Serial sperm donor Jonathan Jacob Meijer ‘convinced mother to conceive the natural way’ by having sex, bombshell documentary The Man With 1000 Kids claims

Mothers who were victims of a prolific sperm donor who is believed to have fathered 1000 children around the world have shed light on the bizarre underworld of private and unregulated sperm donation which bypasses official sperm banks.

Women including Vanessa, from the Netherlands, recalled how she connected with Jonathan Jacob Meijer, a 42-year-old Dutch musician who is estimated to have fathered between 550 and 600 children, on a website where they arranged for him to visit her house and donate his sperm into a cup.

However, when he arrived at her house, Vanessa described how he convinced her to conceive her child ‘naturally’ with him because it was the most ‘effective’ method of conception – and so she agreed to have sex with him.

But while the insemination was successful, and she gave birth to her daughter nine months later, Vanessa’s joy was short-lived when it emerged that Meijer, whom she believed to have fathered just a handful of children, had actually covertly worked as a sperm donor across 11 banks in the Netherlands as well as privately – with links to families around the world.

She is one of several mothers to share her story on Netflix documentary The Man with 1000 Kids, which landed on the streaming platform today.

Speaking about her experience, Vanessa said: ‘I didn’t find a man who wanted to have kids with me… as time went on, the desire to have kids became really strong.’

Rather than applying to a sperm bank for an insemination in a clinic, she decided to use a website to find a sperm donor in which she could communicate directly with the donor. 

Another mother, Nicolette, explained that in the Netherlands, women seeking insemination via a sperm bank must wait for more than a decade before they can have contact with their donor; but many prospective mothers said they wanted to be connected with their donors right at the beginning of the process.

In Vanessa’s case, she connected with ‘guy next door’ Meijer via the website Longing for a Child and, after a period of speaking online, the pair arranged for him to visit her in her home to deposit his sperm.

Vanessa revealed that, after having sex with Jonathan, she fell pregnant with a daughter and was overjoyed

Jonathan Jacob Meijer has been ordered to stop donating sperm to new women after it emerged he had fathered between 550 and 600 children around the world

However, in the weeks leading up to the insemination, Vanessa claims Meijer ‘looked at my Facebook’ before sending her ‘flirty’ messages.

Examples of the messages show him describing her tattoos as ‘sexy’.

‘He told me I looked nice, just some flattering things,’ she recalled, giving examples such as ‘you’re beautiful’ and ‘you look amazing’. 

‘He was very flirty, almost like seducing you,’ she said. ‘It’s nice when someone gives you compliments on how you look.’

She then recalled meeting Meijer at her home when he came to donate his sperm. Whereas with most clients, Meijer took a cup into the bathroom of their home where he deposited his sperm; Vanessa claims the donor propositioned her with the chance to conceive a baby ‘the natural way’ – by having sex.

Vanessa said: ‘When we talked about it, it made sense that it would be the most effective way to conceive and he told me, ‘it’s ok’, that he wouldn’t tell anyone else, and it’s just between us.’

It appears Meijer is now travelling the world, with one video showing him speaking on a beach in Tanzania and another from Italy

They argued that Mr Meijer’s continued donations violated the right to a private life of his donor children, whose ability to form romantic relationships are hampered by fears of accidental incest and inbreeding 

She revealed she did decide to have sex with Meijer in order to conceive and it stuck; nine months later she gave birth to her daughter. 

‘It’s a such a beautiful moment to have your little baby in your arms and look at it and then I broke out in tears,’ she said.

After experiencing joy with her first child, Vanessa wanted to have another baby with Meijer’s sperm, but found him increasingly difficult to pin down.

‘Finally I got hold of him and then he told me he had to go to Mexico for work,’ she said.

But meanwhile, investigations being carried out by sperm banks across the nation had uncovered some alarming details about Meijer – he had fathered more than 100 children via banks across the Netherlands; and professionals had no idea how many babies he had privately fathered.

Dr Max Curfs, from the Isala Fertility Centre, explained that sperm banks make their donors sign agreements promising they will only donate their specimen to one bank. 

