Ashley and Tyler from ‘Love Is Blind’ made it to the altar — but they’ve been plagued with controversy off-screen

In episode eight, things continue moving along as Tyler gets Ashley’s father’s blessing. But things take a major turn in episodes nine and 10: Cameras capture Ashley and Tyler debriefing about an off-screen conversation in which he revealed that he already fathered three children.

Tyler tells Ashley that he served as a sperm donor for a female friend and her wife, who wanted to have a child. He also told her that the children didn’t know what he looked like, and said that he wouldn’t be upset if Ashley decided she didn’t want to get married because he’d initially kept this information from her.

“I’m not upset by you trying to help a couple have kids. I think that’s admirable in certain ways, but the issue comes in with me feeling like I was not getting the full picture of you,” Ashley says in episode nine. “And once you’re not given the full picture of something, it’s hard to not question everything.”

But the couple patches things up, and Ashley tells Tyler in episode 11 that she still wants to marry him — though she warns him that any similar revelations going forward may put that in jeopardy. Later in that episode, they make good on one of Ashley’s pre-marriage wishes: going skydiving with her fiancé.

In the season seven finale, out now, Ashley and Tyler go on their respective bachelorette and bachelor parties, and (spoiler alert) get married. They end the ceremony by jumping the broom — a wedding tradition with roots in American slavery, when Black slaves weren’t able to legally wed and jumped a broom instead. Today, some Black Americans have reclaimed the tradition, incorporating it into their weddings as Ashley and Tyler did.

Ashley and Tyler are still connected on social media — but people are still raising questions about Tyler’s children

As of the finale airdate, Tyler and Ashley are still following each other on Instagram. They’ve both posted about the finale, as well as their respective bachelor and bachelorette parties, on Instagram, but haven’t yet disclosed their relationship status — likely because they’re mandated to keep that a secret until the reunion airs on October 30.

Tyler has limited who can comment on his Instagram posts, meaning that many of them are from fellow “Love Is Blind” castmates. But those that aren’t are actively speculating about the off-screen drama involving his children, which has become one of the dominant conversations online around Ashley and Tyler’s relationship (and the season as a whole).

In early October, soon after the first batch of episodes premiered on Netflix, allegations circulated online that Tyler had fathered three children, but lied to women that he’d dated about it. Photos appearing to show Tyler posing with the children, including one showing him wearing a shirt that says “Dope dad raising dope kids” while holding two of them, circulated online.

Of course, Ashley and Tyler addressed his children — and the fact that he didn’t mention them in the pods — on the show. But what he told Ashley appears to contradict what people are saying online: namely, that the children don’t know what he looks like.

Bri Thomas, a woman who identified herself online as the mother of Tyler’s children, said that Tyler, who she said was her best friend at the time, had served as a sperm donor for her and her wife. However, after she and her wife separated, Bri said that Tyler became a co-parent to that child, and they later conceived twins naturally together. According to Bri, the twins even have Tyler’s last name. Bri said that she and Tyler didn’t date, and she supported his decision to go on the show. However, she said that Tyler hadn’t seen the children since September 30, 2023, the day before he left for filming.

Tyler and Ashley have not officially addressed the controversy. But after someone accused him on Instagram of “trying to delete your past,” he told them to “just be patient” and that he would “explain it all very soon.”

At this point, we can’t say for sure if Tyler and Ashley are still married, or how things have played out behind the scenes regarding his children. But it seems likely that it’ll be a major topic of discussion at the upcoming “Love Is Blind” season seven reunion.

The “Love Is Blind” season seven reunion will air at 9 p.m. ET on Wednesday, October 30 on Netflix.