Viewers stunned by ‘wild’ Netflix docuseries with Aussie connection

A new three-part Netflix doco tells the ‘insane’ story of a man who may have fathered more than 1000 kids – including some in Australia.

New Netflix docuseries The Man With 1000 Kids, directed by Josh Allott, documents the trail of children created by prolific Dutch sperm donor Jonathan Jacob Meijer, and the families who feel like Meijer lied to them about how prolific a donor he really was.

Viewers who’ve tuned in to the three-part docuseries, which is currently ranking in the top 10 shows on Netflix, have variously dubbed it “insane”, “mind-blowing” and “wild.”

As the series begins, a narrator tells us that “the average couple has 2.3 children in their lifetime. But the record that one couple is thought to have had is over 40.”

As we pan out and see dozens of babies, the narrator informs us that “there is a man alive today who may have fathered over 1000 children.”

The filmmakers start in The Netherlands, Meijer’s native country, and talks to couples and single mothers who turned to a sperm donor because either they had trouble conceiving or just needed to find a donor.

Meijer, a YouTube influencer who travelled around the world for his videos, was charming and handsome with long, wavy blonde hair. He often did his donations privately, arranged with the prospective parents. He would offer to donate the sperm “naturally” (i.e. via intercourse), and some clients took him up on the offer, but most had him leave a sample, and would inseminate themselves at home (or in the car, as one prospective mother recalled).

The film features interviews with many women who used Meijer’s sperm.

Meijer also donated to sperm banks all over The Netherlands, against the country’s rules that limit the number of sperm banks one man can work with. There are also supposed to be limits on how many children a donor can father, with the rationale being that the more people with one man’s DNA that are out there, the more of a chance that down the line, two people will engage in a sexual relationship and creating children, not knowing that they are half-siblings (a concept called consanguinity, according to a fertility doctor that the filmmakers interviewed).

Meijer told the families that are interviewed that he had fathered about 25 children. But through investigation and discussion in a Facebook group populated by parents that used his DNA, he possibly fathered over 100 children in The Netherlands alone. But remember, he’s a world traveller, and the show follows his trail to Australia and talks to parents here that used his DNA to conceive.

There are certainly negative ramifications to what Meijer was doing with his sperm donations, and the filmmakers on The Man With 1000 Kids lays them out. He lied to families in order to get them to trust him, and by fathering more children than the regulations in The Netherlands allow, there is a higher chance that consanguinity can happen.

Meijer himself did not participate in the series.

The families who are interviewed are rightfully angry that Meijer lied to them, and that their kids might have dozens of half-siblings around. In one of the parents’ cases, she knew someone who also used a sperm donor, and they both ended up using Meijer.

But one of the big problems in this documentary is that we don’t hear from Meijer himself, as he refused to participate. However, he has talked about the docuseries, and he feels that the filmmakers purposely found the few families angry with him among the over 500 (!) that received his sperm. The filmmakers refute this, saying they’ve talked to dozens of families who were angry with Meijer’s conduct and petitioned to the courts in their various countries to get him to stop donating.

It feels like the filmmakers are leaning a bit too hard on the speculative parts of Meijer’s story without dealing with the facts they actually know. Even by calling the show The Man With 1000 Kids is purely speculative; it’s an estimate based on where he’s travelled and the reports of where he donated.

The three-part series is currently ranking in Netflix’s top 10 shows. Picture: AFP

One of the things we wanted to hear more about is the actual scientific and emotional implications of Meijer’s activity. What are the real chances that consanguinity can happen, especially in a smaller country like The Netherlands? Is there an emotional toll that this knowledge might take on not only the parents but eventually the kids? And what can really be done to bring someone like Meijer, who doesn’t feel like he’s doing anything wrong, in line?

The fact that Meijer doesn’t feel he’s doing anything wrong also speaks to a psychological profile that desperately needs to be explored. He feels he’s helping people start or continue families. That kind of saviour complex is something that we needed to hear about. He truly feels he’s doing good deeds, even if the totality of what he’s doing is ultimately damaging. Maybe the other two episodes of the series will touch on that, but we have our doubts.

Because the series is so one-sided and speculative, The Man With 1000 Kids has to be seen with a bit of jaundiced eye. But that doesn’t keep us from being fascinated at the results of what happens when one man feels the need to donate his sperm everywhere he can.

This story originally appeared on Decider and is republished here with permission.