- Social media has been abuzz with chatter about Tyler’s relationship with his kids on “Love Is Blind.”
- Tyler says on the show that he fathered three children as a sperm donor, a fact that the children’s mother is disputing online.
- It’s the latest example of off-screen drama eclipsing the show. But it’s still good for Netflix.
If you’ve only seen the first six episodes of Love Is Blind’s seventh season, Tyler, 34, and Ashley, 31, seem like a well-matched couple. In the pod, they bonded over their shared faith and values, and Tyler proposed. Their communication style was mature and honest – something Ashley even called their “superpower” as a couple.
Everything was so seemingly perfect that when Tyler told Ashley, now his fiancee, in episode six that people from his past could come out of the woodwork and say that he’s “not that good,” she read it as a knowing admission, not a warning of drama to come.
Four days after that episode aired, it became clear that it was more the latter.
“The woodwork is the woodwork,” reality TV host @storytimewithrikkii summed up in an Oct. 6 TikTok video titled “Tylers GFs ‘coming out of the woodwork’.”
The video, which has been viewed more than 250,000 times since its release, summarizes information that Rikkii told Business Insider she learned after being contacted by several women who said they were Tyler’s exes.
@storytimewithrikkii Woodworking is woodworking🫣 Tyler from Love Is Blind Season 7 exes are coming forward claiming he has three kids and that he is a liar, manipulator and gaslighter. One even said she loaned him $10,000 and he never paid her back and she sued him. 👀 What do you guys think about this tea?👀🫖
♬ original sound – storytimewithrikkii
The most stunning claim in the video, that Tyler fathered three children as an unofficial sperm donor for a friend but lied to the women he dated about that fact and the nature of his involvement with the children, comes with clear photographic evidence: A man which looks like Tyler smiling with kids seemingly on vacation, on a trip to pick pumpkins, and holding two of them in his arms while wearing a shirt that says “Drug Dad Raises Drug Kids.”
Three full days before Netflix released the episodes in which Tyler would finally open up about his fiancee Ashley, Tyler’s secret was already out on the Internet: He fathered three children. Not only that, but his involvement in their lives was contested on social networks.
So far, Tyler has remained silent on the subject while posting on his social media, aside from cryptically telling a few commenters to be patient and see how the season plays out. That’s exactly what many chronic “Love Is Blind” online viewers will be doing — proving that even though Netflix got swept up by social media, off-screen drama will always be good for its bottom line.
(Tyler did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment, and a Netflix representative declined to comment on behalf of either the broadcaster or Tyler.)
Tyler having children was a topic of conversation on social media weeks before he appeared on ‘Love Is Blind’
Tyler from the seventh season of “Love Is Blind” is in hot water for how he characterized his relationship with his children. Adam Rose/Netflix
As viewers learn at the end of season seven’s ninth episode, “Love Is Blind,” which aired Oct. 9, Tyler waited until the end of the pod, after getting engaged and after the couple’s getaway to Mexico, to tell Ashley— t that he was born. three children. On the show, he tells her that the children were born through sperm donation and that he is not related to them.
The initial conversation between Tyler and Ashley does not take place on screen. All we get in “Love Is Blind” is a conversation after that, in which an upset Ashley tells Tyler that withholding this information until after they were engaged makes him worry about trust and communication in their relationship.
“That’s something I should have known before I agreed to say yes,” Ashley tells Tyler.
But viewers of Rikkii’s TikToks got a version of events that seems even bleaker than what unfolds on the show. The TikToker says she spoke with a woman named Lovetta Thomas (on Instagram, identified as @love2geaux), who said in Instagram and Facebook posts that Tyler had three children with her daughter, Bri Thomas.
Lovetta Thomas’ posts, which were seen by Business Insider before they were deleted, featured photos of a man who looks like Tyler with her daughter, Bri Thomas, and three young children.
In the comments on the now-deleted post, Lovetta Thomas wrote that Tyler had been an involved father in her grandchildren’s lives for years and that their twins were conceived naturally while Tyler and Bri lived together. Lovetta Thomas said that Tyler only distanced himself from the children after appearing on “Love Is Blind.”
