Netflix doc about man with 1000 children is leaving viewers divided

He has fathered children with women all over the globe.

The Man with 1000 Kids follows Dutch sperm donor Jonathan Jacob Meijer, a 42-year-old former high school teacher and Crypto trader, who began donating his seed in 2007.

Meijer got the idea from a friend in college who was unable to have children and, at the age of 25, signed up to a sperm bank in his native country in the hopes of carrying out a good deed for people who wanted children but couldn't have them for whatever reason.

After a while, he began posting adverts with photographs displaying his long, blonde hair and Scandinavian features on Dutch websites.

Women who were in the market for a sperm donor saw him as a man with strong genes and loaded with the potential to produce handsome and healthy children, and swiftly got in touch.

Before long, Jonathan was paying private visits to women all over the country, then the world. 

Many were in lesbian relationships, or single, or in a relationship with an infertile partner. In most cases, Jonathan provided his DNA in a cup.

In some cases, he had sex with the women himself.

How could one man have fathered over 1000 children?

The Man with 1000 Kids is now playing on Netflix. pic.twitter.com/7fGfp3HlyP

— Netflix UK & Ireland (@NetflixUK) July 3, 2024

Meijer insists he didn’t ask for payment beyond asking that his travel expenses be covered.

In some instances, he would also ask recipients to cover the cost of his STD tests.

In the three-part series, which dropped on Netflix yesterday, we meet the women who gave birth to the prolific serial sperm donor's offspring.

Several women began to recite a 'five-families only' line which Meijer seemed to dish out on a regular basis.

Once suspicions were roused, recipients started to unite and formed a Facebook group. Before long, they realised that he was an unstoppable force, and had fathered hundreds of kids to different women worldwide.

They mapped his travels via his YouTube videos and matched them with donor lists on nearby sperm banks. It wasn't long before the Facebook group had a large quantity of members, all sharing their strange encounters with their 'travelling baby daddy' in common.

Some of the women speculate that Meijer has some twisted God-complex, and was addicted to the power that came with being a father to hundreds. Others suggest that it comes down to some form of childhood trauma or mental health issue.

You'll have to watch the documentary to find out what happened in this extraordinarily unique case.