Love Is Blind’s Tim Claims He Was ‘Being Manipulated’ and Shown ‘No Serious Effort’ in ‘Toxic Situation’ with Alex

Warning: this story contains spoilers from episodes 10 and 11 of Love Is Blind season 7.

Love Is Blind‘s Tim Godbee is speaking out after his breakup from fiancée Alex Byrd.

Things fell apart for the couple in the latest batch of season 7 episodes after Alex took a nap following a meeting with his family, and Tim felt her actions were disrespectful. Their disagreement quickly escalated as it was revealed they couldn’t see eye-to-eye on relationship expectations.

Tim, 33, then confirmed he did not want to marry someone like Alex, 33, and never wanted to see her again, before leaving their shared apartment and calling off their engagement.

With their breakup now out there for the world to see — and many shocked by the way it all unfolded — Tim turned to social media to address the split and provide his side of the situation.

“When love, authenticity and respect are consistently met with lack of effort, constant antagonizing and lack of respect for your physical and mental space, it must be met with firm and unmistakable terms,” he wrote in an Instagram post on Oct. 16. “There is much left out from our story, some of which out of an attempt to protect something I once held dear.”

“I am far from a perfect person. I make mistakes and fall short of glory as often as others. I don’t expect everyone to love or agree with what I have to say but I have to display an amount of respect for myself and my family if it is not given by others,” he continued. “Meet people where they are.”

Noting that he has “never argued with someone with the amount of consistency I did as with this experience,” Tim claimed he did his “best” to keep most of their disagreements “off camera.”

“Through hours of tough conversations that weren’t seen, I made the decision to remove myself from what felt like a toxic situation where I was being manipulated and given no serious effort from my partner,” the web content strategist wrote. “I truly believe if someone displayed the same behavior to a partner and the genders [were] reversed, the conversation around our story would be entirely different.”

Tim said he wasn’t speaking out on social media in order “to be a victim” but rather to “point out the lack of accountability and sincere self-reflection that one should do when they subject anyone to such consistently mean-spirited treatment, let alone to someone you claim to love.”

He concluded his note by speaking directly to those who insisted he stay with Alex and “continue to give my all to a situation that was draining me emotionally and mentally, while my extended family is being brought in to be shown the same lack of intent.”

“I offer you no apology,” he wrote. “I hate that my attempt to find love ended in a situation where I can’t even be friendly with a person I used to love because we live in what feels like two different realities.”

Tim also took a stand against accusations of how he was being portrayed, writing, “To frame me as an angry or controlling person is a projection of all the stereotypes I have to work against because of who I was born into this world as.”

“I was not looking forward to reliving this. There is nothing left to say. There is nothing left to talk about,” he added. “Do the work. Be better. Grow. Move in peace but always be willing to defend yourself and the ones you love.”

In the caption of his post, Tim thanked fans for their support through this time and wrote, “I hate that [this] had to be my story and will forever have to have it attached to my name, but I remain grateful for the experience, opportunity and the things it showed me about myself. It is what it is.”

“I know when to remove something that is a negative presence in my life. I will continue to reflect on myself more than I do others and attempt to live life as honorably as I can by the principles I was brought up to have. I still have my joy. ☯️ 🎯#woofwoof @loveisblindnetflix” he concluded.

Alex did not post a statement on social media, though she did reference their split on her Instagram Story by re-sharing a friend’s post and writing beneath it, “Can’t wait for the reunion for alllll the truth to come out.”

Alex also spoke to Today about their breakup and insisted she was blindsided, especially after it came just two days after Tim asked her father for his blessing to marry her.

“Honestly, I don’t know [what happened]. I wish to this day I could give you an answer… It threw me off,” she said. “I literally thought we were going to go all the way. There wasn’t really a doubt in my mind. In my previous relationship, couples are going to argue, they’re not going to see eye to eye on everything. So I didn’t really think our issues would ever be too big to not go the whole way.”

Addressing her father’s reaction to their split, she added: “He was truly devastated. To this day, he does not like Tim. He didn’t like that [Tim] went through that entire process. He looked at the letter [that Tim wrote to him], because my dad still has the letter. He looks at it like it was just all a lie. He reread it and was like, ‘Was any of this true?'”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. 

Episodes 1-11 of Love Is Blind season 7 are now streaming on Netflix. The season 7 finale will drop on Wednesday, Oct. 23, followed by the season 7 reunion on Oct. 30 at 9 p.m. ET.