Featured Image Credit: YouTube/Netflix
Topics: Netflix, Social Media, Parenting, Viral, Film and TV
Emily Brown
Topics: Netflix, Social Media, Parenting, Viral, Film and TV
Netflix users are claiming the man at the center of a controversial new documentary should be 'locked up' - but he's arguing what he did should be 'celebrated'.
Jonathan Jacob Meijer is a name that may or may not be familiar to you.
You might have watched the new documentary about him, you might have seen him on YouTube, or there's even a possibility that you might be related to him.
It's a slim one, but since he has at least a few hundred children walking around, the chance is greater than you might think.
Advert
Meijer has become known across the world for his decision to donate sperm to hundreds of families across the globe, starting in the Netherlands and reaching as far as Australia.
Netflix's new documentary features interviews with a number of the families who used his sperm, detailing how they had no idea their children would share a father with hundreds of others.
Meijer is accused in the documentary of lying to families about how many children he had helped conceive through sperm donation.
He was signed up to multiple sperm banks, as well as offering himself out as a private donor.
Learning of Meijer's seemingly ever-increasing number of children left viewers shocked, prompting many people to criticize his actions.
"The Netflix doc The Man with 1000 Kids is nuts," one person wrote on Twitter, adding: "That dude need[s] to be locked up."
"I’ve watched a lot of documentaries and I can confidently say this one has one of the worst villains I’ve ever seen," wrote another.
Miejer declined to comment on the allegations made against him in the Netflix documentary, but he defended his actions in an exclusive interview with UNILAD.
Responding to concerns that his hundreds of donations may increase the risk of accidental incestuous relationships between his kids, Meijer pointed out that he was 'open' about his identity when he donated sperm.
"I'm a donor for 17 years now, and I thought about it, of course, every day and it [incest] would be a problem if a donor was fully anonymous, because then the child will never have the option to find out," he said.
“I've never donated anonymously. I'm opposed to it. I think it's very good if donors are open.”
Meijer also claimed society is trying to 'project negativity onto all donors and donor children'.
Offering a message to the children he has helped bring in to the world, he said: “I want them know that this just a phase, these people will eventually not be in the spotlight anymore.
"We can celebrate how it is to be a donor child and to be a donor or an open identity donor that's always there for his children, and that they shouldn't think that this documentary is lasting."
In 2017, Meijer received a ban from donating sperm from a Dutch court after some of the families he had donated to took action against him. In 2023, Meijer was taken to court again and told if he continues to donate, he will be fined €100,000 per violation.