Since serial sperm donor Ari Nagel revealed to The Post earlier this month that he has sired 22 kids with 18 women, wannabe mamas — according to Nagel, more than 100 of them — across the country have deluged the Brooklynite’s Facebook inbox with paternity pleas.
Nagel, who says he’s never denied a request, is weeding through the ladies. He has a standard reply at the ready: “I cut and paste ‘I’ll do my best. I’ll help you any way I can.’ ”
The broody women The Post spoke to — who range from single to divorced to being in a committed relationship, and include lesbians and heterosexuals — have a variety of reasons for desperately seeking the sperminator.
“He’s definitely a blessing because he’s doing the work for free,” says Sheila Killian, a 47-year-old custodial worker from Charlotte, NC, whose graphic designer wife, Sukeema, 40, hopes to get pregnant by Nagel. “We work paycheck to paycheck — we don’t have money for a sperm bank.”
“He’s willing to do it for free. I think it’s amazing,” says Patrice Anthony, a 31-year-old nurse’s aide from New Orleans who has previously scared off men with her baby lust. “Guys can run away if they hear you want a baby.”
She’s not the only scorned woman hoping Nagel is her knight in shining armor. Linda, a nurse in Massachusetts who declined to give her last name for professional reasons, was recently dumped by her boyfriend of 10 years and just found out he’s expecting a child with someone else.
“I thought we’d have kids together,” says the 36-year-old of her ex. Instead, she friend-requested Nagel on Facebook and started chatting with the 40-year-old immediately. “He’s good-looking.”
Some ladies are already planning ahead. When Shakayla Simmons, a 24-year-old nurse from Tallahassee, Fla., gets married to her fiancée, Shomari Ling, next month, she doesn’t want wedding presents — she wants baby gifts.
“I’m ready whenever [Nagel] is — I want to be pregnant before or right after the wedding,” says Simmons, who grew up with 10 siblings.
“He’s handsome, he’s a genius. I’d be proud to have my child say Ari is his father.”
- Blandine Rodney
She and Ling, a 24-year-old transit worker, looked into adoption, but weren’t prepared to wait years for a child. And, Simmons says, anonymous sperm donors aren’t an option for her: “I don’t want it to be someone I don’t know. [Nagel] has a big heart, he’s amazing. He makes people’s dreams come true — he gives life.”
Though she has yet to actually meet Nagel, Simmons has no qualms about the notoriety of the man comedian Chris Hardwick recently called “Johnny Peopleseed.” She says, “I’m OK with [Nagel’s newfound fame]. I’m OK with people knowing who my child’s father is, because I know he’s a great man.”
Blandine Rodney, a 43-year-old Brooklyn nurse who wants a child with the college math professor, agrees. “He’s handsome, he’s a genius. I’d be proud to have my child say Ari is his father.”
The divorcée, like all of the other women The Post spoke to, is black (Several of Nagel’s 22 children have black mothers). “Someone said [to me] he’s trying to whitewash the black community,” says Rodney. “It’s not whitewashing! More white men should give sperm to women who need it.”
At least one current baby-mama is not thrilled with Nagel’s surge in papa popularity. Crystal, a Connecticut mom who has two sons, ages 6 and 7, by him, says: “To know my kids have so many siblings out there, it’s not something I would have wanted for my children.”
As for Nagel’s routine of doling out his sperm from public restrooms at Target and Starbucks, Sheila and Sukeema Killian are all for it.
“[Sukeema’s] my wife. I took a vow to forsake others,” says Sheila. “I can’t share her with him.”
But Jennifer Davis, a 41-year-old social worker from Delaware, has other ideas for getting pregnant by Nagel: “Maybe the old-fashioned way could be good for both of us — I haven’t been in a relationship in a while.”