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Sperm donor who helped create hundreds of children: 'I see absolutely nothing wrong with it'

Nuala interviews Jonathan Meijer, whose story is featured The Man with 1000 Kids.

Jonathan Meijer is accused of donating sperm around the world to so many clinics and private donors that he helped create hundreds of biological children, on a scale unknown to the mothers.

The story features in a new Netflix documentary series, named The Man with 1000 Kids. They say that he deceived women into having his babies - via sperm donation - on a mass scale.

Speaking to Nuala McGovern on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, Jonathan said that he doesn’t see anything wrong with his sperm donations, despite these children having hundreds of half-siblings, and said the documentary is misleading because it gives prominence to those who are unhappy rather than the many families he says are grateful to him.

Responding to the interview, Natalie Hill, the executive producer who pitched the original idea to Netflix, described the claim that the majority of families are happy as ‘completely untrue’.

We approached Netflix for a response but they said they would not be providing a comment.

Nuala was also joined by Natalie and Suzanne, who had a baby conceived with Jonathan’s donor sperm privately. Their story features in the documentary. They said that he ‘does not really see the results of his actions’ and that they don’t believe he wants to ‘take responsibility’.

Plus Rachel Cutting, Director of Compliance and Information at the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), was in the studio.

In a statement, the HFEA said the Netflix series ‘may be stressful and upsetting for the families of some donor-conceived children’, and encouraged women in the UK to go to a licensed HFEA clinic.

You can listen back in full on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Sounds – it’s the Woman’s Hour episode from 3 July.

Release date:

Duration:

2 minutes