Spreading his seed
NYC ‘Sperminator’ expecting 8 more babies!
THIS Father’s Day, he’s still the most in-demand dad in town.
A year after The Post revealed that CUNY math professor Ari Nagel had fathered 23 kids — some conceived the old-fashioned way, others involving sperm handoffs at public spots such as the Atlantic Center Target in Downtown Brooklyn — he’s back. Nagel, 41, has donated his super-sperm to even more women, resulting in four kids born since last Father’s Day. And eight other ladies, from Florida to Maryland to The Bronx, are currently pregnant because of him.
In fact, mommy wannabes from all over the globe have reached out to Nagel after seeing his story in The Post: He’s had inquiries from Turkey, Nigeria, South Africa and even China.
The Sperminator’s summer is jampacked with trips timed to ovulation schedules. He’s flying to Israel this week to meet a woman who will have Nagel freeze his sperm at a clinic in case her first attempt at pregnancy is unsuccessful. After that, he’s off 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 a few years ago. “She said, ‘It’s all I ever wanted.’ You just have a vibe that she’d be an amazing mom.” Plus, it will diversify his portfolio: “I don’t have an Asian baby yet.” In mid-July, a hopeful from Taiwan is flying in to New York to see if Nagel can make her dreams come true.
In every case, the women are covering the cost of the flights. But, as always, Nagel charges nothing for his sperm.
“It’s a lot of fun [traveling], actually. Of course, no one’s ovulating in Hawaii — it’s Toledo, Ohio, and Flint, Michigan,” he said, insisting he loves helping strangers.
“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, I have no idea who it was,” he said. “[Fathering children] is a lot more fulfilling. It’s an honor to be chosen.”
AS The Post reported last year, the Sperminator often uses public restrooms — Target, Starbucks — for procuring samples: “Once a location is chosen, Nagel will go into the bathroom, pleasure himself while watching porn on his iPhone . . . and ejaculate into an Instead Softcup, a type of menstrual cup. He then delivers the specimen to the woman, who goes into the ladies’ restroom and inserts it into her cervix.”
Nagel insists there’s no shame in his game. “There’s homeless people in that Target bathroom all the time. What I’m doing is the least of their problems. You have people showering [in the sinks] there,” he said. “They should give us some free diapers for all this free press.”
Pregnant Bronx mom Paige Moxey “met him in the Target,” she said. The 30-year-old health-care worker, married to wife Jasmine Belle, is due in February.
Devin Vanderhorst, 35, got lucky at Target, too, but only after the customer-service associate and her wife, Shawn, first met up with Nagel at a Midtown nightclub. (That initial attempt was not successful.) “I was at a friend’s birthday party,
and [Vanderhorst] thought that she was fertile. We partied,” Nagel explained. “[But] it was very challenging to ejaculate into a cup after a few drinks.” Vanderhorst, who is due in September, only wants one thing for her future daughter, Khari (she said the name means “queenly” and “joyful” in Swahili): “I’m praying for [Nagel’s] blue eyes — they just set off the whole face.” And then there’s Amanda Santiago, who received a red Solo cup full of Nagel’s sperm at a friend’s backyard barbecue in Queens. “Don’t drink from this cup,” Nagel warned fellow guests, who, he said, quickly realized what the Sperminator was up to. “They were all creeped out — their whole demeanor changed.” Santiago, 26, a stay-athome mom from Medford, LI, took the cup into the back of her Yukon Denali SUV and did the deed. She’s currently 37 weeks pregnant with a girl she plans to raise with her partner, Gabriella Bonilla. One Brooklyn mom allowed her 2-month-old girl to appear with Nagel for The Post’s photo shoot but declined to give her or the baby’s name because her family is in the dark about her daughter’s lineage. The single 30-something contacted Nagel after reading last year’s article. “It wasn’t just a story — it was a dream come true,” she said. “Five minutes after reading it, I e-mailed him and we met the next day. I was ready.” Nagel used the Softcup method at her home. “I’m not giving up on my dream [to meet someone], but . . . seeing her, I’m so glad I didn’t wait.” She’s already thinking about baby No. 2 with the Sperminator.
THERE was a moment last year when Nagel thought about throwing in the towel. “It was a little overwhelming,” he said of the attention he got after his first Post story. “Between the media, the women e-mailing with requests and dealing with my family, it’s been a lot.” He was even recognized by a CUNY staffer while proctoring a final exam at the school. “He said, ‘ OMG, we have to take a selfie,’ ” recalled a stunned Nagel. “I feel more infamous than famous.” A week after Nagel was first profiled in The Post last Father’s Day, he admitted that his wife of 12 years — with whom he lives in Brooklyn and shares three children, ages 13, 6 and 3 — was upset by the situation. Although Nagel claimed his wife, with whom he said he did not have a romantic relationship, knew of his Sperminator hobbies, an anonymous tipster told The Post she “had no idea.”
Today, Nagel won’t discuss his home life other than to say he and his “religious” wife’s arrangement hasn’t changed since last year. “She wasn’t livid” about his donations, per se, but rather about the media attention wreaking havoc on their otherwise private life.
So he took a sperm sabbatical for three months. But Nagel found he couldn’t ignore his calling. “It’s hard to say no [to the women], especially when it’s something that’s so important to them and so easy for me to give,” he said.
“If what I was doing was wrong, it wouldn’t feel right. But it feels good making someone’s dream come true. Why that’s controversial is so puzzling to me.” The moms agree. “I wouldn’t have a baby if Ari weren’t the father,” said pregnant Tiffany Harrison, a 42-year-old who works at a church with her pastor wife, Yvonne. She had a successful conception after the Sperminator produced a sample on demand at her Easter party. It will be her family’s second Nagel baby: Yvonne gave birth to their daughter Zoe 2¹/2 years ago. They consider Nagel a member of the family, and he even joins them on vacations — most recently in Las Vegas this past winter.
Several mothers invite each other to baby showers and birthdays. “Some of the moms video-chat every day,” said Nagel. “They all love each other — maybe a little too much. [Some of] the moms are flirting and hooking up.”
While about 10 percent of the mothers don’t include Nagel in their children’s lives at all, he has met all of the kids. For others, he is a regular at birthday parties and school events. He’s sometimes even in the delivery room.
“I texted him at 6 a.m., and he came right away,” said the unnamed Brooklyn mom of the baby girl. “That’s Ari — he’s always there. If it’s important, he’ll find a way.”
Nagel was also present this past spring when a Florida woman gave birth to his first set of twins.
“It’s a bond that’s unexplainable to people,” said Vanderhorst of the relationship she imagines Nagel will have with her unborn daughter. “We want her to know she has a dad and make it as normal as possible for her. From the outside, [people] don’t get it, but from the inside, it’s a family thing.”
Nagel doesn’t plan to procreate forever, however. “It’s only for another year or two,” he said. “There’s higher risks for birth defects as you get older, and I wouldn’t feel comfortable. I want the children to be healthy.”
He joked that he’d like to pass the baton one day to his now-13-year-old son. “He’ll take over,” said Nagel, who has already talked to the boy about it, adding that he’ll need his own nickname: “‘ You can be the Ejaculator, not the Sperminator,’ ” he told his son.
Nagel admits that this is all a long way from his early life, when he was a “sheltered” kid from an insular Orthodox community in Rockland County. But he wouldn’t have it any other way: “Now I have family members from every stripe, race, creed, nationality and orientation. I’ve got a little United Nations.”
From the outside, [people] don’t get it, but from the inside it’s a family thing. — Expectant mom Devin Vanderhorst on having a child with Sperminator Ari Nagel.