The new doc series tells the true story of a serial sperm donor and the families who tried to stop him. 

For many Dutch people seeking to be parents, Jonathan Meijer appeared to be heaven-sent. Tall, handsome, and blessed with a head of thick blond hair, Meijer’s profile stood out to those browsing private sperm donation sites where a prospective parent could search for potential donors. In his initial correspondences, Meijer claimed that he only intended to donate sperm to a handful of families — but in time, it became clear that he’d lied to many of them.

The Man with 1000 Kids is a three-episode docuseries that takes on the monumental task of trying to piece together the havoc wreaked by Meijer across several countries and continents. In addition to 11 sperm banks in the Netherlands and private donations, Meijer had been donating sperm all over the globe.

“You get one life on this Earth — why has he chosen to use his charm and his intellect and his creativity in order to try to procreate on a mass scale and deceive all these people?” director Josh Allott asks. “Speaking to lots of different parents that have met him and people that know him well, it seems like it almost became an addiction for him.”

In The Man with 1000 Kids, the call for Meijer’s accountability begins when one parent of a child conceived with Meijer’s help figures out that a curious number of half-siblings are living in their same town. Meanwhile, at Isala Fertility Center, a doctor receives an anonymous email alleging that one of their donors had possibly fathered more than 150 children in the Netherlands. The donor worked directly with families and donated to other banks, in violation of a signed agreement with Isala. The docuseries features interviews with a number of parents who are still grappling with the repercussions of Meijer’s actions, as well as the lawyer, fertility activist, and medical professional who work to try to stop him.

Who is Jonathan Jacob Meijer?

When communicating with the parents of the children he would go on to help conceive, Meijer used several names including Jacob, Ruud, Walter, and Maarten. He said that he worked in education, and he also maintained an active YouTube channel that showcased everything from his opinions on cryptocurrency to his attempts at a raw-meat diet, all with an ever-changing backdrop as he traveled around the world. When the true extent of Meijer’s actions came to light, the devastated families learned he also was capable of great deception.

Patricia, a friend of Meijer’s, appears in The Man with 1000 Kids to shed some light on his early years. With seven siblings of his own, she says that as a young adult, he struggled to find his own identity, cycling through various looks and jobs. The prospect of fathering an unlimited number of children coincided with his long-haired small-time guru persona — perhaps representing a “God-like complex,” as one of the mothers in the doc terms it.

Jonathan has “said that he can always tell instantly if that child is his own, and we do know that Jonathan asked for pictures from the parents when a child is born,” Allott tells Tudum. “It may be that he’s just become totally addicted to this feeling of having children, this innate weird biological thing that’s got completely out of hand. And then there’s all the affirmation that comes from parents who will tell him about how amazing they think their child is and the incredible features that their child has. It must be this incredible ego boost for him.”

Why are there limits on sperm donation?

“Children who haven’t been brought up together are more likely to get attracted to each other because they see some familiarities in the face of the sibling,” says Natalie, a mother featured in the doc. That feeling of attraction can result in romantic love, a phenomenon known as the “Luke and Leia complex,” named for the characters in Star Wars. As explained by clinical embryologist Dr. Max Curfs in the series, limits on sperm donation exist in order to protect the resulting children from the risk of consanguineous relationships, or unwitting incest. “What happens psychologically to these children that have 700, 800, 900 brothers and sisters?” asks Kate, an Australian mother who found Meijer through Denmark-based Cryos, the largest international sperm and egg bank in the world. “How are they psychologically going to be able to deal with this information?”

While Kate claims that every country has a limit on how many children a given sperm donor can father, Eve Wiley, a fertility fraud activist, says there’s no international limit. If a donor maxes out the number of children they can conceive in one country, international sperm banks like Cryos can simply send their donations to prospective parents in another country. While sperm banks like Isala Fertility Center require donors not to work with other banks, there’s no way to enforce these guidelines, which allowed Meijer to continue his global deception.

Who awere the families affected by Jonathan Meijer?

A number of families deceived by Meijer appear in The Man with 1000 Kids to share their stories. Suzanne and Natalie, from the Netherlands, thought that they were one of only a few couples he was helping to become parents. Joyce and John are a Dutch couple who are unable to conceive due to an irreversible vasectomy that John had during his first marriage — Meijer helped them have two children. Laura and Kate are a Sydney, Australia, couple who learned of their donor’s actions in a Facebook group. Vanessa, a single woman who hoped to have a child on her own, initially felt grateful to Meijer as she also believed that she was one of a small group utilizing his sperm. Nicolette, a single mom and preschool teacher, learned that a colleague had also given birth to one of Meijer’s children — and eventually found several more half-siblings within her own community.

How many children does Jonathan Meijer have?

Despite the best efforts of the families to get Meijer to tell the truth, he continued to refuse to admit the total number of children that he’d fathered. Wiley ventures a guess in the series: “So with Jonathan and Cryos International, he’s going to Copenhagen once a month for four days for four years. That’s roughly 200 donations, and you can get about 15 straws of sperm per ejaculation. If every straw makes a baby, that could be 3,000 potential children,” she explains. “That is just one sperm bank. And we know that he was in at least 11 sperm banks.”

“Obviously, the children are affected, and the children’s children are affected,” says executive producer Natalie Hill. “But every cousin is affected. Everyone who becomes a partner of those children is then affected. Jonathan’s brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, everyone that is connected or becomes connected by making a new family will be affected by his actions.”

How was Jonathan Meijer stopped?

Meijer continued to lie and refused to stop donating sperm or inform other parents of his actions, so the parents sought other methods to check him. When Mark de Hek, a lawyer from the Netherlands, received a call from one of the mothers asking for his help, he had to weigh the consequences of entering what he calls a “legal no-man’s-land.” De Hek decided to take on the case, but the court date was postponed as Meijer continued to travel — this time to Kenya, where it appears that he met with a group of men like himself who pride themselves on fathering as many children as possible.

When Meijer finally took the stand, he shocked spectators by suggesting that his children could avoid incest by using a symbol on social media to indicate that they have his genetics, among other bizarre statements. In the end, a Dutch court banned Meijer from donating sperm to new parents under penalty of 100,000 euros for each violation. He’s also required to “request that sperm banks destroy any of his semen available to new parents.”

Where is Jonathan Meijer now?

“I did meet [Jonathan] in order to speak to him about being in the documentary,” Allott tells Tudum. “We approached him a number of times to be interviewed and gave him a right to reply at the end. He refused to comment on any of the allegations in the series.”

As for what he’s been up to recently? “A couple of weeks ago, he was in Zanzibar,” Hill tells Tudum. “He’s been very transparent about where he is in YouTube videos. And from what we know, he’s not had a steady job of any sort.”

The Man with 1000 Kids premieres on Netflix on July 3.