Meijer’s children are dotted all over the world. About 375 live in the Netherlands, 80 in Germany, 35 in Belgium, four in Argentina, and two in Australia

Jonathan Jacob Meijer is a 42-year-old musician from the Netherlands – he’s also thought to have fathered hundreds of children across the globe

He added there is a rule in the industry that one man cannot father more than 25 children within the Netherlands due to the risk of said children, who would be half siblings, meeting and procreating without knowing they are related.

‘What will it mean in the future for the children?’ he asked. 

Although it may have been an unlikely outcome, another mother in the Netherlands who had a child with Meijer’s sperm revealed how, when she began speaking with other mothers, she found five other close connections within her own personal circle.

After having her child, nursery worker Nicolette began speaking with one of her colleagues who also conceived via a sperm donor – and before long they realised they had both used Meijer’s sperm.

She recalls being overjoyed, with her colleague saying: ‘n that case our kids will know each other and they will grow up as half-siblings.’

However a few years later, another colleague whose daughter looked like Nicolette’s daughter pointed out the girls looked the same – and it emerged she too had used Jonathan’s sperm.

She added that a classmate of her niece got in touch to say she had a child with Jonathan’s sperm; and after that, a friend of her first boyfriend revealed she had had a son via Jonathan. Finally, someone from her birth town got in touch and said she also had a child with the prolific donor.

She said: ‘If there are so many connections in my direct environment, how many are there?’

Meijer’s fathering spree began in 2007, when Meijer registered as a sperm donor at 11 clinics and at the Cryos sperm bank.

Jonathan Jacob Meijer, a 42-year-old musician from the Netherlands , is estimated to have donated sperm on a mass, unregulated scale and ultimately fathered between 550 and 600 children

He also joined Facebook groups for women and couples who want but cannot have kids.

In his online profile, Meijer is understood to have claimed he resembled Hollywood actors Brad Pitt and Chris Hemsworth, and Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant.

Meijer’s children are dotted all over the world. About 375 live in the Netherlands, 80 in Germany, 35 in Belgium, four in Argentina, and two in Australia. 

Mr Meijer’s mass donations first came to light in 2017 and he was banned from donating to Dutch fertility clinics, where he had already fathered over 100 children.

However, he continued to donate abroad, including to the Danish sperm bank Cryos which operates internationally, and offered his services through websites and social media, according to the Dutch news website Algemeen Dagblad.

The Cryos sperm bank sold his donations for around £1,100 each, but Meijer claims he donates his sperm for free. He told German media: ‘I don’t ask for anything, but sometimes I receive £64, a plane ticket, or a camera as a gift.’

Meijer also continued to offer himself as a donor on sites matching prospective parents with sperm donors, sometimes using a different name.

Some of his ‘victims’ have since set up a Facebook page with the sinister-sounding name Donor 102 – the number of babies he was found to have fathered in 2017.

It was then that Dutch health authorities first discovered he was secretly supplying sperm to almost every fertility clinic in the country. 

In April 2023, a Dutch court ordered Meijer to stop donating semen to clinics, or face being fined 100,000 euros (£88,000) per infraction. 

Judges also ordered him to write to clinics abroad asking them to destroy any of his semen they have in stock, except doses reserved for parents who already had children by him. 

The decision came after a civil case was started by a foundation representing the interests of donor children and Dutch parents who had used Mr Meijer as a donor.

They argued that Mr Meijer’s continued donations violated the right to a private life of his donor children, whose ability to form romantic relationships are hampered by fears of accidental incest and inbreeding.

Incredibly, Meijer continues to donate sperm, but, he claims, only to women who already have a child from him and want another, which the recent court verdict in allows for.

In June last year, he ‘helped’ a Dutch woman, before boarding flights to Serbia and Italy to visit the mothers of some of his children.

Meijer told German media he wants to raise kids of his own one day. He said: ‘I want to start a family, dream of having five children.’

He has since slammed the documentary as ‘misleading’, insisting: ‘I did absolutely nothing wrong.’

Appearing on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour today, he argued: ‘I offer something better than sperm banks.

‘I offer directly fresh sperm which is better than frozen sperm.

‘I give it for free, they don’t have to pay me. They can have contact with me. They can ask me anything they want.

‘How is this misleading? How is this false?’