Jonathan Meijer’s life reads like a plot from a high-stakes drama, but it’s all too real. Dubbed The Man With 1000 Kids, he finds himself at the center of a controversial, gripping Netflix documentary.
Over the course of three episodes, the new true crime entry not only explores his unconventional path but also challenges the ethics and legality of sperm donation on a global scale.
To the unsuspecting families he infiltrated, it seemed Meijer was doing the opposite of serial killers by giving them the gift of life. Little did they realize he was deceiving them all, wreaking havoc across the world.
Before we get into where Jonathan Meijer is now, it’s important to understand what he did and why it’s so dangerous. Warning: some may find this content distressing.
What exactly did Jonathan Meijer do?
In addition to donating to 11 sperm banks and privately in the Netherlands, Meijer, a Dutch YouTuber and musician, spread his seed all over the world from 2007 to 2023.
Netflix’s The Man With 1000 Kids reveals how he was able to carry this out. Significantly, at first, would-be parents didn’t realize anything was wrong.
Dutch couples Suzanne and Natalie and Joyce and John, as well as single women Vanessa and Nicolette, all had their own reasons for seeking a private donation rather than a sperm bank – notably, they had more control over who provided the sperm.
All of them were impressed by Meijer, who went by various aliases online, with plus points ranging from his good looks and apparent friendliness to the fact he made music and spoke various languages.
On his YouTube channel, he was open about the fact that he was a donor, and the reasons he gave were reassuring. “They really help build a family, to make a dream come true,” he says in one clip.
Natalie explains how he told them he didn’t like sperm banks as it’s “all about the money,” while Nicolette was told he would be as present in the child’s life as she wishes.
Of course, the risk with private donors is the volume, as it hinges on the honesty of the provider. In the Netherlands, there is a limit of 25 donor children per person to prevent unintentional incest.
Meijer curbed these concerns by telling the parents-to-be that they’re one of five families maximum he’s willing to help out.
In other words, he was everything they could look for in a donor. Little did they know that he was doing this on a mass scale.
He was so prolific, Nicolette discovered that not only did she know the mother of another of his donor children but their kids also attended the same pre-school – where they both work.
When a sperm bank in the Netherlands received a tip-off about Meijer’s activities, they investigated and uncovered that he was active in 11 clinics in the country. As a result, he had 102 children from Dutch sperm banks alone – not counting his private donations.
As the clinics began notifying patients in 2017, the news broke out in the papers, which caught the attention of those who had received private donations. A Facebook support group was created by the parents to help each other.
John describes what it was like finding out that three of Meijer’s children were in the same school: “We thought about, ‘Oh f*ck, what if these children meet each other and maybe have a connection or fall in love and they don’t know that they’re related?’ And that’s when the real panic started.”
But after receiving a ban in the Netherlands, Meijer simply continued to donate to international sperm banks such as Cryos International, as well as privately to parents across the globe.
Through the Facebook group, parents found evidence that he had fathered children in a long list of countries, from Mexico and the US to Russia and Kenya.
As said by Kate and Laura, an Australian couple whose child was fathered by Meijer, when they started to do the math, they realized “there are probably thousands of children.”
Although he has admitted to fathering 550, estimates suggest the number could be as high as 3,000.
What makes this case even more complex is that fertility fraud cases are challenging due to the legal ambiguities and the complexities of proving intent.
There’s no international limit on how many offspring one donor can have, meaning Meijer can bounce from one country to another, making babies on a mass scale.
And if that weren’t enough, according to an anonymous donor-turned-whistleblower, Meijer wasn’t acting alone.
Who is Leon?
According to the whistleblower, who worked for the website Longing for a Child, a Dutch private sperm donor site, Meijer allegedly worked in tandem with a man named Leon.
At the start of the streaming service’s docu-series, Natalie describes how she previously met with a shady prospective donor, who, when asked for a recent photo, sent one of low quality. When she agreed to meet, she said she was “horrified.”
“He didn’t look like a banker, he didn’t look like somebody who has a good set of brains,” she said. “He didn’t have any hair on his body. And then he had a scar from his left ear to his right ear on the back of his head.”
As said by the whistleblower, Meijer was allegedly working with Leon “to deceive hundreds of women in Holland and all across the world to father as many children as possible.”
He says the pair spoke openly about their activities to him, revealing that Leon, from Dordrecht, ran the website. “They operated like a cartel, and a cartel works the way that you divide up territory – in their case, dividing up the women.”
