‘Man With 1000 Kids’ in court for trying to contact his children on YouTube
A sperm donor cup and banana.
Credit: Shutterstock, carroti
A Dutchman infamous for fathering a staggering 550 children worldwide is facing a legal battle after trying to reach out to his offspring. Jonathan Jacob Meijer, ‘the man, the myth, the legend’ who starred in a Netflix documentary about his prolific donation history, is being sued to stop him from influencing his many children via his YouTube channel.
One of the mothers involved, along with the donor children’s organisation Stichting Donorkind, is taking Meijer to court, demanding he halt his attempts to contact and even ‘parent’ the children he helped conceive.
This case, which is scheduled to be heard on January 28 in the Netherlands, comes after a previous ruling in 2023 that ordered Meijer to stop donating sperm or face a hefty €100,000 fine for each violation. Apparently, his quota had been met and was, let’s say, full.
“He has to stay away. That’s what was agreed,” said Natalie Dijkdrenth, the mother who initiated the legal action, in an interview with Volkskrant. “Jonathan is acting like some kind of uncle, but he’s trying to play the role of a parent from a distance. He’s overstepping his bounds and trying to insert himself into our family.”
Dijkdrenth’s concerns are echoed by other mothers who have donated with Meijer, fearing he’s attempting to wield influence over their children.
“He’s advising the kids to seek out partners who resemble them and think like them. He even dismisses certain parenting styles and pushes for large families,” Dijkdrenth explained. “Some of these kids are at an impressionable age, and as a donor, he carries an unearned allure. It’s worrying.”
Meijer, along with his lawyer Kasper Ripken, has refused to comment on the case.
But in his controversial YouTube videos, Meijer has gone as far as calling certain mothers ‘bully mums’ and accusing them of questionable parenting. He even posted photos of parents alongside their names, although these were swiftly removed after he received court papers.
Meijer’s actions follow a Netflix documentary, The Man With 1000 Kids, which chronicles his attempts to have more children. The documentary has raised eyebrows, and Meijer is now fighting to have it taken down from the streaming platform.
Despite Dutch fertility clinic regulations limiting sperm donors to no more than 25 children, Meijer found a loophole and spread his seed far and wide. By approaching at least 11 separate clinics in the Netherlands and also donating to Denmark’s Cryos sperm bank, which has no child limit, Meijer bypassed the rules, resulting in his staggering number of biological children.
Will the court finally stop the ‘sperm donor from hell’? It’s a case that has parents everywhere watching closely.
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