Pavel Durov, founder and CEO of Telegram, stunned his audience with a startling revelation: he has more than “100 biological kids.” Durov shared this news with his 5.7 million subscribers on the messaging app, detailing his unexpected journey into fatherhood and his future plans.
The unusual request
“I was just told that I have over 100 biological kids. How is this possible for a guy who has never been married and prefers to live alone?” Durov said. He recounted how nearly 15 years ago, a friend approached him with a peculiar request. “He said that he and his wife couldn’t have kids due to a fertility issue and asked me to donate sperm at a clinic for them to have a baby. I laughed my ass off before realizing he was dead serious,” the Telegram founder shared.
A civic duty
Durov explained that the clinic had informed him about the “high-quality donor material” shortage and emphasized it was his “civic duty to donate more sperm to anonymously help more couples.”
He recalled, “This sounded crazy enough to get me to sign up for sperm donation. Fast forward to 2024, my past donating activity has helped over a hundred couples in 12 countries to have kids. Moreover, many years after I stopped being a donor, at least one IVF clinic still has my frozen sperm available for anonymous use by families who want to have kids.”
Future plans: Open-sourcing DNA
The 39-year-old entrepreneur announced his plan to open-source his DNA to help his biological children find each other. He expressed pride in his contributions to alleviating the shortage of healthy sperm. “Of course, there are risks, but I don’t regret having been a donor. The shortage of healthy sperm has become an increasingly serious issue worldwide, and I’m proud that I did my part to help alleviate it. I also want to help destigmatize the whole notion of sperm donation and incentivize more healthy men to do it, so that families struggling to have kids can enjoy more options. Defy convention – redefine the norm,” Durov wrote on Telegram.
Public reaction
Durov’s post has garnered more than 1.8 million views since it was shared. A screengrab of the message was also posted on X, where users had varied reactions.
One user commented, “Tech CEOs’ new hubristic hobby seems to be competing on the number of offspring they can claim – without ever loving them or being in their lives.” Another added, “The funniest part is that there are still some of his sperm donations left and preserved in one of the facilities.” A third user remarked, “This is what happens when you ‘donate’ your sperm to IVF clinics. I don’t see how this can be spun as a win.”
Pavel Durov’s unexpected disclosure has sparked widespread discussion and highlighted the growing issue of sperm donation shortages. His commitment to open-sourcing his DNA and encouraging more men to become donors aims to redefine societal norms and provide more options for families struggling with infertility.