The whistleblower goes on to claim that the pair had multiple fake profiles on the site. “So women thought they had a choice but actually they didn’t have,” he explains.
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Meanwhile, Patricia, a former friend of Meijer’s, says she got to know Leon too. As their friendship grew, she claims they told her Leon had fathered “around 415 children,” describing their activities as “a competition.”
She adds, “Leon told me they met each other at a parking place, they put their sperm together, mix it, and give it to the women who wanted to get pregnant. ‘Let’s do a sperm roulette and see who wins.’”
Following these accusations, a statement reads Meijer “declined to comment on the allegations in this episode.”
The Lion of Mombasa explained
The Lion of Mombasa is the name of a Facebook user who joined a group called Kenya Sperm Donors. Many of the parents believe the profile belonged to Meijer, although this has not been confirmed.
As the collective of parents, along with the help of fertility fraud activist Eve Wiley, started trying to bring the case to court, Meijer said it had to be delayed as he was traveling to Kenya for two weeks.
They were suspicious of how he could travel to the country given his lack of stable income at that time, and when they started digging, they found the Facebook group for donors in Kenya.
There, they found an ad from a Kenyan sperm bank calling for European donors, offering a two-week all expenses paid trip to the country in return.
They also realized it had been set up recently with three admin – Anthony Greenfield, Joe Donor, and Kyle Gordy, who are all known in the media as mass donors. Then, a new person was added to the admin group: the Lion of Mombasa.
Although the person behind it remained anonymous, the profile picture was a lion. Suzanne and Natalie explain why they believe it was Meijer, saying he would frequently refer to himself as a lion and say it is his favorite animal.
Wiley had a contact who had infiltrated the Facebook group and was able to speak with the admin. They allegedly discussed the different “hotspots” looking for European donors, with listed areas including Brazil, certain parts of Asia, and Kenya.
The Man With 1000 Kids shows a series of online conversations between Wiley’s source and the mass donors, including Greenfield. He allegedly said the Kenyan clinic flew him over there, paid for his hotel and his entire stay, in exchange for 500 straws of sperm.
“They milk me like a cow,” the messages read. “I don’t mind though.” He was also told the goal of the clinic was to make 200 babies in a year from his sperm alone.
Many of the admin referred to Kenya as the “promised land,” with Greenfield allegedly saying he wanted to “bleach Africa.”
“It’s horrifically racist,” says Wiley. “It is so beyond sick.”
If that weren’t concerning enough, a statement from Greenfield shared at the end of the last episode reads: “So far, I donated sperm in the Netherlands, Belgium, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Kenya, Uganda.
“But soon more countries to be colonized by my glorious and mighty seed. Jonathan did nothing wrong. I also tell my prospective recipients that I only have two donor children. Honest donors only get canceled.”
The outcome of the court case
After compiling the evidence, Meijer was summoned to a Dutch court in April 2023. He was ordered to stop donating sperm and to ensure any frozen samples are destroyed, with every infraction resulting in a fine of up to €100,000 ($107,000).
As said by the parents, the goal of the court case was to not only hold Meijer accountable but also change regulation to ensure fertility fraud cases can be handled down the line.
During the trial, Meijer made a number of suggestions, including that his children who are “worried about incest” could use a “social media symbol to identify themselves.”
“It was a horrible suggestion,” says Kate. “A lot of children may not want to have to display a symbol. A lot of those children may want to maintain their privacy.”
Laura adds, “But it’s also that he limited the children to his genetics being their identity.”
Meijer went on to say in court that he will be there for his children, to which the judge asked, “How do you see that happening with 600 children?”
After considering the evidence, which included statements from approximately 50 families, the judge ultimately ruled in their favor by placing a ban on Meijer’s donations.
Where is Jonathan Meijer now?
According to his YouTube page, Meijer is still traveling the world, with many of his recent videos showing him in Tanzania.
He has posted a number of videos responding to the Netflix documentary, including his latest in which he claims the title alone is a lie. According to his accounts, he’s fathered approximately 550 children over the course of the 17 years he was a donor.
In a reaction to the trailer, he accuses The Man With 1000 Kids of being “misleading” and the result of “poor journalism.”
He also slams the parents who appear in the documentary, saying, “It’s all about appearance, it’s all about looks, it’s all superficial. This is typical western people.”
The Man With 1000 Kids is streaming on Netflix now. For more true crime, find out who Smegma is in relation to the Sherri Papini case, what Tell Them You Love Me is all about, and where Janie Lynn Ridd is now. You can also check out all of the new TV shows heading to streaming this month.
