The Man with 1000 Kids: a documentary to 'chill the blood'

Netflix's 'fascinating' three-part show explores the sinister story of a serial sperm donor

Jonathan Meijer in court.
A 'cautionary tale about the perils of the modern age'
(Image credit: ANP / Alamy)

In a scene from Netflix's new "stranger-than-fiction" documentary "The Man with 1000 Kids", a woman explains why she chose Jonathan Jacob Meijer as her sperm donor, pointing out his thick curly hair, bright blue eyes and good teeth. "It sounded like she was judging at Crufts", said Anita Singh in The Telegraph. 

The mysterious Dutchman at the centre of the show made it his life's work to travel the world donating sperm privately and to as many clinics as possible. When he "finally wound up in court" he confessed to fathering almost 600 children. The real number could be as high as 3,000. 

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Over the course of the three-part series, said Lucy Mangan in The Guardian, we follow the women's stories from the "initial joy" of discovering they are pregnant to the "unravelling of the horror" as it emerges Meijer is not who he seems, and the eventual court case brought against him. 

The word "incest" is used a "staggering number of times" (unwitting incest among the siblings is one of the biggest issues) and stock footage of syringes, scans and crying babies flash on to the screen repeatedly as if the show is "trying to pound it into our eyeballs". 

While it's "undoubtedly fascinating viewing albeit in a very grim way", we never hear from Meijer (he refuses to comment for the documentary), which leaves the show feeling like there's a "void at its heart". 

"I think we could all do without the reconstruction scenes of a long-haired actor playing Meijer simulating masturbation into a small cup," said Carol Midgley in The Times

But it is an oddly intriguing story about a man "so blinded by self-love" that he seemed to have convinced himself he was "doing the world a favour".

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Irenie Forshaw is a features writer at The Week, covering arts, culture and travel. She began her career in journalism at Leeds University, where she wrote for the student newspaper, The Gryphon, before working at The Guardian and The New Statesman Group. Irenie then became a senior writer at Elite Traveler, where she oversaw The Experts column.