Netflix’s Love Is Blind season 7 seems to be getting messier and messier with each episode. But over the past two weeks, the real drama has started to be revealed off-screen ahead of the reunion, particularly between engaged contestants Tyler and Ashley — and Tyler’s three children.
As seen in the first six episodes of the season, released on October 2, Tyler Francis and Ashley Adionser became engaged after falling in love in the Love Is Blind pods and quickly became a fan favorite due to their seemingly intense compatibility and genuine connection. During their honeymoon in Mexico, fans picked up on a few red flags Tyler threw into the air, such as warning Ashley that folks back home who know him “in real life” would tell her he’s “not nice.”
“Like, nah, I just wasn’t nice to y’all,” he said. “There’s nothing that no one can tell me,” Ashley said, standing firm in her trust for her fiancé. “You never know who comes out of the woodworks,” Tyler answered. (Um… OK.) Of the seven couples who got engaged through the experiment this season, Tyler and Ashley seemed to have the healthiest relationship of them all. Until now.
In between the first batch of episodes released October 2 and this Wednesday’s most recent batch, fans discovered that Tyler is the biological father of three children, a major life detail we had not yet seen him disclose during any of the episodes. After October 9’s drop of episodes 7-9 and October 16’s drop of episodes 10-11, fans have been trying to put the pieces together based on the timeline of the show and what Tyler and Ashley have shared about their lives now. Below, we’re breaking down the Tyler and Ashley drama with a complete timeline of rumors and reveals.
So, Tyler has three kids.
On October 7, two days before the next episode batch drop of LIB season 7, a series of TikTok videos by @storytimewithrikkii, a creator who specializes in reality television recaps, began to go viral across multiple social media platforms. In the very first video, with the thumbnail title “Tyler’s GFs are coming ‘out the woodwoork,’” Rikkii claims that Tyler is the father of three children, two twin girls and a boy, along with other allegations about the depth of his dynamic with the children, which include resurfaced social media posts and photos.
Does Ashley know the full story?
Perhaps the biggest draw of the Tyler & Ashley drama for Love Is Blind fans was the question of whether Ashley knows about the kids. Fans often speculate that Netflix leaves important details about the Love Is Blind connections on the cutting room floor, potentially even chopping entire engagement storylines from the show; with this in mind, fans were unsure of whether Tyler was truly deceiving his LIB fiancée or if they had privately discussed the matter and it was just viewers that were in the dark about this major detail.
Well, in the final minutes of episode 9, we see Tyler and Ashley 13 days before the wedding, having a tough conversation in their shared apartment during the daytime. “I’m not sure this is a resolution kind of conversation,” Ashley begins. “‘Oh, let’s hug and pretend like nothing happened.’ For me, this is not that. This is a big thing.” She then reveals that she left the apartment the night before to “get [her] thoughts together,” and begins to cry, accusing Tyler of dropping a “bomb.”
“I’m replaying and thinking of every conversation we’ve had where this could’ve been brought up,” she says. “This is something I should’ve known before agreeing to say yes.” Ashley goes on to share her frustration that Tyler has expressed his interest in having multiple kids with her without disclosing that he is the father of multiple children already, especially since his children are “with someone [he] knows.”
We do see Tyler tell Ashley he has two girls and a boy, and Ashley demanding to “know everything.” “I have nothing. You have yet to show me anything. ‘Here are the documents that say, I’m uninvolved.'”
Ashley continues, explaining how their trust has been broken: “To come in this scenario and fall in love with a guy who has three sperm babies, sperm-donor babies, is a lot to absorb.” Tyler responds with affirming his feelings for Ashley, claiming that he still wants to marry her and start a family with her.
But based on the conversation we see in episode 10, released on October 16 — in which Ashley and Tyler are in the same clothing at their apartment, but at nighttime — it seems as though what Tyler tells her might not be the full truth. It seems as though Tyler is framing his parentage as “trying to help a couple have kids.” “I had a very close friend, her and her wife wanted to have a baby,” Tyler says in episode 10. “And they couldn’t afford a sperm donor. I thought that was God telling me, ‘Help someone else.’ And it felt good.”
