‘Fertility Fraudster’: Netflix Greenlights Series On Man Accused Of Fathering More Than 500 Children

Max Goldbart
·2 min read

EXCLUSIVE: The story of a Dutch YouTuber accused of fathering more than 500 children is to be explored in a Netflix documentary series titled Fertility Fraudster [working title].

The three-part series will delve deeper into the global fertility industry by focusing on Jonathan Meijer, who late last month was ordered to stop donating sperm by judges in The Netherlands and told he will be fined €100,000 ($110,000) for each future infraction.

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With exclusive access to a group of passionate and aggrieved mothers, the series will unravel the twisting and turning story of a man who defrauded people across the globe, and how these mothers are now on a mission to push for a change in the law to prevent him deceiving more.

Meijer has been banned from donating in The Netherlands for a number of years but is accused of simply relocating his activities and currently resides in Kenya. The Dutch court recently determined that he “deliberately misinformed” donation recipients about the number of children he had fathered and that this creates a “huge kinship network, with hundreds of half-siblings,” leading to the potential for psychological trauma.

The series is the latest Netflix doc to examine the thorny issue of fraud in an unregulated industry, following the likes of The Tinder Swindler. It will investigate the murky world of the fertility industry more generally and uncover how, due to a lack of global regulations, some international fertility clinics continue to allow anonymous donations.

Curious Films, which has also made a Netflix doc about software pioneer John McAfee, is behind Fertility Fraudster along with AJH Films, the producer of Discovery+ Donald Trump doc Unprecedented. EPs are Dov Freedman, Jessie Versluys, Natalie Hill and Alex Holder. Josh Allott is director and series producer is Kathryn Taylor.

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