Netflix has been ordered to pay $385,000 to Lori Kennard, an Indiana woman, after a federal court ruled that the streaming platform exposed her as one of the secret children of disgraced fertility doctor Donald Cline in the documentary Our Father.

Kennard filed a lawsuit in 2022, accusing Netflix of revealing her identity as one of Cline’s 94 children without her consent.

The documentary, released that year, detailed how Cline used his own sperm to impregnate numerous women, leading to the discovery of his secret offspring.

Cline’s scheme was uncovered in 2015 when several of his now-adult children took DNA tests.

The jury, consisting of eight people from Indianapolis, sided with Kennard. She alleged that Netflix and the documentary’s production company, RealHouse (Blumhouse Productions), were negligent and reckless by failing to blur her name, despite assurances from the producers that she would not be identified.

Kennard claimed she suffered significant harm to her reputation, along with emotional distress, embarrassment, and trauma after being featured in the film. Her identity was also shared in social media posts promoting the release of Our Father.

The jury ruled in Netflix’s favor in a separate case filed by Sarah Bowling, another woman who made similar claims. The verdict showed that Kennard had kept her connection to Cline a secret, while Bowling had not.

The documentary exposed how Cline, during the 1970s and ’80s, used his own sperm to inseminate patients without their knowledge. He falsely told patients that they were receiving sperm from medical students, residents, or dental students, with the claim that no donor’s sperm would be used more than three times.

In 2016, Cline lied to investigators from the Indiana Attorney General’s Office, denying that he had used his sperm to inseminate patients. He later pleaded guilty to two counts of obstruction of justice in 2017 but received a suspended sentence and did not serve jail time.

Cline surrendered his medical license in 2018 and was permanently barred from seeking reinstatement by the Indiana Medical Licensing Board.