When Ashley asks Tyler explicitly whether the “kids know what you look like,” Tyler pauses then replies: “Hmm, I don’t think so.” The couple then agrees to continue working on their relationship and potential marriage, despite Ashley’s expressed uncertainty about the situation.
From what we have seen of that conversation and what he have seen circulating on social media, it’s fair to assume that Ashley does not yet know the full story. In later scenes in episode 10 at the drama-filled Great Gatsby-themed party, Ashley repeats the version of the story Tyler told her on-screen to the rest of the female contestants, and defends his character and positive involvement in their relationship. In episode 11, Tyler apologizes to Ashley on-screen and Ashley tells him that “the shock has worn off.”
“Now I’m able to rationalize certain things and paint a picture for myself of what it would look like if, like, the kids came into our lives in five years,” Ashley says hypothetically. “Would I be okay with it? I feel like I want you in my life, no matter what. It’s not what I intended for myself but I feel like it’s worth the reward, which is you.”
However, Tyler and Ashley have both done a handful of official interviews for press for the show, and both stars have offered perspective on other unexpected curveballs in their relationship.
When asked by People on October 6 why he tried to warn Ashley about his reputation as a “not nice” guy, Tyler says he did it because he “was in a bubble before her.” “Anyone that I dated, the slightest interest of not being serious, I was okay with cutting people off,” he told the outlet. “I am at a point in my age where I didn’t want to waste anyone’s time, so it could come off as mean or cold.”
“I just wanted to let her know that’s the person I was but I came here to find love, and prior to, I was trying to,” he continued. “But of course dating is hard in itself, so I just wasn’t into wasting people’s time. And I may have come off cold and I just want to let her know, ‘Hey, there are people that may be like, ah, he’s an a**hole.’ No, I’m just honest, honestly.”
In a separate interview conducted by People, Ashley revealed she was shocked at the idea that others could perceive her fiancé as unkind. “The whole point of coming into this experiment is to jump in with both feet and accept someone for who they are,” she reflected. “So when Tyler did say something like, ‘Oh, some people may not say that I’m nice,’ I’m like, ‘You are amazing to me. You’re the sweetest person. How could someone not think that you’re nice?’ I was shocked by that.”
Ashley said he went “into detail” and defended his behavior by claiming he wasn’t “the most pleasant person” after working “long hours.” “That’s self-aware to me. I think everyone comes with something and I think the good part is recognizing it and realizing the person you want to evolve to be,” she said. “So no red flags.”
In an interview published a few days later on October 9, Tyler told E! News that he has “no regrets” about his time in the pods and beyond. “There’s maybe a couple conversations that could’ve been had at a certain time, who knows?” he said. “I can’t sit back and wish that I could change something… I’m living in the present.”
Tyler told the publication that he intentionally did not describe his appearance during his pod dates with Ashley in hopes of avoiding stereotypes. “I tried to keep away from it, because that was the big issue,” he said. “I’ve been judged based off being light-skinned. Being cheaters and liars — all these things that you get with being light-skinned. So, I tried to keep away from physical appearance and just judge me for who I am, not what I look like.”
On the other hand, Ashley seems to also have no regrets. “I said what I said. Did what I did,” she told E! News in another interview conducted separately. “I wouldn’t change a thing… I don’t care if you’ve been together for 50 years. Everyone’s evolving and changing, and the more your life changes, the more you evolve and change. It’s a never-ending cycle.” Teen Vogue has reached out to Netflix for comment.
When do the next episodes of Love Is Blind season 7 air?
Below, check out the full airing schedule for Love Is Blind season 7 including the reunion, so you don’t miss a thing.
- Episode 1
- Episode 2
- Episode 3
- Episode 4
- Episode 5
- Episode 6
- Episode 7
- Episode 8
- Episode 9
- Episode 10
- Episode 11
- Episode 12
The Love Is Blind season 7 reunion is set to air on Wednesday, October 30 at 9 p.m. ET. Get those gold goblets ready!
