Jonathan Jacob Meijer, portrayed as a sperm mega-donor who fathered hundreds of children in the Netflix docuseries The Man With 1000 Kids, threatened to sue the company for slander.
Meijer claims he initially wanted to help a few families but got carried away with sperm donation. He refutes being labeled a "serial donor" or having an addiction to sperm donation and believes the risk of inbreeding among his donor children is over-exaggerated.
Meijer disputes the claim that he fathered 1,000 children, stating he fathered around 550. Estimates suggest he fathered hundreds to thousands of children through sperm donation, with numbers ranging from 550 to 3,000 offspring.
Meijer also denies mixing his sperm with another donor's.
Meijer was not involved in the Netflix documentary and chose not to participate or comment on the allegations. The director stated that Meijer declined to comment. Netflix did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Dutch authorities banned Meijer from donating sperm and imposed fines for violations, as he breached medical guidelines limiting donors to fathering 25 children. In 2023, he lost a lawsuit and was fined for continuing to donate in violation of the ban.
Meijer claims the docuseries did not include families grateful for his help, and some women assisted by him accused him of lying about the number of children he fathered.
This article was written in collaboration with Generative AI news company Alchemiq
Sources: MovieWeb, NBC News, NewsNation, Forbes, Complex.