Then, in a series of videos shared on Instagram on Saturday, Bri Thomas broke her silence about her history with Tyler, sharing many details that seem to directly contradict aspects of what Tyler has told Ashley up until now in “Love Is Blind” (ie, Tyler’s claiming on screen that he doesn’t think kids know what he looks like).
Bri said Tyler, who she described as her once best friend, agreed to help her have a child with her then-wife. After she and her wife separated and their co-parenting relationship moved, Tyler stepped in to help raise the child. Then, while living together as co-parents, Bri and Tyler conceived twin girls together, who she said had Tyler’s last name.
Bri, who identifies as lesbian, said in the video that she and Tyler were never officially together and had dated other people, and she supported his decision to continue on “Love Is Blind.” Bri said they even discussed the idea of her and the kids attending his wedding if he walked down the aisle. She said the last time Tyler saw their children was on September 30, 2023, when he came to her house the day before he left for filming.
“I have lost my best friend. My children have been disowned and disrespected by their father,” she said in a video.
Neither Bri Thomas nor Lovetta Thomas responded to a request for comment from BI.
Tyler has encouraged viewers to be patient and wait for his response
Tyler and Ashley in season seven, episode six “Love Is Blind.” Netflix
So far, Tyler hasn’t directly addressed the allegations, but he has referenced the drama in several responses to comments on his Instagram posts, where he cryptically teases that the truth will come out soon.
Responding to a commenter who said they were interested in an explanation for why he said he didn’t think kids knew what he looked like, Tyler said: “I don’t owe anyone in this world an explanation. But I will. lol the chat was longer than what was shown and there was a lot of off camera chatter.”
In other comments, Tyler said the cameras weren’t constantly filming and that other conversations weren’t shown, hinting there was more to what he told Ashley about the kids during filming.
In response to a comment accusing him of trying to “erase your past to start over,” Tyler said that wasn’t true and asked the user to “just be patient,” saying he would to explain it all very quickly – apparently in the season seven reunion “Love Is Blind”.
He has also responded to other positive comments, thanking users for their support.
As for Tyler’s “Love Is Blind” fiancee, Ashley, she has not officially commented either. But she reportedly addressed the allegations against Tyler and defended him in a since-deleted reply to a comment on her Instagram (saved by @storytimewithrikkii in a new video).
None of this drama was caught on camera, but it’s still good for Netflix’s bottom line
These two will surely come to the “Love Is Blind” season 7 reunion with bills. Netflix
This isn’t the first time that the biggest drama on “Love Is Blind” has happened off-screen and been revealed through social media.
The fourth season featured a series of messy actions by Jackie and Marshall, whose breakup led to the leak of text messages in which Jackie suggested that Marshall was gay. Season five was so dramatic that Renee and Carter’s journey was cut entirely from the edit — and resulted in a lawsuit that’s currently in arbitration.
And the sixth season, released in February 2024, featured not one, but two men who were accused of misrepresenting their relationship status before appearing on the show: fan favorite Trevor had a boyfriend on set and Jeramey had another ex-fiancé before dating. on the show.
Despite the lawsuit and despite being captured by TikTok, off-screen conversations are good for Netflix. Ultimately, feeding rumors (and TikTok’s explanatory economy) keeps the show in the cultural conversation.
According to Netflix’s own statistics, more than 30 million subscribers tuned into the first season of “Love Is Blind” within the first four weeks of its premiere. That success has only grown over the years as the off-screen drama gets crazier, with season six becoming the most-watched season in franchise history.
Tyler and Ashley are one of three couples left standing ahead of the wedding episodes airing on October 23, when viewers will find out if they actually tied the knot.
But whether they actually sign the deal or split at the altar, speculative accounts online guarantee that Netflix will be paying attention to its reunion episode that will air on October 30.
For viewers who have been following along online and waiting to hear Tyler’s side of the story, this is must-see TV.