Ari Nagel spawns 52 kids — and new ‘Sperminator’ web series
When it comes to making babies, Ari Nagel — a k a “The Sperminator” — has the Midas touch.
The Post broke the now-44-year-old’s story on Father’s Day 2016. Back then, the Brooklynite had sired a mere 22 children. Today, he’s fathered 49 by sperm donation and three with his estranged wife: His oldest is 16 years old, the youngest is 3 months, and there are another 15 babies on the way in locations ranging from Great Neck, New York, to Ghana in West Africa.
“It started with one and at this point now it’s me not being very good at saying no,” Nagel says in The Post’s new six-part web series, “The Sperminator.”
The City University of New York math professor even gets flown around the world by wannabe moms — typically single women and lesbian couples.
“I had a woman from Fiji contact me this month. She wanted to fly me to Fiji,” he says in one of the episodes.
Nagel claims he has “super sperm” with a count of 85 million per milliliter. (The Mayo Clinic says normal sperm density ranges from 15 million to greater than 200 million sperm per milliliter.) But his main appeal is that he has never charged a woman for his donations, enabling them to avoid sperm bank costs, which can run into the thousands of dollars, as well as all the associated red tape.
The Man Himself: Episode 2
In 2016, The Post reported: About half the time, he provides his seed the old-fashioned way. Sometimes, a lesbian looking to conceive will have her partner in the bed for moral support while she and Nagel engage in intercourse. “She’s never slept with a guy before, so the partner’s in bed, holding her hand,” Nagel said.
But now, he says, he rarely has sex with the women anymore.
Instead, he will meet them in public places, pleasure himself in a bathroom at, say, a Starbucks or Target, and hand off the sperm in a menstrual Softcup.
“This isn’t time-consuming, and I’m doing it anyway,” he told The Post in 2016. The ovulating woman then inserts the flexible cup into her vagina in a public women’s bathroom.
As Nagel says in an episode of “The Sperminator”: “Obviously, Wi-Fi helps so I can have my porn.”
The Moms: Episode 3
And while some people might be weirded out by this unconventional conception, the moms say they don’t care.
“I firmly believe that none of us have a right to judge where someone conceives or [by] what means. It doesn’t matter to me,” mom Tiffany says in a “Sperminator” episode. She and her partner, Yvonne, spent close to $25,000 at sperm banks trying to conceive before she finally got pregnant by Nagel.
‘I have lawyers telling me to stop — that I’m putting myself at risk.’
Meanwhile, as Nagel says while pointing to a Softcup, “It allows her to get pregnant for less than a dollar.”
He’s met all but seven of the children he’s fathered and, in some cases, has become a regular at their birthday parties and school events. He’s even been in the delivery room for a handful of births.
And, as the show reveals, some of the women have become a support system for each other.
On “The Sperminator,” Leigh — mom to Elijah, Nagel’s 15th child — invites several fellow Nagel moms and spawn to her son’s fourth birthday party.
“I do consider all these women family,” she says.
Nagel, seen holding court with his moms and kids, reveals that “some of the women [present] are ovulating, so I’ll provide a sample and they can split it amongst themselves.”
The Consequences: Episode 4
But it’s not all one big happy family.
Five women have successfully sued Nagel for child support, even though he says he clearly only served in the role of sperm donor.
“I have lawyers telling me to stop — that I’m putting myself at risk,” he says in one episode. “I’m paying support for nine of my children. It’s around half of my salary.”
And his Jewish Orthodox family has a hard time understanding why he does this. “I brought so much shame to my family — they’re embarrassed of me,” he says in the series.
The Sticky Situation: Episode 5
Still, Nagel insists he will never say no to a woman desperate to have a child. He’s received requests from as far away as Turkey, Nigeria, South Africa, Thailand, Israel and China.
Once, the Sperminator was summoned to Vietnam. “This crippled woman’s story really hit home,” he said of a 30-something left in a wheelchair after a debilitating motorcycle accident.
“She said, ‘It’s all I ever wanted.’ You just have a vibe that she’d be an amazing mom,” he told The Post in 2017. The woman now has 2-year-old twins and has asked Nagel to be the godfather.
Giving women hope — and in many cases, a baby — has been his greatest joy.
The Sample: Episode 6
“Creating a life and saving a life are my proudest moments. I donated my bone marrow twice and I never got to meet the recipients,” he previously told The Post. “[Fathering children] is a lot more fulfilling. It’s an honor to be chosen.”
He’s joked that he’d like to pass the baton one day to his now 16-year-old son, one of three he has with his estranged wife.
“He’ll take over,” Nagel jokingly told The Post, adding that the son will need his own nickname. “[He] can be the Ejaculator.”
And 2020 is going to be a busy year. In addition to the three babies due in the next two months, there are women pregnant by him in Kentucky, Pittsburgh, Mexico and Thailand.
As he says in his show: “Certainly, if I were doing something wrong it wouldn’t feel so right.”