Jonathan Jacob Meijer, Netflix’s ‘Man With 1,000 Children,’ Says Claims In Show Are ‘Absolutely Slanderous’
With a title like The man with 1000 childrenIt’s no surprise that Netflix’s documentary series about prolific sperm donors Jonathan Jacob Meijer is climbing the streamer charts just a day after its release. That may be good news for many of the women interviewed on the series, some of whom say Meijer misled them about the number of children he helped deliver. But when speaking to the media, the 42-year-old Dutch YouTuber said he was disappointed in the show, saying it misrepresented his goals as a donor to multiple families.
“They deliberately called [the documentary] The man with 1000 childrenwhen it should have been ‘a sperm donor who has helped families conceive 550 children’,” Meijer told BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour. “So from the outset, they were deliberately deceptive and misleading.”
In one New York Times In a 2021 report, Jonathan Jacob Meijer offered an even lower number. “I have about 250 children,” he said at the time. “The 1,000 assumption is absurd. I am frustrated by the obsession with numbers. I became a donor not for any number but for the love of helping parents realize their dreams. I cannot understand why people can only focus on numbers and treat my donor children as a number.”
However, Meijer said Independence that he stopped donating sperm in 2019, so it’s unclear where those additional 300 children came from. In that thing In the interview, he said the number of children he fathered was “close to 600.” (Perhaps that vagueness explains the “focus on numbers” that Meijer finds so disturbing.)
Meijer, whose attempts to continue donating sperm have been blocked by several countries across Europe, told the Independent that he eventually became “fascinated” with providing sperm for aspiring families. “Sometimes I think: ‘What a [of children]maybe you should stop’ but then I got a new message saying: ‘Oh, you’re actually the donor we’re looking for.’”
“I find it hard to say no. You’re the one who comes along with the winning ticket, that’s the feeling you give these people. It’s magical.”
According to Meijer, the series is the result of a selection of unhappy recipients. “I think Netflix did a great job of selecting five families [who are unhappy] out of the 225 families that i have helped, and they [the other families] will certainly tell you something else,” he told the BBC.
He hasn’t seen the show either, he told me. IndependenceWhen told about some of the claims in the series, including the allegation that he competed with other donors to see who could father the most children, and that he mixed sperm with another donor to see who could “win,” he seemed shocked. “Is that in the documentary?” he asked.
“No, that’s completely slanderous. It’s crazy. Why would I do that? Why would anyone do that? If that’s in the documentary, get ready, I’m going to sue the entire Netflix crew.”
While Netflix has yet to address Meijer’s complaint, The man with 1,000 children executive producer Natalie Hill is backing the programme. “I have spent the last four years talking to families affected by Jonathan’s lies. I have personally spoken to 45 or 50 families,” she told the BBC.
“Fifty families have made impact statements to the court about his lies and begged the judge to stop. So for Jonathan to continue to talk about it being a group of women is completely untrue.”
