Telegram boss: I have more than 100 biological children
Telegram Founder Pavel Durov Was Never Married, Lives Alone, and is Allegedly Father to Over 100 Children. He Cites Multiple Sperm Donations as Explanation. He Encourages Other Men to Follow Suit.
The founder of the social network Telegram, Pavel Durov, has claimed in a post to be the biological father of over 100 children in twelve states, despite never having been married and preferring to live alone. The starting point was a sperm donation 15 years ago: friends who wanted a baby had asked him for help, the 39-year-old wrote on his Telegram channel. Initially, Durov thought it was a joke, but he agreed to it.
At the clinic, he was told that "high-quality donor material" was scarce and it was his civic duty to donate sperm to help couples anonymously. "It sounded so crazy that I signed up for a sperm donation," Durov wrote.
The Telegram founder now wants to make his DNA publicly accessible so his biological children "can find each other more easily," as the 39-year-old explained in his post. He is aware of the risks, but he wants to remove the stigma from sperm donation and encourage more healthy men to do the same, so that families with difficulties can fulfill their dreams of having children: "The global shortage of healthy sperm has become an increasingly serious problem. I'm proud to have played my part in making it easier," Durov wrote.
Durov currently lives in Dubai. The Telegram CEO left his home country of Russia when Kremlin-linked forces took over the Russian Facebook equivalent VK, which he created and is still popular today. Telegram has 950 million users worldwide, according to Durov, and is set to reach the billion mark soon. In one of his rare interviews this year, he categorically denied having anything to do with the Russian state. He emphasized the independence of Telegram: he is the sole owner of the network.
In his Telegram post, Pavel Durov mentioned that the idea of becoming a sperm donor began when friends asked for his help, leading to over 100 documented children. The Telegram founder also expressed his intention to make his DNA publicly available, hoping it will aid his biological children in locating each other.
