With Tyler’s kids controversy, the biggest ‘Love Is Blind’ drama is happening off-screen again. That’s still a win for Netflix.

• Social media has been flooded with chatter about Tyler’s relationship with his kids on “Love Is Blind.”
• Tyler says on the show he fathered three kids as a sperm donor, a fact the kids’ mother is disputing online.
• It’s the latest example of offscreen drama eclipsing the show. But it’s still good for Netflix.

If you watched only the first six episodes of “Love Is Blind” season seven, Tyler, 34, and Ashley, 31, seem like a well-matched couple. In the pods, 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.

It was all so seemingly perfect that when Tyler told Ashley, now his fiancée, in episode six that people from his past might come out of the woodwork and say he’s “not that nice,” she read it as a self-aware admission, not a warning of the drama to come.

Four days after that episode aired, it became clear it was more of the latter.

“The woodwork is woodworking,” reality TV recapper @storytimewithrikkii captioned an October 6 TikTok video titled “Tylers GFs are ‘coming out the woodwork.'”

The video, which has been viewed more than 250,000 times as of publication, compiles information Rikkii told Business Insider she learned after she was contacted by several women who said they were Tyler’s exes.

The most stunning allegation in the video, that Tyler fathered three children as an unofficial sperm donor to a friend but lied to women he’d dated about this fact and the nature of his involvement with the kids, comes with apparent photo evidence: A man who looks like Tyler smiling with the kids seemingly at holidays, on a pumpkin-picking trip, and holding two of them in his arms while wearing a shirt that reads “Dope dad raising dope kids.”

A full three days before Netflix would release the episodes in which Tyler would finally broach the topic with his fiancée Ashley, Tyler’s secret was already out online: He fathered three children. Not only that, but his involvement in their lives was being contested on social media.

So far, Tyler has stayed silent on the topic while posting on his social media, aside from cryptically telling a few commenters to be patient and see how the season unfolds. That’s exactly what so many chronically online “Love Is Blind” viewers will be doing — proving that even though Netflix got scooped by social media, the offscreen drama will always be good for its bottom line.

(Tyler didn’t immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment, and a representative for Netflix declined to comment either on behalf of the streamer or Tyler.)

Tyler having kids was a topic of conversation on social media weeks before it came up on ‘Love Is Blind’

As viewers learn at the end of episode nine of “Love Is Blind” season seven, released on October 9, Tyler waited until after the pods, after getting engaged, and after the couples’ getaway in Mexico to tell Ashley that he’d fathered three kids. On the show, he tells her the children were born via sperm donation and that he doesn’t have a relationship with them.

The initial conversation between Tyler and Ashley doesn’t take place on screen. All we get on “Love Is Blind” is a conversation in the aftermath, in which an upset Ashley tells Tyler that his withholding this information until after they got engaged makes her concerned about having trust and communication in their relationship.

“This is something I should have known before agreeing to say yes,” Ashley tells Tyler.

But viewers of Rikkii’s TikToks got a version of events that appears even grimmer than what’s unfolding on the show. The TikToker says she spoke to a woman named Lovetta Thomas (on Instagram, identified as @love2geaux), who said in posts on Instagram and Facebook that Tyler had fathered three children with her daughter, Bri Thomas.

Lovetta Thomas’ posts, which were viewed by Business Insider before being deleted, featured photos of a man who looks like Tyler with her daughter, Bri Thomas, and three young children.

In comments on the deleted post, Lovetta Thomas wrote that Tyler had been an involved father in her grandkids’ lives for years and that their twins had been conceived naturally while Tyler and Bri lived together. Lovetta Thomas said Tyler only distanced himself from the kids after going on “Love Is Blind.”

Then, in a series of videos shared on Instagram Saturday, Bri Thomas broke her silence regarding her history with Tyler, sharing many details that appear to directly contradict aspects of what Tyler has told Ashley so far on “Love Is Blind” (namely, Tyler’s on-screen claim that he doesn’t think the kids know what he looks like).

Bri said that Tyler, whom she described as her one-time best friend, agreed to help her have a child with her then-wife. After she and her wife separated and their co-parenting relationship devolved, 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 have Tyler’s last name.

Bri, who identifies as a lesbian, said in the videos that she and Tyler were never officially together and dated other people, and she supported his decision to go on “Love Is Blind.” Bri said they even discussed the idea that she and the kids would attend his wedding if he made it to the altar. She said the last time Tyler saw their children was September 30, 2023, when he came to her house the day before he left for filming.

“I lost my best friend. My children have been disowned and disrespected by their father,” she said in one 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

So far, Tyler hasn’t directly addressed the allegations but has referred to the drama in several replies to comments on his Instagram posts where he cryptically teases that the truth will soon come out.

Responding to a commenter who said they were interested in an explanation of why he said he didn’t think the kids knew what he looked like, Tyler said, “I don’t owe anyone in this world an explanation. But I’ll give you one lol the conversation was longer than what was shown and a lot of off-camera conversations were had.”

In other comments, Tyler said that the cameras weren’t constantly filming and other conversations were had that weren’t shown, insinuating that there was more to what he’d told Ashley about the kids during filming.

In response to a comment that accused him of trying to “delete your past to start fresh,” Tyler said that wasn’t true and asked the user to “just be patient,” saying he’d explain it all very soon — presumably at the “Love Is Blind” season seven reunion.

He’s also responded to various other positive comments, thanking the users for their support.

As for Tyler’s “Love Is Blind” fiancée Ashley, she hasn’t officially commented either. But she did reportedly appear to refer to the allegations against Tyler and defend him in a since-deleted reply to a comment on her Instagram (preserved by @storytimewithrikkii in a new video).

None of this drama was caught on camera, but it’s still good for Netflix’s bottom line

This isn’t the first time the biggest drama on “Love Is Blind” has happened offscreen and been revealed via social media.

Season four featured a messy array of antics from Jackie and Marshall, whose breakup led to leaked text messages in which Jackie insinuated Marshall was gay. Season five was so dramatic that Renee and Carter’s journey was entirely cut from the edit — and resulted in a lawsuit that’s currently in arbitration.

And season six, released in February 2024, featured not one but two men who were accused of mischaracterizing their relationship status before going on the show: Fan-favorite Trevor had a girlfriend throughout filming, and Jeramey had a whole other ex-fiancée before going on the show.

Despite the lawsuit and despite getting scooped by TikTok, the offscreen chatter is good for Netflix. After all, feeding the rumor mill (and the TikTok explainer 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 messier, with season six becoming the most-watched season in the franchise’s history.

Tyler and Ashley are one of the three remaining couples left standing ahead of the wedding episodes airing October 23, when viewers will find out if they actually tied the knot.

But whether they actually seal the deal or break up at the altar, the speculative narratives online all but guarantee that Netflix will get eyeballs on its reunion episode airing October 30.

For viewers who have been following along online and waiting to hear Tyler’s side of the story, that’s must-see TV.