How I fathered 100 biological children despite being unmarried — Telegram CEO, Durov

The founder and Chief Executive Officer, Telegram Messenger app, Pavel Durov, has narrated how he had 100 biological children around the world despite being unmarried.

The 39-year-old entrepreneur made this known through his popular channel on Monday evening.

According to him, despite his preference to remain single and alone, 15 years ago, his friend (unnamed) approached him to donate his sperm in a clinic, which he acceded to and resulted in him helping over 12 families all over the world have kids due to what he described as ”high-quality donor material’.

Narrating, he said, “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?

“Fifteen years ago, a friend approached me with a weird 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 realising he was dead serious.

“The boss of the clinic told me that ‘high-quality donor material’  was in short supply and that it was my civic duty to donate more sperm to anonymously help more couples. 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.”

He hinted that he would plan to open-source his DNA so that his biological children could easily find him, stressing, “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.”

Durov further advised healthy men to donate sperm to families struggling to have kids around the world.

The Telegram founder is a Russian-born Emirati entrepreneur. In 2022, he was recognized as the richest expat in the United Arab Emirates, according to Forbes. In February 2023, Arabian Business named him the most powerful entrepreneur in Dubai.