 descendants walking the earth. “This is about our children and the way their lives are affected,” says Susan. “They may never date anyone or have sex with anyone, they may always have to be taken care of, and even then, they may not know they are a donor child. This is a very dangerous and unhealthy situation for these children and their children and grandchildren.”
“It’s a public health risk that could happen,” Natalie added. “It’s not about the number, it’s about the risk underneath the number. The higher the number, the higher the risk.”
Susan raises a bigger concern. “What if one of these kids becomes a donor and they don’t know it?” she asks. “Or even if they do know it,” Natalie adds. “But they have the same mindset as Jonathan: ‘Fuck it! Let’s do it!’”
There is no international law governing sperm donation, and the sector is largely unregulated. Mothers are left with little to do other than try to spread the word about the scale of Meijer’s actions. “So we’re still raising awareness and hoping that governments will enact legislation, because it needs to happen,” says Natalie. “It’s not just in individual countries, it’s all over the world. He doesn’t stop at the border, and he’s not the only one. There are many more out there.”
like The Man with 1000 Children According to the investigation, Meijer may be particularly prolific, but he is not the only “super donor” active today. Natalie later learned that the first donor she considered, Leon, had fathered approximately 415 children. She now believes that the two men were secretly behind the “Children’s Desire” website, competing with each other to father the most children. The documentary series uncovers additional cases of men traveling around the world to donate unlimited amounts of sperm, including a racist who expressed a desire to donate to a Kenyan hospital in the hope of “bleaching Africa.”
![Natalie: '[We need new legislation] Not just in individual countries, but globally. He doesn't stop at borders, and he's not the only one.](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/06/29/01/newFile-2.jpg)
“They know each other and they work together,” said Suzanne. “We need laws to prevent this. I know the HFEA. [Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority] In the UK they put out a statement saying it’s not possible, but they don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes,” Natalie nods in agreement. “We need a sentence where someone is legally liable so they’ll think before they donate this much sperm,” she says.
The current government is generally wary of any laws that restrict reproduction. Susan thinks it’s time for a change. “We regulate what women do with their bodies,” she points out. “We regulate surrogacy. There are clear rules on this all over the world. Why can’t we tell people how many children they can have? Why not? Because it’s men.”
Today, Natalie and Susan are no longer in contact with Meyer. He has blocked them both on WhatsApp, so they can no longer talk to him about their son. He posts regular updates on his YouTube channel, including from his trips to Finland and Zanzibar. In a recent video, he complains that Netflix is misleading people about him. “It’s sad to hear that kind of response, despite all the hard work that went into the documentary,” Susan says. “Especially from someone who is basically a fraud.”
When I asked for comments IndependentMeijer claims he stopped donating to new recipients in 2019, and denies many of the accusations made against him in the documentary. He says he has never collaborated or competed with any other donors, and denies the series’ most shocking accusation—that he and Leon mixed sperm before giving it to recipients to see who would “win.” He calls it “complete slander.” “It’s crazy. Why would you do that? Why would anyone do that? If you’re in the documentary, get ready. I’m definitely going to sue the entire Netflix production team.”
Meyer has declined multiple invitations to be in the documentary. “He’s been given the right to respond,” says Natalie. “His comment is always, ‘This isn’t true, these women are just angry mothers.’ We’re not angry. We just want him to stop.”
'The Man with a Thousand Children' is on Netflix