Dutch superdonor sues Netflix over '1,000 children' documentary

A Dutchman who claims to have fathered 550 children via sperm donations said he was suing Netflix over its hit documentary "The Man With 1,000 Kids", which he described as "sensationalist".

Jonathan Meijer, 43, announced on a late-night chat show Tuesday that he was taking legal action against the documentary that he said slandered him and the families he helped to create.

He said the number of children the documentary said he could have fathered -- up to 3,000 -- was incorrect.

"Five hundred and fifty, that's the number I know for sure. Anything above that is just speculation," he said.

"That's why I have started a case to fight against these lies," he said, describing as "sensationalist" the show that aired without his participation.

Meijer hit the headlines last year when a court ordered him to stop donating after he had helped produce 550 to 600 children since starting as a donor in 2007.

Dutch clinical guidelines say a donor should not father more than 25 children in 12 families.

The court said Meijer had misinformed families about past donations, meaning that the children were "part of a huge kinship network with hundreds of half-siblings they did not choose".

The court considered it "sufficiently plausible" that this could cause psychosocial consequences for the children, including identity problems and fears of accidental incest.

Meijer said Tuesday that he had stopped donating sperm in 2019, except to families that wanted a second or third child with his aid.

He said he wanted the documentary taken down for the sake of the children "who are being recognised in the street".